Antoinette Sayeh
Quick Facts
Biography
Antoinette Monsio Sayeh (born 12 July 1958 in Monrovia, Liberia) is a Liberian economist. Sayeh served as the Director of the African Department at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) from July 14, 2008 to August 31, 2016. She is currently a Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Center for Global Development.
Prior to her term at the IMF, she served from January 2006 as Minister of Finance in the cabinet of Liberian president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the second woman in Liberia's history to hold that position, the first being Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.
Sayeh is a graduate of Swarthmore College and The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, where she received her MA and Ph.D in International Economic Relations. Sayeh has also worked for the World Bank as country director for Benin, Niger, and Togo and worked on public finance management and civil service reform in Pakistan. According to the BBC, Sayeh has "delighted international financial institutions" as Minister of Finance.
From 2007, Sayeh was a member of the World Bank Group’s High Level Advisory Council on Women's Economic Empowerment, which was chaired by Danny Leipziger and Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul.