News & Stories

SIPA Welcomes 57 New Students to PEPM Program

Posted Jul 12 2012

On July 3, SIPA’s Program in Economic Policy Management (PEPM) welcomed its 21st class to Morningside Heights. Over the 20 years since its founding in 1992, PEPM has been SIPA’s most international program, graduating nearly 1,000 policymakers from more than 140 countries.

International students routinely make up at least 90 percent of enrollment, and this year’s class is no exception: the 41 men and 16 women are from 29 countries, highlighted by seven each from Japan and Spain, and five from China. All but two are from outside the United States.

The new students bring a broad spectrum of academic and professional experience to Morningside Heights. About half of them already have a master’s degree (many in economics or management), and others are well versed in economics from previous schooling and work.

On average, class members have six years of experience — in central banking, public budgeting, international economic development, investment banking, asset management, consulting, economic journalism, and other fields. Individual class members include:

  • an enforcement expert at the Capital Markets Board of Turkey;
  • a modeling economist at the Bank of Mongolia;
  • the deputy general manager of the Reserve Bank of India, Jaipur;
  • the director of M&A supervision at the China Securities Regulatory Commission;
  • the head of service for international energy affairs at Spain’s Secretary of State for Energy;
  • the director of structured trade finance at the Royal Bank of Scotland in New York;
  • the director for international trade negotiations under NAFTA at the Mexican Ministry of Economy;
  • the chief of staff at Afghanistan’s Ministry of Mines;
  • a medical doctor from Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare;
  • a statistician at the Central Bank of Sudan; and
  • a program manager at Hewlett-Packard in Hyderbad, India.

The 14-month program includes coursework during summer, fall, and spring semesters followed by a internship or directed study in the final summer semester. The new students will complete the program in August 2013 and receive their MPA degrees in October 2013.

Befitting graduates of the world’s most global public policy school, SIPA’s PEPM alumni go on to positions of leadership around the world. One alumnus was recently appointed to the board of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and subsequently honored as a formal “Friend of Russia” by the nation’s government. Another serves on the board of directors of the World Bank and IMF. A third is head of Power Services at Bloomberg in New York. These are just a few examples — among our alumni are former ministers of finance and heads of central banks, CEOs, and high-ranking officials at governments, development agencies, private banks, not-for-profit institutions, energy companies, and more.