and Matt Lashey,
4th of July 2018 in Berlin After his studies at
Oxbridge, El-Erian settled in the US in 1983, taking a position at the
International Monetary Fund in Washington, D.C., where he rose to become deputy director. He moved to the private sector in January 1998, working in London at
Salomon Smith Barney/
Citigroup before being recruited by
PIMCO to lead its work on
emerging markets. El-Erian worked for several years at PIMCO as a managing director and head of the emerging market portfolio team, where he earned notoriety by avoiding the
2001 bond default by Argentina that otherwise stung the international bond market. Subsequently, he was appointed CEO and president of
Harvard Management Company, the entity that manages Harvard's endowment and related accounts. He also served as a member of the faculty of
Harvard Business School. As of 2020, he is a member of the Harvard Global Advisory Council. After twenty months at Harvard, El-Erian returned to PIMCO in December 2007 as CEO and co-CIO. As CEO of PIMCO, El-Erian was responsible for setting the strategic direction of the firm and leading its operations globally. As co-CIO with PIMCO co-founder
Bill H. Gross, El-Erian oversaw investment policies and strategies for all the company's portfolio management activities. He helped deliver investment performance for clients and grow PIMCO's assets under management from under $1 trillion to $2 trillion. On December 21, 2012,
President Obama announced the appointment of El-Erian as the chair of the president's
Global Development Council, leading the council in its role of informing and providing advice to the president and other senior U.S. officials on global development policies and practices. On January 21, 2014, El-Erian resigned from PIMCO effective March of that year, stating he decided to leave after receiving a letter from his daughter outlining important events in her life that he missed. However, it was widely reported that his resignation was triggered by conflicts with Gross, raising questions about the company's succession plan as El-Erian was widely perceived as
heir apparent to the 69-year-old Gross. Despite this, El-Erian praised Gross as "a brilliant investor ... anchored by three things that you hardly ever find in an investor: Strong fundamentals including economics, a really good feel for the market and strong bond math" when Gross departed Pimco. El-Erian remains a member of the parent company's (Allianz) international executive committee, chairs its International Advisory Committee, and is an advisor to the management board. El-Erian has published widely on international economic and finance topics. He is a member of the
Financial Times "A-List" of writers, has a monthly column in
Foreign Policy and is a contributing editor at the FT. He is also a regular op-ed contributor to
Project Syndicate. His columns have appeared in
The Atlantic,
Bloomberg,
The Economist, "
Business Insider",
Financial Times,
Fortune,
Newsweek,
The Wall Street Journal,
The Washington Post,
The Financial Express, and other outlets. He is a columnist for Bloomberg. His first book
When Markets Collide was a
New York Times and
Wall Street Journal bestseller. The book won the
Financial Times and Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award in 2008, was named a book of the year by
The Economist, and called one of the best business books of all time by
The Independent. His second book,
The Only Game in Town: Central Banks, Instability, and Avoiding the Next Collapse, was also a
New York Times bestseller. El-Erian was named to
Foreign Policy's list of Top 100 Global Thinkers each year from 2009 to 2012. He appears regularly on
CNN,
CNBC, and
Bloomberg as well as other media outlets. In April 2013,
Foreign Policy named him as one of the 500 most powerful people on the planet. In 2017, he again was listed on Worth's "power 100." He was inducted into the Fixed Income Analysts Society Hall of Fame on April 14, 2011. In 2011, 2012, and 2013, he was included in
Investment Advisor annual IA 25 list honoring the most influential people in and around the advisor community. In December 2012, Marketwatch named him one of "30 leaders who will set the agenda in 2013" – the publication's annual list of the people who will shape economic currents in the coming year.
Worth Magazine, a publication focused on high-net-worth individuals, named El-Erian to its Power 100 list – "The 100 Most Powerful People in Finance" – in 2011, 2012, 2013, 2016 and 2017. In September 2012, he was given the Creative Leadership Award by the
Louise Blouin Foundation. In February 2014, the Ukleja Center honored him with the 2014 Nell and John Wooden Ethics in Leadership award. In July 2014, the Egyptian Cancer Network gave him the Lifetime Achievement Award for his support of cancer treatment and cures for children in Egypt. In November 2015, The Middle East Institute in Washington DC honored him with their Visionary Award. The award recognizes outstanding leadership in international economic and financial policy, melding creativity and vision with expertise to promote global prosperity. In February 2017, Richtopia ranked him 23rd in its list of top 100 economists in the world. In both 2016 and 2017, Linked-In recognized him as one of its top 3 "voices" among its "influencers." In 2017, he was named to
Investment News list of 20 market "Icons and Innovators." He has appeared regularly on the
Orange County Business Journal list of most influential personalities. El-Erian has served on several boards and committees, including the
U.S. Treasury Borrowing Advisory Committee, the
International Center for Research on Women, the
IMF's Committee of Eminent Persons, and the
Peterson Institute for International Economics. He is currently a board member of the
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (Vice Chair), the
NBER (Executive Committee), co-chair of the Capital Campaign for the University and Colleges of Cambridge and Cambridge in America. On March 18, 2015, El-Erian was admitted as Companion of the Guild of Benefactors, Cambridge University. He is also a board member of
New America,
King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) and
The Pegasus School. Since 2007, he has served as chair of the Microsoft Investment Advisory Committee. He is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and serves on the international advisory committees of Allianz and Investcorp. He is a member of the Council of Foreign Relations. His philanthropic efforts over the years have emphasized education and health, including major gifts to the Children's Cancer Hospital in Egypt as well as the
University of Cambridge and
Queens' College. In October 2015, it was announced that, together with funding for studentships and new faculty positions, the El-Erian Institute for Human Behavior and Economic Policy would be established in partnership with Queens' College and the Faculty of Economics at Cambridge. The work of the institute will look to appropriately combine economics and finance with neuroscience, psychology, politics and behavioral finance to better understand how people actually make decisions rather than how narrow theory assumes they will. El-Erian is a widely recognized thought leader and is credited with developing the post-
2008 financial crisis concept of the "New Normal". Having first come up with the concept in January 2009 and after discussions with PIMCO, he wrote about it in May 2009 and presented it in several forums, including as the 2010 Per Jacobsson Foundation Lecture in Washington D.C. He has published numerous articles and commentaries on topics related to the New Normal, the sovereign debt crisis in Europe, the transformative changes occurring in the Middle East, and other matters related to the global economy, policy and markets. El-Erian has spoken at many universities, public institutions and other organizations, including the
University of California, Irvine, the
New York Public Library, the
University of Southern California,
Cambridge,
Oxford, the Newport Beach Public Library, the BIS, CFA Society of Chicago,
HSBC,
Barclays Bank, the UK Parliament’s House of Lords,
SALT,
Rand Merchant Bank, Marcus Evans,
Mortgage Bankers Association, Insurance Bureau of Canada, World 50, and the 92nd Street Y. He has also spoken at
CFA,
FT, and
Economist conferences. In November 2007, El-Erian was the series kick-off speaker of the
MIT Egyptian Club. In 2010, he delivered the Per Jacobsson Foundation Lecture in Washington, D.C. In 2012 he was chosen to present the Homer Jones Memorial Lecture at the
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. In October 2012, he delivered the keynote Bagehot at
The Economist Buttonwood Gathering in New York. In November 2013, he delivered the luncheon speech at the IMF's Annual Research Conference that also featured Ben Bernanke, Olivier Blanchard, Stanley Fischer, Ken Rogoff, and Larry Summers. In October 2014, he spoke at HSBC and RBS. He participated in the international symposium of the Banque de France. He was also the keynote speaker at the 2014 CME Conference along with
Ben Bernanke and
Colin Powell. He has also spoken before the Economic Club of Canada, Soka University, ProBono Economics, Boston Security Analysts, Rabobank, Citadel, ETF, National Rural Utilities Cooperative, Cisco, BTG Pactual, Euromoney, NMS, Mortgage Bankers Association, CME, Rabobank, the Global Financial Forum and many others. In March 2015 he was a featured speaker at the Egypt Economic Development Conference in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt. He also is a contributor to
LinkedIn's Influencer series and was ranked third on their top 10 influencers of the year. In November 2015, he participated in the Fortune CEO Global Summit and was the keynote speaker at the CFA Society of Chicago. In December 2015, El-Erian was the keynote speaker at the Information Management Network Conference in Scottsdale, Arizona. On July 1, 2019, El-Erian was appointed Senior Global Fellow at
The Lauder Institute and Part-Time Professor of Practice at
The Wharton School. He was
President of
Queens' College, Cambridge from October 1, 2020 to September 30, 2025. El-Erian was ranked the top influencer by LinkedIn in 2016 and third in 2017. El-Erian has served on the boards of trustees of several educational institutions, including Pegasus, St. Margaret School, Cambridge in America and KAUST. He co-chairs the capital campaign for
Cambridge University. In March 2024, he was named chairman of the board of
Under Armour. ==Personal life==