Björn Rother has been with the IMF since 2002 and is currently Chief of the Concessional Lending Division in the Strategy, Policy, and Review Department (SPR). Previously he was a Senior Reviewer in SPR, mission chief for Tunisia and Turkmenistan, and head of the Strategy Units in the Middle East and Central Asia Department as well as in the Human Resources Department. Key work interests include economic development, economic and political transformations, the economic impact of conflict, and the political determinants of currency crises on which he published a book in 2009. Prior to the IMF, he was a consultant with McKinsey. Björn holds a PhD in Economics from the Free University of Berlin and degrees from the London School of Economics and Sciences Po in Paris.