Bert Kroese is Chief Statistician, Data Officer, and Director of the Statistics Department at the IMF. Before joining the Fund, he worked for 25 years at Statistics Netherlands. He served in various expert, management, and (senior) director roles in the fields of methodology and economic statistics. From 2013 until 2022, he acted as Deputy Director-General and CIO with special focus on and responsibility for IT and Innovation.

He has been especially active in the fields of innovation and environmental-economic statistics. He has chaired the UN Committee of Experts on Environmental-Economic Accounting (UNCEEA) for seven years. He has also been co-chair of the Executive Board of the High-Level Group for Modernization of Official Statistics (UNECE). In the Netherlands he was member of the strategy team of the Dutch National Artificial Intelligence Coalition and treasurer of ICTU, a large IT service supplier in Dutch government. Mr Kroese holds a PhD (honors) in mathematical statistics from the University of Groningen.