David Malpass served during President Trump’s first Administration as U.S. Treasury Undersecretary for International Affairs in 2017-2019 and as World Bank President in 2019-2023, following 24 years as a leading Wall Street economist and columnist with Forbes and the WSJ. His Washington-based consulting and public speaking activities focus on markets, geopolitics and leadership in support of strengthening U.S. economic and international policies. He is the Inaugural Fellow of Global Business and Infrastructure at Purdue University.
Mr. Malpass’s work has taken him to 75 countries and meetings with world leaders spanning four decades. As World Bank President, he refocused the institution on market-based growth in developing countries. He championed energy production, currency stability, and haircuts for China’s Belt and Road debt.
After Senate confirmation in August 2017, he led Treasury’s international policies, including dollar stability, lower international taxation, and countering globalism and China’s Belt and Road. From 1993-2016, Malpass worked as Chief Economist of Bear Stearns and as founder of a NYC-based economics research firm. He was regularly voted a top Wall Street economist by Institutional Investor. He wrote the Thought Leaders column in Forbes for a decade and over 100 opinion pieces advocating sweeping economic and budget policy reforms. He was active in Republican politics, an early volunteer and surrogate for the Trump campaign, and a 2016 convention delegate.
From 1984-1993, Mr. Malpass served with Secretary James Baker at the Treasury and State Departments and as Republican staff director of the Joint Economic Committee. Earlier, he worked as a contract administrator, systems analyst and CPA in Portland, Oregon. He earned his bachelor’s degree in physics from Colorado College and MBA from the University of Denver. In 1983, he was a mid-career fellow studying international economics at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service and has studied Russian, Spanish and French.