It is with great pleasure that we announce the appointment of Dr. Caroline Freund as the next dean of the School of Global Policy and Strategy, effective July 1, 2021.
Dr. Freund holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Columbia University. She is the Global Director for Trade, Investment and Competitiveness at the World Bank where she leads World Bank strategy, operational support, and analytics on trade and private sector development in developing countries, manages a staff of 125 and a $30 million budget, and co-manages roughly 350 regional staff. She is responsible for the development of critical partnerships with institutions and groups such as the International Monetary Fund, World Trade Organization, Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and G20. During her tenure in this position she has overseen trust funds worth more than $200 million and recently launched a new trust fund for private sector development work with a $100 million target.
Dr. Freund has more than 20 years of experience in domestic and international policy institutions, and has spent much of her career focused on academic research and policy advice in the area of international economics. She has also been a fervent advocate for the promotion of women and underrepresented minorities in the field of economics. Previously she was a Senior Fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, and has also worked as Chief Economist for the Middle East and North Africa at the World Bank. Her work has influenced thinking on current account adjustment, trade agreements, complementary policies for trade and growth, superstar exporters, and border barriers to trade. She has published extensively in peer reviewed academic journals, including top economic journals such as the American Economic Review and the Quarterly Journal of Economics. She is the author of Rich People Poor Countries: The Rise of Emerging Market Tycoons and their Mega Firms and co-led the 2020 World Development Report on Global Value Chains, the flagship publication of the World Bank. Her work has been featured prominently in The Economist, Financial Times, Bloomberg, and other business press. She served on the Advisory Committee of the U.S. Export-Import Bank from 2014-2016, the Editorial Board of Economics and Politics, the Scientific Committees of CEPII and the Economic Research Forum. She is a member of the Center for Economic Policy Research.
As dean of the School of Global Policy and Strategy (GPS), Dr. Freund will serve as a key member of the university’s leadership team, providing academic, intellectual and administrative leadership in enhancing the School and promoting excellence in all aspects of the School’s research, teaching and service missions. Dr. Freund’s faculty appointment at UC San Diego will follow the traditional process of review by the academic unit, Committee on Academic Personnel, and the administration.
We sincerely thank Cristina Della Coletta, the dean of Arts and Humanities, for providing exceptional leadership as the chair of the search advisory committee and for ensuring that all voices were heard during the search process. We are also grateful to the members of the search advisory committee for the innumerable hours they devoted to the process and for their thoughtful contributions and insights, which have resulted in a successful conclusion to the search. We also appreciate the wide-ranging input from the many members of the GPS and campus community who participated in the search process.
Please join us in warmly welcoming Dr. Freund to UC San Diego. Her strategic, collaborative, and inclusive leadership approach will serve GPS and our university well. We also extend our sincere appreciation to Dean Peter Cowhey for his longstanding and visionary leadership as the dean of the School of Global Policy and Strategy, and wish him the very best in his impending retirement.
