Press Release No. 05/91

Press Release: IMF Executive Board Selects Thomas A. Bernes as Director of Independent Evaluation Office

April 25, 2005

The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has offered Mr. Thomas A. Bernes of Canada the position of Director of the IMF's Independent Evaluation Office, and he has accepted the Board's offer. He succeeds Mr. Montek Singh Ahluwalia of India.

Mr. Bernes is currently Executive Secretary of the joint IMF-World Bank Development Committee, and is Deputy Corporate Secretary of the World Bank. The Development Committee, which is formally known as the Joint Ministerial Committee of the Boards of Governors of the Bank and the Fund on the Transfer of Real Resources to Developing Countries, serves as a forum of the World Bank and IMF that facilitates intergovernmental consensus-building on development issues.

Prior to his appointment to the Development Committee Secretariat in September 2001, Mr. Bernes was the IMF Executive Director from 1996 responsible for a constituency that represents Canada, Ireland and the Caribbean. From 1992 to 1996, he was Assistant Deputy Minister of Finance in Canada, and served as the senior international economic official representing Canada at high-level meetings, including those of the Group of Seven, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, and the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum. In addition to holding various senior finance, foreign affairs, and trade policy positions within the Canadian government, Mr. Bernes served as head of the OECD's General Trade Policy Division in the mid-1980s.

He is a graduate of the University of Manitoba.

The Independent Evaluation Office was established by the Executive Board of the IMF in April 2000 (see Press Release No. 00/27). It is independent from IMF Management and Staff, and reports regularly to the Executive Board on its findings.

Further information on the objectives and activities of the Independent Evaluation Office may be found at http://www.imf.org/external/np/ieo/index.htm.