Jeromin Zettelmeyer appointed next Director of Bruegel

Jeromin Zettelmeyer has been appointed by Bruegel’s board to succeed Guntram Wolff as the Director of the European institute for economic policy in September 2022.

On 15 December 2021, Bruegel’s Board appointed Jeromin Zettelmeyer as Director of Bruegel starting September 2022. Subject to the confirmation of Bruegel’s state and corporate members, he will succeed Bruegel’s second Director Guntram Wolff, who will finish his current and last mandate in the summer of 2022.

  

The search for a new Director had started in April 2021, when the Board appointed a search committee chaired by board member José Manuel González-Páramo. 

Bio

Jeromin Zettelmeyer, born in Madrid, Spain in 1964, is Deputy Director of the Strategy and Policy Review Department at the International Monetary Fund, where his areas of responsibility include policies on sovereign debt, exchange rates, capital flows and trade. Previously he was Senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics (2016-2019). From 2014 until September of 2016, he served as Director-General for Economic Policy at the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy.

Before working for the German government, Zettelmeyer was director of research and deputy chief economist at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (2008–2014). Prior to that, he was a staff member of the International Monetary Fund, where he worked in the Research, Western Hemisphere, and European II departments (1994–2008).

He has published widely on topics including the euro area, financial crises, sovereign debt, economic growth, and transition economies. Zettelmeyer holds a PhD in economics from MIT (1995) and an economics degree from the University of Bonn (1990). He is a CEPR research fellow and was the founding chair of CEPR’s Research and Policy Network on European Economic Architecture (2018-19), of which he remains a member.  

Jeromin Zettelmeyer said: “I am deeply honored to have been appointed the next Director of Bruegel, Europe's top economic policy think tank and among the best in the world. Europe and the World Economy are at an important juncture, and will look to Bruegel for critical analysis and ideas. I am thrilled about the prospect of leading the think tank during this period and beyond, building on its successes under its current and former directors, Guntram Wolff and Jean Pisani-Ferry."

Erkki Liikanen, Chair of the Bruegel Board, said: “Bruegel has become a leading thinking think tank under the leadership of Jean Pisany-Ferry and Guntram Wolff. Guntram will have served the maximum 9 years next summer. I am looking forward to working with Jeromin. The Board was impressed by his vision for the future of Bruegel and by his commitment to rigorous and independent analysis to improve economic policy and performance.”

Guntram Wolff, current director, said: “I want to congratulate Jeromin for the appointment. Jeromin is an outstanding economist, an experienced policy maker and a long-standing friend of Bruegel. I am sure he will successfully lead Bruegel in the next phase.”

The Bruegel Director is in charge of the executive management of Bruegel, prepares the research programme, annual work plan, budget, and annual report and presents them to the Board. The Director also exercises editorial oversight over publications and controls the quality of output. He is appointed for a period of three years renewable twice.

Bruegel is an economic policy research institute with the mission to improve economic policy in Europe and the world. It is ranked #1 global think tank outside the US, #3 including the US, #1 with best policy-oriented research programme, #2 in international economics in the Pennsylvania University Global think tank ranking in 2020.