Alan Hirsch

I founded and was director of the Nelson Mandela School of Public Governance at the University of Cape Town (UCT) until 2020. I am a research fellow at the New South Institute, managing a research programme on migration governance reform in Africa. I am a member of President Ramaphosa’s Economic Advisory Council. and professorial research associate at SOAS. I was born in Cape Town and educated in economics, economic history and history at UCT, Wits and Columbia. After economic research and teaching at the University of Cape Town, I joined the South African Department of Trade and Industry in 1995, managing industry and technology policy. I moved to the Presidency in 2002. I managed economic policy in the South African Presidency, represented the Presidency at the G20, and was co-chair of the G20 Development Working Group. I am a member of President ramphosa's econoic Advisory Council and South Africa's G20 Afric Experts group. I have served or serve on several boards, and am associated with a range of policy research initiatives including the TIPS, the International Growth Centre for which I was the Zambia country director, and the European Centre for Development Policy Management where I was a board member. I was a visiting scholar at the Harvard Business School, a regular visiting professor at the Graduate School of Governance at Maastricht University and a member of the OECD Secretary-General’s Inclusive Growth Advisory Group. I write about migration governance and economic development issues, including Season of Hope - Economic Reform under Mandela and Mbeki and recently co-edited The Oxford Companion to South African Economics.