Board – New Rules for Global Finance Coalition

Dr. Jo Marie Griesgraber has an extensive career in promoting Universal Human Rights. From 1976 through 1983 she was the Deputy Director of Washington Office on Latin America, focusing on reducing torture, disappearances and summary executions in the Southern Cone by changing US Government support for the offending governments. From 1984 through 1988 she served as an adjunct professor at various universities (Goucher College, Georgetown University and American University).

From1989 through 2000, at the Jesuit-based Center of Concern she worked on the international Jubilee Debt campaign to cancel insurmountable debts of the world’s poorest countries.  She also established the Rethinking Bretton Woods Project at the Center, because the debt crisis was but a symptom of a larger inequality of justice and power causing gross violations of the right to life with health, education and opportunities.

From 2000 to 2003 she was Policy Director for Oxfam America, after which she organized the New Rules for Global Finance Coalition, focusing on reform of the governance and effectiveness of the “global financial rule making bodies” especially the IMF, World Bank and Financial Stability Board.

Her late husband, N. Shaw Smith (d 2013) served 33 years in the State Department mainly working on Latin America.  Her current husband is James C. Webster served as Assistant Secretary for Governmental and Public Affairs at USDA, and continues writing for AgriPulse.

Education:  University of Dayton, BA,1970, #1 in class. Georgetown University, Ph.D., Political Science 1983

Amar Bhattacharya (Senior Consultant)

Amar Bhattacharya is a Senior Fellow at the Global Economy and Development Program at Brookings Institution, where he focuses on the global economy, development finance, global governance and the links between climate and development. Prior to his current position, Mr Bhattacharya was the Director of the Intergovernmental Group of Twenty-Four on International Monetary Affairs and Development (G-24). The G24 was established in 1971 as a representative body of Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors of developing countries with the objective of helping to articulate and support the position of developing countries in the discussions of the IMF, World Bank and other relevant fora. Mr. Bhattacharya is therefore closely involved in the ongoing discussions on the impact of and responses to the global economic and financial crisis, including the reform of the Bretton Woods institutions. Prior to taking up his current position, Mr. Bhattacharya had a long-standing career in the World Bank. His last position was as Senior Advisor and Head of the International Policy and Partnership Group in the Poverty Reduction and Economic Management Network of the World Bank. In this capacity, he was advisor to the President and Senior Management and focal point for the Bank’s engagement with key international groupings and institutions such as the G7/G8, G20, IMF, OECD and the Commonwealth Secretariat, including on the reform of the aid as well as international financial architecture. He has published widely in both fields. Mr. Bhattacharya is an Indian national who completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Delhi and at Brandeis University and his graduate study at Princeton University.