All of the Crisis Talk Blog authors are members of the World Bank Group. Their posts are their own, and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of the World Bank Group, its Board of Directors or the governments they represent. For more information, please see our content policy.
The regulars
Thorsten Beck is Professor of Economics and Chairman of the European Banking Center at Tilburg University in the Netherlands. He has published numerous academic papers and is co-author of the Making Finance Work for Africa Flagship report and the Policy Research Report on Access to Finance: Measurement, Impact and Policy. Despite having left the World Bank after eleven productive years, he is still involved in its activities, both in the research group, but also in the Africa and Eastern Europe & Central Asia regions. In his new position in the Netherlands, he will focus both on financial stability issues and access to finance, which especially now should not be ignored.
Simeon Djankov is the creator of the Doing Business series. In his dozen years at the World Bank, he has worked on regional trade agreements in North Africa, enterprise restructuring and privatization in transition economies, corporate governance in East Asia, and regulatory reforms around the world. Simeon was a principal author of the World Development Report 2002. Simeon recently became the chief economist of the Finance and Private Sector Vice-Presidency in the World Bank and is currently working on the unfolding financial crisis.
Erik Feyen works as a Financial Economist in the World Bank's Finance and Private Sector Vice-Presidency. Since he joined the Bank in 2006, he has been involved in financial sector policy work and banking and capital market operations for client countries in the African and Middle-Eastern regions. He previously worked as a management consultant. He sympathizes with Mr. Greenspan's state of "shocked disbelief" that a hot alphabet soup of RMBSs, SIVs, CDOs, and CDSs could lead to a chilling worldwide market freeze.
Caroline Freund is a Senior Economist in the Research Department of the World Bank. Before joining the Bank, she was an Economist in the International Finance Division of the Federal Reserve Board. She has also served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Ghana. She obtained a Ph.D. in economics from Columbia University. Caroline is currently doing research on regional integration, trade and growth, trade costs, and competitiveness. Her work has been published in such journals as the American Economic Review, the Quarterly Journal of Economics, and the Journal of international Economics.
Ryan Hahn is a consultant for the joint World Bank-IFC Private Sector Development Vice-Presidency and manages the Private Sector Development blog. Before starting at the World Bank Group, Ryan did research on the intersection of private finance and education at the Institute for Higher Education Policy. An earlier life saw him living in central Europe, attempting to learn the Romani (Gypsy) language in the Czech Republic. Ryan holds a masters degree in international development from Johns Hopkins University.
Brian Hoyt is a consultant at the joint World Bank-IFC Private Sector Development Vice-Presidency. Before joining the Bank, he worked as a financial journalist and academic researcher. Brian has an MA in International Finance and European Studies from Johns Hopkins University. Prior to attending graduate school, he worked as a professional chef in Venice, Sardinia, and the San Francisco Bay Area.
Facundo Martin works in the Chief Economist office of the IFC, where he leads macroeconomic risk assessments for the internal portfolio. Facundo previously worked for the Central Bank of Argentina where he did macroeconomic and portfolio analysis for the International Reserves Management department. He has a Ph.D. in economics from University of Maryland.
Nadiya Pustovoytova is Acting Human Resources administrator in the IFC Ukraine country office and Program Assistant for the corporate governance business line in the ECA region, working with the Senior Operations Manager. She graduated from the National Technical University of Ukraine, and is fluent in English and French. Previously, Nadiya worked for a large Ukrainian company producing flexible packaging and for the EU project "Support to Taxation Reform in Ukraine."
Larisa Smirnova is an analyst at the World Bank Group working on a start-up transparency and accountability project. She is a graduate of the National School of Administration of France (ENA) and of the Moscow Institute of International Relations (MGIMO). Larisa previously worked with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Russia and Japan.
Constantinos (Costas) Stephanou is a Senior Financial Economist in the Financial Policy Development Unit of the World Bank's Financial and Private Sector Development Vice Presidency. Costas used to work on the 'dark side' (banking and management consulting), but subsequently repented and joined the World Bank a few years ago. Since then, he has been working with client countries on financial sector policy issues, including banking, risk management and Basel II, access to finance, free trade agreements and financial services, and competition policy. He is currently experiencing a subprime quality of life as a result of the financial crisis.
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