This archive report was first published on 16 July 2020.
On September 1, 2020, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) welcomed Kenyan Ceda Ogada as its new Secretary, taking over from Jianhai Lin who retires at the end of the month. Mr. Ogada has served the Fund since March 2012.
IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva praised Mr. Ogada's 'outstanding institutional knowledge, strategic and intellectual heft, and people leadership.' She noted that his 'unparalleled ability to bring people together, combined with his profound appreciation of the Fund's institutional history and legal principles, as well as strong service orientation, will help the Fund to even more effectively serve our member countries in a very challenging economic environment.'
Mr. Ogada joined the IMF in 1999 and rose through the ranks to become Deputy General Counsel in 2014. During his 21 years at the IMF, he worked across different aspects of the fund's work, including advising on governance, country operations, policy development, and technical assistance to member countries.
Some of the key projects Mr. Ogada worked on include enhancing the IMF's policy to address governance and corruption issues, reforms in lending policy, and reviews on surveillance policy and capacity development strategy. He was also heavily involved in the work on euro area crisis countries during the global financial crisis.
Before joining the IMF, Mr. Ogada worked at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development as a legal expert and in private legal practice in the United States. He holds a Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School and a B.A. in history from Dartmouth College.
