Ngaire Woods | |
|---|---|
 Ngaire Woods at theWorld Economic Forum Annual Meeting in 2011 | |
| Born | (1963-02-13)February 13, 1963 (age 62) |
| Alma mater | |
| Spouse | Eugene Rogan |
| Children | 2 |
| Scientific career | |
| Institutions | University College, Oxford |
| Thesis | Ethics and interests in the international political economy: the management of Mexican debt, 1982–1989 (1992) |
| Website | bsg |
Ngaire Tui Woods[1]CBE (/ˈnaɪri/NY-ree; born 13 February 1963)[2] is the founding dean of theBlavatnik School of Government and professor of Global Economic Governance at theUniversity of Oxford.
As an accomplished academic and researcher, she specializes in global economic governance, globalization challenges, global development, and the role of international institutions.
Woods was appointedCommander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2018 New Year's Honours for services to higher education and public policy.
Woods was born inNew Zealand and grew up in Torbay, Auckland.[3]
She is the fourth of five children and was brought up by her mother.[4] Woods attendedRangitoto College inMairangi Bay, Auckland, where she was head girl in 1980.[5] She began working at the age of 12 and worked in various jobs including working in a restaurant and volunteering on a helpline for women in abusive relationships.[4]
She then attended theUniversity of Auckland where she graduated with aBachelor of Arts degree in economics and aBachelor of Laws degree. She studied atBalliol College,Oxford, as aRhodes Scholar, completingMaster of Philosophy andDoctor of Philosophy degrees ininternational relations.
From 1990 to 1992, she was a junior research fellow atNew College, Oxford, and subsequently taught at the Government Department atHarvard University before taking up her fellowship atUniversity College, Oxford.[6]
Woods established herself as a prominent scholar at Oxford, focusing on global economic governance and the role of international institutions. In the early 2000s she founded the Global Economic Governance Programme at Oxford University, an interdisciplinary research program dedicated to improving the governance of international organizations and economic policy-making.[6]
She also co-founded the Oxford–Princeton Global Leaders Fellowship program (together with Professor Robert O. Keohane of Princeton University), which supports scholars and practitioners from around the world in the field of global governance.
Woods led the conception and development of theBlavatnik School of Government and was appointed its inaugural Dean in 2011.[7] The Blavatnik School is Oxford's school of public policy. As the founding dean, Woods oversaw the school’s launch, curriculum development, and the construction of its award-winning Oxford campus. Under her leadership, the school developed into a globally recognized institution for government and public policy education. As of 2025, Woods continues to serve as Dean.
In addition to her dean role, Ngaire Woods holds the position of Professor of Global Economic Governance at Oxford University.[6]
She has been a faculty member in Oxford’s Department of Politics and International Relations and a Senior Research Fellow of University College.[8]
In early 2021, Woods was appointed by theG20 to the High Level Independent Panel (HLIP) on financing the global commons for pandemic preparedness and response, co-chaired byNgozi Okonjo-Iweala,Tharman Shanmugaratnam andLawrence Summers.[9]
At Oxford she founded the Global Economic Governance Programme (currently directed by Emily Jones) and is the co-founder (withRobert Keohane) of the Oxford–Princeton Global Leaders Fellowship programme.
She is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences and an International Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Academy of Arts.[6]
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Her research focuses on global economic governance, the challenges of globalization, global development, and the role of international institutions.
Woods’ academic contributions include analyses of how international institutions can become more effective and accountable. Her 2006 bookThe Globalizers: The IMF, the World Bank and Their Borrowers examined the relationship between those financial institutions and the countries they lend to, shedding light on how power dynamics and borrowing conditions affected outcomes.[10]
She has also co-authored works likeThe Politics of Global Regulation (in 2009 with Walter Mattli) andNetworks of Influence? Developing Countries in a Networked Global Order (2009), which explore how international rules are made and how networks of states and non-state actors shape global standards.[6]
Since 2013, Woods has written monthly commentaries[11] on economic and regulatory policy forProject Syndicate, an international media organization.
Woods is married to the American-born,University of Oxford professorEugene Rogan.[12] They have two children together.[2]
In the past, Ngaire Woods has served as an advisor to theIMF board, to theUNDPHuman Development Report, and to theCommonwealth Heads of Government. She is a former regular presenter of theAnalysis programme forBBC Radio 4, and in 1998 presented her own BBC television series on public policy. She has also served as a member of the IMF European Regional Advisory Group.
As a Rhodes Scholar alumna she is today a Trustee of the Rhodes Trust, the organization overseeing the Rhodes Scholarships.
