Asia Honorary Advisers
Dr Reuben Abraham
Asia Honorary Adviser, India
Dr Reuben Abraham is the CEO of Artha Global, a Mumbai and London-based public policy organisation.
Dr. Abraham’s expertise lies in understanding the underlying processes of economic growth and development, with a specific focus on state and institutional capacity, the political economy of implementation, and on well-managed urbanization as a key cause/consequence of economic growth.
He is a Senior Fellow at New York University’s Marron Institute and a member of the International Advisory Board for the New Economy of the Govt of the United Arab Emirates. He is a Senior Advisor to Swiss Re in Zurich, an Honorary Advisor to the New Zealand Asia Foundation in Wellington and a member of the Advisory Council of Apolitical in London. He is also an advisor to the U.K. civil service’s Policy Profession Capability Programme and serves on the investment committee of a leading Indian venture capital firm.
In 2022, he won the “Think-Tanker of the Year” award by Prospect Magazine, and the Emergent Ventures Prize awarded by The Mercatus Center, in recognition of his efforts to help tackle the Covid crisis in India. In 2023, he was awarded a Schmidt Innovation Fellowship to build a large rapid insights platform to inform public policy in India.
Previously, he was a faculty member at the Indian School of Business (ISB). In 2012, he was named to Wired Magazine’s “Smart List 2012: 50 people who will change the world.” In 2013 and 2016, he was a Fellow at the Legatum Institute in London. He was selected as a Young Global Leader for 2009 by the World Economic Forum, where he served as member and vice-chair of the global agenda councils for a decade. He served on the advisory board of Unicredit, Italy’s largest Bank, and the investment committee of the Soros Economic Development Fund.
He completed his MA, M.Phil, and Ph.D. from Columbia University in New York, with a focus on technology and economic development.