Egyptian-American economist El-Erian elected UK Queens’ College president

Mohamed El-Erian, the chief economic adviser at Allianz and one of the world’s most widely followed economists, has been elected as the 42nd president of Queens’ College, England.

Queens’ College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge.

The Egyptian-American economist will hold office on 1 October 2020, succeeding Lord John Leonard Eatwell.

“Having experienced the transformational power of Queens’ and Cambridge, I am honoured to have the opportunity to work with my colleagues to build on the College’s many accomplishments,” El-Erian said.

Britain’s Queen Elizabeth congratulated El-Erian on his election last week as president of Queen’s College, which is one of the leading economic schools across the globe.

Born in August 1958 in New York City, he is son of Abdullah Al-Arian, Professor of International Law at Cairo University, Egypt’s Ambassador to France and later Judge at the International Court of Justice.

His mother is Nadia Shoukri, cousin of Ibrahim Shoukri, the late chairman of Al A’aml party in Egypt.

El-Erian won a scholarship to study economics at Queens’ in 1977 and graduated with first class honors.  He then earned his masters and PhD in economics from Oxford. He has served on the boards of several schools, universities and think tanks.

“Having experienced the transformational power of Queens’ and Cambridge, I am honoured to have the opportunity to work with my colleagues to build on the College’s many accomplishments,” El-Erian earlier said.

A fixture on major news outlets, including Reuters, CNBC, Bloomberg, and the Financial Times, El-Erian is an academic at heart.

— Amwal Al Ghad English’s Nada Nasser contributed to this report.

 

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