Project Leads

Yasmina Bekhouche is a Project Lead of the Global Challenge on Gender Parity at the World Economic Forum. Her responsibilities include the production of the Global Gender Gap Report, which encompasses the construction of the Index, co-authoring the main chapter and the management of this research project. 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. The management of industry-focused projects on gender parity are also part of her responsibilities. 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. She is currently enrolled in an MSc in Organisational and Business Psychology programme of the University of Liverpool. Her interests include diversity and inclusion, change management, 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. He spends most of his time thinking about how regions and countries can accelerate growth in a shared and sustained way. 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 50 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 Director of the Institute for Business and Social Impact at the Haas School of Business and the chair of the Board of Trustees of the Blum Center for Developing Economies 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., 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 Bay Area Council Economic Institute and an advisory committee member of the Presidential Leaders Scholars. She is a member of the international advisory council of Bocconi University. Tyson currently serves as an Advisor to the Alliance for Competitive Taxation. She is a Special Advisor at the Berkeley Research Group. She 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 Berggruen Institute on Governance’s Think Long Committee for California, 21st Century Council and Governance Index. 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 Head of the Global Challenge on Employment, Skills and Human Capital, Head of the Global Challenge on Gender Parity and Member of the Executive Committee at the World Economic Forum. Under her leadership, the Global Challenge on Gender Parity 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, the Corporate Gender Gap Report, the Human Capital Report and the upcoming Future of Jobs and Industry Gender Gap Reports. 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 mindsets. In past roles, she has managed civil society and international organization portfolios at the Forum and was also 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 currently writing a book on Womenomics in the Muslim World and was awarded the inaugural Bracken Bower Prize by the Financial Times and McKinsey for this project. She is a native of Pakistan.

Project Team

Paulina Padilla Ugarte is a Specialist of the Gender Parity and Employment Initiatives at the World Economic Forum. Her responsibilities include organizing community activities and overseeing public and private programming on gender and employment issues at annual meetings and regional summits. She also supports the production of team insight products and monitors developments in the areas of gender equality and employment, skills, and human capital. 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 gender, international security and sustainable development.

Vesselina Ratcheva is a Data Analyst working in the World Economic Forum’s Human Capital and Gender Parity team. She is responsible for data processing, analysis and visualization. Vesselina was previously responsible for Data, Research and Evaluation at National Numeracy, a skills charity in the United Kingdom. She has worked on a variety of research projects for the past ten years, covering international migration, experiences of urban infrastructure, political mobilization, organizational culture and national identity—consistently using mixed research methods. She holds a PhD in Social Anthropology, an MSc in Comparative and Cross Cultural Research Methods and a BA in Social Anthropology and Maths. Ratcheva is dedicated to exploring the best ways to ensure more just social and political systems with a specific focus on skills, employment and work, identity (gender, ethnic) and culture.

The Global Gender Gap Report 2015 is published by the World Economic Forum.

AT THE WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM

Professor Klaus Schwab
Founder and Executive Chairman

Richard Samans
Head of the Centre for the Global Agenda,
Member of the Managing Board

Saadia Zahidi
Head of Employment and Gender Initiatives,
Member of the Executive Committee

Yasmina Bekhouche
Project Lead, Gender Parity Initiative

Paulina Padilla Ugarte
Specialist, Employment and Gender Initiatives

Vesselina Ratcheva
Data Analyst, Employment and Gender Parity Initiatives

AT HARVARD UNIVERSITY

Professor Ricardo Hausmann
Director of the Center for International Development (CID) and Professor of the Practice of Economic Development at the Harvard Kennedy School.

AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY

Professor Laura D’Andrea Tyson
Director of the Institute for Business and Social Impact at the Haas School of Business and the chair of the Board of Trustees of the Blum Center for Developing Economies

We are very grateful for the support of Valentina Stoevska, Rosina Gammarano, Kristen Sobeck, and Marie-Claire Sodergren at the ILO; Said Voffal, Amélie Gagnon, Friedrich Huebler, and Chiao-Ling Chien at UNESCO; Kareen Jabre at the IPU; Ann-Beth Moller, Retno Wahyu Mahanani and Jessica Chi Ying Ho at the WHO; Nathalie Delmas at the ITU; Chris Clarke at OECD and Till Leopold, Valerie Peyre, Kristin Keveloh, and Lena Woodward at the World Economic Forum.

A special thank you to Michael Fisher for his excellent copyediting work and Neil Weinberg for his superb graphic design and layout. We greatly appreciate, too, the efforts of graphic design agency Graphéine, which created the cover.

Thank you to Kamal Kamaoui and the World Economic Forum’s Publications team for their invaluable collaboration on the production of this report.

Online Report: Design Resources Ltd