Paul Wolfowitz Keynote Speaker

Paul Wolfowitz is a leading neoconservative American statesman who served as President of the World Bank from 2005 to 2007. As US Deputy Secretary of Defense in the second Bush administration, he was a major architect of President Bush’s Iraq policy and War on Terror in the aftermath of 9/11.

He is currently a visiting scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, working on issues of international economic development, Africa and public-private partnerships. He is also chairman of the US-Taiwan Business Council.

From 1982 to 1986 Paul was State Department Assistant Secretary for East Asian and Pacific Affairs. He served as a United States Ambassador to Indonesia from 1986 to 1989. From 1994 to 2001 he was Dean of the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University, managing to add more than $75 million to the university’s endowment and combine the various Asian studies programmes into one department.

As President of the World Bank, he set as a priority for the organisation the improvement of living standards in Sub-Saharan Africa. He also made clear his focus on fighting corruption in Africa and Asia.