Egypt's Shafik Named 20th President of Columbia University

Egypt's Nemat Minouche Shafik to take the helm as the first woman president of New York-based Columbia university next summer.

“Shafik, a leading economist whose career has focused on public policy and academia, will become the next president of Columbia University on July 1, 2023,” New York-based Columbia university stated on Wednesday.

Columbia University added that her election by the board of trustees as the University’s 20th president concluded a wide-ranging and intensive search launched after the University's Current President Lee C. Bollinger announced that he would step down at the end of the 2022-2023 academic year.

"Shafik will become the 20th president of the famous American educational institution," the American University added.

Prior to taking up her new position, Shafik was appointed director of the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) in September 2017.

The Egyptian-born figure also served as the Deputy Governor of the Bank of England prior to her appointment as LSE Director in 2017.

She was made a Dame Commander of the British Empire in Queen Elizabeth’s Birthday Honours list in 2015, and in July 2020 was created a baroness, becoming a crossbench peer in the UK’s House of Lords.

Shafik’s successful portfolio includes leading roles such as Vice President of the World Bank, where she became the youngest VP in the history of the bank, and Permanent Secretary of the UK Department for International Development and Deputy Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Born in Alexandria her childhood in Egypt was brief though, as she left the country for the US when she was four. She later returned to the country briefly as a teenager, according to interviews.

She received a BSc in economics and politics from the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, and an MSc in economics at LSE before completing a Ph.D. in economics at St Antony’s College at the University of Oxford.

Her doctorate thesis was on the role of the private sector and the public sector in Egypt.