Baroness Minouche Shafik, the incumbent Director of LSE, has extended her tenure until the end of the 2023/24 academic year.
Baroness Shafik held senior positions at the World Bank, Department for International Development, International Monetary Fund, and Bank of England before her appointment as Director in 2017.
Shafik presided over LSE’s response to the Covid crisis, during which LSE was the first university nationally to pivot online in March 2020. NSS student satisfaction scores at LSE rose from 74% in 2017 to 84% in 2020, jumping 81 places nationally.
In 2019, Shafik was widely viewed as the government’s top choice for Governor of the Bank of England, despite insisting she never applied. She was also suggested as the next Cabinet Secretary, the UK’s most senior civil servant, when the position became vacant in 2020. Neither job ultimately went to Shafik.
Shafik is LSE’s 16th Director. She succeeded interim Director Julia Black, whose term as President of the British Academy expires in 2025.
An economist by training, Shafik’s book What We Owe to Each Other was released this year.
