Sufian Ahmed Beker is a distinguished Ethiopian economist and policymaker with a career spanning over three decades in public financial management, development policy, and global economic governance. He served as Ethiopia’s Minister of Finance and Economic Development from 1995 to 2015, becoming the longest-serving Finance Minister in Sub-Saharan Africa. During his two-decade tenure, he played a pivotal role in shaping Ethiopia’s macroeconomic policy, mobilizing international development finance, and leading major economic reforms that contributed to the country’s sustained growth trajectory.

Following his ministerial service, he was appointed Chief Economic Advisor to the Prime Minister of Ethiopia from 2015 to 2017, where he provided high-level policy guidance on national development strategy, fiscal policy, and regional economic integration.

Internationally, Mr. Ahmed was appointed to the G20 Eminent Persons Group on Global Financial Governance, where he co-authored the landmark 2018 report, “Making the Global Financial System Work for All,” which proposed ambitious reforms to strengthen the effectiveness of the international financial architecture.

He currently serves as a Non-Resident Fellow at the Center for Global Development (CGD) in Washington, D.C. Mr. Ahmed is also a member of the Advisory Board at the Center for Disaster Protection (CDP), which supports countries in better managing disaster risk financing, and serves on the Advisory Board of the Harvard Ministerial Leadership Program, which mentors senior government leaders on transformative governance and public sector reform.