Press Release No. 21/261

Sharmini Coorey to Retire as Director of the IMF’s Institute for Capacity Development

September 13, 2021

Washington, DC: International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva announced today that Sharmini Coorey, Director of the Institute for Capacity Development (ICD), intends to retire from the Fund on October 29.

“Sharmini is one of the great leaders in the Fund. She has made incredible contributions throughout a stellar Fund career, which began in 1986. She was instrumental in establishing ICD, the Fund’s new department for capacity building. Her leadership was key in providing strategic direction for the governance, management, and funding of the IMF’s capacity building activities, making it an ever more potent instrument in the service of our membership. The restructuring of ICD’s own capacity development delivery has also helped to strengthen macroeconomic frameworks for forecasting and policy analysis, both inside and outside the Fund.

“Among her many achievements at the helm of ICD, Sharmini established the Fund’s highly successful online training program, which has reached over 110,000 active learners across 193 countries. She led the expansion of the Fund’s global network of capacity development centers in Africa and Asia. Her revamping of ICD’s internal economics training program has boosted the skills of the Fund’s economists through a structured curriculum and new learning opportunities such as the Macroeconomic for Pandemics series. She has won the respect and admiration of colleagues across the Fund and the membership for her proven track record of leading analytically rigorous policy and operational work with high impact and influence.” Ms. Georgieva stated.

A national of Sri Lanka, Ms. Coorey originally joined the Fund through the Economist Program. Immediately before leading ICD, she was Deputy Director in the African Department (AFR) where she oversaw the Fund’s work in a number of countries including South Africa, Botswana, Swaziland, Zimbabwe, Malawi, and the CEMAC region. In addition, she led AFR’s financial sector work and research agenda.

Ms. Coorey’s distinguished career also encompassed work on surveillance and Fund-supported programs in a range of advanced and emerging economies. She worked in the European, Asia and Pacific, Western Hemisphere, and Policy Development and Review departments, including surveillance work on the United Kingdom, Ireland, the United States, and Canada; program work on Korea, Estonia, and Mexico; as well as on various Fund-wide policy issues. She also served on the Editorial Committee of IMF Staff Papers and was a visiting researcher at George Washington University’s Elliot School for International Affairs.

The search for Ms. Coorey’s successor will begin shortly. “Sharmini deserves enormous credit for her remarkable achievements, and she leaves ICD on a very firm footing for the future. I have personally relied on her tremendous experience, sound judgement, and friendship since I came to the Fund, and I will sorely miss her,” Ms. Georgieva concluded.