Lead Authors

Yasmina Bekhouche is Senior Project Manager of the Gender Parity Programme at the World Economic Forum. Her responsibilities include the production of the Global Gender Gap Report, which encompasses the construction of the Index and co-authoring the main chapter. She is also responsible for the overall management of Gender Parity Taskforces and organizing community activities at the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meetings and regional summits. She previously worked at the Foreign Affairs Division of the Swiss Federal Administration. Bekhouche holds a master’s degree in International Relations from the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva, Switzerland. Her interests include maternal health, human capital management and geopolitics.

Ricardo Hausmann is Director of the Center for International Development (CID) and Professor of the Practice of Economic Development at Harvard University and is one of the foremost thinkers on how regions and countries can accelerate growth. His research includes issues of growth, macroeconomic stability, international finance and the social dimensions of development.  Professor Hausmann has published widely in leading economic journals and has advised governments in over 80 developing countries on creating effective growth strategies and development policies. He holds a degree in physics and a PhD in economics from Cornell University. Previously, he was Professor of Economics at the Instituto de Estudios Superiores de Administración (IESA) (1985–1991) in Caracas, where he founded the Center for Public Policy. Professor Hausmann served as the first Chief Economist of the Inter-American Development Bank (1994-2000), where he created its Research Department, and served as Minister of Planning of Venezuela (1992-1993) and as a member of the Board of the Central Bank of Venezuela. He also served as Chair of the IMF-World Bank Development Committee. As Director of CID he guides the Center’s focus on solving global challenges with breakthrough research at the cutting edge of the hard sciences, social sciences, ethics and politics. Under Professor Hausmann’s leadership, CID’s Growth Lab has developed innovative theories and their practical applications. Recently, his research team published the Atlas of Economic Complexity: Mapping Paths to Prosperity, a new methodology that predicts countries’ growth potential by measuring their productive capabilities and know-how. Professor Hausmann developed the methodology of the World Economic Forum Global Gender Gap Index, which looks into areas of health, education, economic participation and political power; he is also the co-author of the annual Global Gender Gap Report.

Laura D’Andrea Tyson is a Professor and the Director of the Institute for Business and Social Impact at the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley. She served as Dean of London Business School from 2002 through 2006 and as Dean of the Berkeley Haas School of Business from 1998 through 2001. Tyson was a member of the US Department of State Foreign Affairs Policy Board from 2011 to 2013. She served as a member of President Barack Obama’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness from 2011 to 2012 and as a member of the President’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board from 2009 to 2011. Tyson was a member of President Clinton’s cabinet between 1993 and 1996. She was the Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers from 1993 to 1995.  She was the Chair of the National Economic Council and the President’s National Economic Adviser from 1995 to 1996. Tyson is currently a Senior Advisor at Credit Suisse Research Institute and The Rock Creek Group. She is a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress and is on the Advisory Council of the Brookings Institution Hamilton Project. She is an advisory board member of Pave, Inc., Newman’s Own, Generation Investment Management, H&Q Asia Pacific, and Tykoon. She is a member of the Economic Advisory Board of the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation. She is the chair of the Board of Trustees of the Blum Center for Developing Economies at the University of California, Berkeley and the Bay Area Council Economic Institute. Tyson currently serves as an Advisor to the Alliance for Competitive Taxation. She is a Special Advisor at the Berkeley Research Group and is a Commissioner on the Committee for Responsible Federal Budget.  She is also a member of the Committee on Capital Markets Regulation. Tyson serves on the National Academies’ Board on Science, Technology and Economic Policy and is a member of its Innovation Policy Forum. She is a member of the Think Long Committee for California, 21st Century Council and the Governance Project of the Berggruen Institute. She is a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Women’s Empowerment. Tyson is a member of the Boards of Directors of Morgan Stanley, AT&T, CBRE Group Inc., and Silver Spring Networks. She is also a member of the Board of Directors of the non-profit Jacobs Foundation. Tyson has written books and articles on industrial competitiveness and trade. She has also written opinion columns for many publications including BusinessWeek, The New York Times and the Financial Times and she has made numerous television appearances on economic issues. She is on the editorial board of the International Economy. She is a regular contributor to Project Syndicate.

Saadia Zahidi is a Senior Director at the World Economic Forum. Under her leadership, the Gender Parity Programme aims to assess global gender gaps, create awareness of the economic incentives for gender parity and promote collaborative action among leaders. Zahidi founded and co-authors the Global Gender Gap Report series, the Corporate Gender Gap Report and the upcoming Industry Gender Gap Report. Zahidi also heads the Employment, Skills and Human Capital work at the Forum, including the Forum’s first publication in this area, the Human Capital Report, and the upcoming Future of Jobs report. In her work on gender as well as employment, Zahidi has translated analysis into action by mobilizing a wide network of constituents—business leaders, governments, civil society and academia—to work together to set targets, share best practices, create new public-private partnerships, muster resources and change mind-sets. Other portfolios under her management include the teams responsible for the engagement of NGOs, labour leaders, religious leaders and other civil society actors. She was previously an Economist with the Forum’s Global Competitiveness Programme. Zahidi serves as a board member and advisor for several organizations and is a frequent speaker at international conferences and in the media. She earned her B.A. in Economics at Smith College, M.Phil. in International Economics at the Graduate Institute of International Studies and MPA at the Harvard Kennedy School. Her research interests include issues of gender equality, women’s leadership, skills gaps, employment and human capital. She
is a native of Pakistan.

Project Team

Paulina Padilla Ugarte is the Team Coordinator of Constituents at the World Economic Forum. Her responsibilities include coordinating among the following communities at the Forum: women leaders, gender parity groups, religious leaders, NGOs and labour leaders. She formerly worked at the Special Tribunal for Lebanon in The Hague, The Netherlands. Padilla Ugarte holds a Master of Science in International Relations from the London School of Economics and Political Science. Her interests include international security, international humanitarian law and sustainable development.

Jessica Camus is Associate Director of the Gender Parity Programme at the World Economic Forum. Her responsibilities include the production of the Industry Gender Gap Report, management of the Global Agenda Council on Gender Parity and co-leadership of the Gender Parity Task Forces. She is also responsible for organizing community activities at the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meetings and regional summits. She previously held the position of Senior Programme Manager, Business, Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the World Economic Forum USA. She worked as a Financial Market Executive at Thomson Reuters and did short assignments at international organizations such as the UN and the Swiss Government. Camus holds a master’s degree in international relations from the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva, Switzerland and is currently a Global Leadership Fellow at the World Economic Forum. Her interests include gender, entrepreneurship, financial inclusion, family business, corporate social responsibility and development issues.

Pearl Samandari Massoudi is Senior Manager of the Gender Parity Programme at the World Economic Forum. In her role, she manages the relationship with the Programme’s partners and supports partnership development. She is lead for the Gender Parity Taskforces in Mexico and Turkey, oversees the public programming on gender issues at regional and annual events and works with internal teams to help increase gender diversity in activities, communities and during events. She has previously worked with the World Economic Forum’s Centre for Global Competitiveness and Benchmarking and with the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) in London, United Kingdom. She holds a masters degree in International Relations from the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva, Switzerland and in Development Administration and Planning from University College London (UCL), London, United Kingdom.