Institution: Natural Resource Governance Institute

Daniel Kaufmann is President and CEO of the Natural Resource Governance Institute, formerly Revenue Watch Institute’s “ Natural Resource Charter. An economist, he has pioneered innovative approaches to measure and analyze governance and corruption, and has deep practical experience in helping countries formulate and carry out governance reforms. His research has extended to economic development, investment, privatization and urban and labor economics. Kaufmann served as a senior fellow in the Global Economy and Development Program at the Brookings Institution. He previously served as a director of the World Bank Institute. He held senior management positions focused on governance, finance and anti-corruption, and was lead economist is the World Bank’s research department. He was first Chief of Mission of the World Bank to Ukraine, worked on capacity building in Latin America and on economic reforms in Africa. Kaufmann, a Chilean, received an M.A. and Ph.D. in economics at Harvard, and a B.A. in economics and statistics from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He has authored hundreds of scholarly articles, presentations and policy briefs on governance, corruption, trade, labor and economic reform.

Patrick Heller is an advisor at NRGI and a senior visiting fellow at the Center on Law, Energy and Environment at the University of California Berkeley. He has worked on legal reform and governance initiatives in the developing world for more than 15 years for organizations including USAID, the U.S. State Department, the Asian Development Bank, Creative Associates International and The International Center for Transitional Justice. Patrick’s work at NRGI focuses on the governance of state-owned oil and mining companies, the analysis of extractive industry contracts and pathways to sustainability for fossil fuel-producing countries. He contributes extensively to NRGIprograms of technical assistance to governments and civil society organizations throughout the world, and to NRGI capacity development efforts. He has facilitated courses on oil, gas and mining legal frameworks with partner institutions including the University of Oxford (U.K.), Columbia University (U.S.), Gadjah Mada University (Indonesia), the Catholic University of Central Africa (Cameroon) and Externado University (Colombia). He holds a law degree from Stanford University and a masters in international relations from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.

Alexandra Gillies is a specialist on natural resource governance and transparency. Her recent work has focused on the political economy of oil, extractive sector transparency standards including the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), the governance challenges associated with national oil companies and commodity trading, and the Nigerian oil sector. She has authored academic articles on these topics, and co-edited the volume Smart Aid for African Development (2009: Lynne Reiner). Alexandra holds a PhD in international relations from the University of Cambridge, where her research addressed the political economy of oil sector policymaking in Nigeria. She spent 2008 in Nigeria as a Fulbright Fellow. Prior to joining the Natural Resource Governance Institute, she consulted for organizations including World Bank, DFID, USAID and several political risk firms, and served as Assistant Director for the Program of African Studies at Northwestern University. Alexandra also holds degrees from the University of Ghana and Emory University. At NRGI, Alexandra has a key role in supporting various strategic planning efforts. She supports the design, development and implementation of NRGI country programs, serving as a resource for regional directors and country managers.