# Jomo Kwame Sundaram

Jomo Kwame Sundaram (Tamil: ஜோமோ குவாமே சுந்தரம், romanized: Jōmō Kuvāmē Cuntaram) (born 1 December 1952) is a Malaysian economist. He serves as a senior adviser at the Khazanah Research Institute, a visiting fellow at the Initiative for Policy Dialogue at Columbia University, and an adjunct professor at the International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM).
Jomo attended Westland's Primary School (1959–1963), Penang Free School (1964–1966) and the Royal Military College (1967–1970). In 1970, he was selected to represent Malaysia at the World Youth Forum.
Jomo graduated cum laude in economics from Yale University and later obtained a Master of Public Administration (MPA) degree from Harvard University in 1974. He then pursued a PhD, returning to Malaysia to teach at the Science University of Malaysia (USM). He completed his PhD at Harvard in 1977 while also holding teaching positions at Yale and Harvard in 1974 and 1975.
In mid-1982, Jomo joined the University of Malaya, where he remained a faculty member until 2004. His academic roles included appointments as a British Academy Visiting Professor and Fellow at Cambridge University (1987–88, 1991–92), a Fulbright Visiting Professor at Cornell University (1993), and a senior research fellow at the Asia Research Institute at the National University of Singapore (2004).

## Career and UN works

Jomo was the founding director of the Independent Institute of Social Analysis (INSAN) (1978–2004), editor of the monthly bilingual magazine, Nadi Insan (Human Pulse) (1979–1983), president of the Malaysian Social Science Association (1996–2000), and convenor of the first and second International Malaysian Studies Conventions (1997, 1999). He also served as the founding chair (2001–2004) of International Development Economics Associates and was a board member of the United Nations Research Institute on Social Development, Geneva.
Before the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis, Jomo advocated for new capital account management measures, which were later introduced by then-Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad. He was also a member of the National Economic Consultative Council (1989–1991), contributing to post-New Economic Policy policy reform proposals.
Jomo was a Research Coordinator for the G24 Intergovernmental Group on International Monetary Affairs and Development (2006–2012). From 2008 to 2009, he served as an adviser to Father Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann, president of the 63rd United Nations General Assembly.
He served as a member of the Stiglitz Commission of Experts of the president of the UN General Assembly on Reforms of the International Monetary and Financial System during 2008–2009.
Jomo held various roles within the United Nations, serving as assistant secretary-general for economic development in the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) from 2005 to 2012 and later as assistant director-general and coordinator for economic and social development at the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in Rome from 2012 to 2015. Between 2010 and his departure from UN DESA, he was the G20 'sherpa' to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon and also served as G20 finance deputy for the UN from 2011.
In 2022, he was interviewed by Frontline on the economic impact of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on the Global South.
In 2023, he appeared on Democracy Now! to discuss the influence of institutions such as the World Bank and their role in the climate crisis and global debt.

## Malaysia Council of Eminent Persons and Economic Action Council

After the 2018 Malaysian general election (GE14), Jomo was appointed to the five-member Council of Eminent Persons to advise the new Pakatan Harapan (PH)'s Federal Government and the Economic Action Council (EAC) chaired by the new Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad later on 11 February 2019.