Linda Van Gelder

Linda Van Gelder is now an Emeritus former high-profile macroeconomist and long-time executive at the World Bank, where she last served as the Director of the Paris Office for the Europe and Central Asia region. Having joined the organization in 1994, her extensive career spanned nearly three decades of economic leadership. In her last role, she focused heavily on regional economic strategic coordination, global development, and green financial initiatives like the C3A Prosperity Climate Talks. Prior to this, from 2017 to 2022, she was the Regional Director for the Western Balkans based in Vienna, where she led economic policy dialogue, country strategy formulation, and poverty reduction outreach across six nations. Her previous executive leadership also includes serving as the Director of Strategy and Operations for the Equitable Growth, Finance, and Institutions Practice Group, where she oversaw macroeconomics, fiscal management, trade, and governance. Notably, she was the corporate strategy architect who led the development of the very first comprehensive World Bank Group Strategy in 2013. She holds a PhD in Economics from Cornell University.

She is currently a wonderful mentor to the inaugural student class of the Trebuchet Academy, working with a recent Columbia University graduate, Eva Panfil on World Bank development processes.