John W. McArthur is an economist and optimist focused on interrelated issues of economic growth, technological advance, sustainability, poverty reduction, and global collaboration. He is a Senior Fellow with the United Nations Foundation, Senior Fellow with the Fung Global Institute‘s project on Evolving Growth Models, and Nonresident Senior Fellow with the Brookings Institution. He was previously the CEO of Millennium Promise, the leading international non-governmental organization solely committed to supporting the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to cut extreme poverty by half by 2015. He was also a faculty member at Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs and a Research Scholar at the University’s Earth Institute, where he earlier served as Policy Director.

From 2002 to 2006 John served as Manager and Deputy Director of the United Nations Millennium Project, Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s independent advisory body mandated to recommend an action plan for achieving the MDGs. In that role he coordinated a global network of nearly 300 experts who served on ten thematic Task Forces, oversaw a policy team that provided integrated technical advice to governments in low-income countries around the world, and served as lead editor of the Project’s final report, Investing in Development: A Practical Plan to Achieve the Millennium Development Goals. Prior to that he was a Research Fellow at the Center for International Development at Harvard University, where he supported the World Health Organization’s Commission on Macroeconomics and Health and co-authored the Global Competitiveness Report.

In 2006 he proposed a new form of graduate degree to provide rigorous cross-disciplinary training for the next generation of sustainable development practitioners. In 2007 and 2008 he then co-chaired the International Commission on Education for Sustainable Development Practice, an initiative sponsored by the MacArthur Foundation (no relation). He now co-chairs the board of the new global network of Masters in Development Practice programs that has recently been launched across five continents.

In 2011-12, he chaired the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Benchmarking Progress. He currently serves as vice-chair of the related council on Poverty and Sustainable Development and as a member of the organization’s Advisory Board on Sustainability and Competitiveness. The Forum has recognized him as a Young Global Leader.

John’s research and writing has focused on how factors like agriculture, health, geography, institutions, technology, and public finance link to economic growth and development. He has published in a variety of journals including the Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, The Lancet, Advances in Agronomy, and the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. His writing for more general audiences has appeared in publications such as the The Bangkok Post, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Foreign Affairs, Global Brief, The Globe and Mail, The National Post, The Ottawa Citizen, SEED Magazine, and Stanford Social Innovation Review.

John completed a DPhil (PhD) and MPhil in Economics at Oxford University, which he attended as a Rhodes Scholar; a Masters in Public Policy at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government; and a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) at the University of British Columbia, where he spent most of his time in swimming pools and was named one of Canada’s Top 10 Academic All-Canadian student-athletes. He grew up in Vancouver and is a Canadian citizen.

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