Liaquat Ahamed

Liaquat Ahamed is a professional investment manager and author who served for many years as a managing director at the World Bank. He was born in Kenya in 1952, educated at Trinity College, Cambridge and Harvard University. His book Lords of Finance: The Bankers Who Broke the World (2009) examined the four central bankers — of the United States, Britain, France, and Germany — whose misjudgments helped cause the Great Depression of the 1930s. Published at the height of the 2008 financial crisis, the book was widely read as a cautionary tale about monetary policy. It won the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for History and the Spears Book Award. Ahamed has written extensively on economics and finance for publications including The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. He serves on the board of several financial and cultural institutions.