Abebe Aemro Selassie is Visiting Fellow of Practice at the Blavatnik School of Government and Principal Advisor with the Economic Policy Network (EPN). 
Abebe is a macroeconomist, crisis management expert, and international civil servant, with more than three decades of experience at the apex of global economic debates, most recently as Director of the IMF’s largest department and as a member of the Managing Director's senior leadership team. In that role, he oversaw engagement with 45 sub-Saharan African members. In this capacity, he was responsible for strategic partnerships, policy advice, lending operations, and overall engagement with the region’s leaders and policymakers. This includes supervision of the historic $70 billion in financing the Fund has provided to countries since 2020 as well as some of the most complex recent sovereign debt restructuring cases.
After joining the IMF in 1994, he held various senior positions overseeing lending programs, including for Portugal during the Euro Area Crisis. He also served as senior resident representative for the IMF in Uganda (2006-2009) and Mission Chief for South Africa (2009-2011). Prior to that he gained extensive experience working on some of the most significant sovereign financial crises and Fund programs in Asia, Europe, and Africa. He also has done extensive research on the macroeconomic policy challenges facing emerging markets.
Born and raised in Ethiopia, obtained his MSc from the London School of Economics in 1991. He began his career at the Economist Intelligence Unit in London before returning to Ethiopia to take up the position of Principal Economist in the Office of the President in 1992.