The World Bank/International Monetary Fund’s Development Committee said yesterday that Marek Belka, President of the National Bank of Poland NBP, was reappointed as its chairman on Sept.6.

Belka has been the Development Committee Chairman since November 3, 2011. The Development Committee has 25 members, for the most part Finance or Development Ministers, who represent the 187 members of the Bank and the Fund. The Committee advises the Boards of Governors of the Bank and Fund on critical development issues.

Belka was appointed President of the National Bank of Poland in June 2010. Previously, he was Director of the European Department at the IMF for two years. From 2006 to 2008, he was Executive Secretary of the UN Economic Commission for Europe. In 2003, he served first as Chairman of the Council for International Coordination for Iraq and later as Director of Economic Policy. Belka served as Deputy PM and Finance Minister of Poland in 1997 and in 2001-2002. He served as Poland’s PM in 2004-2005.

Belka has a Ph.D. and a post doctoral degree in economics from the University of Lodz and was a Research Fellow at Columbia University, University of Chicago and London School of Economics. He has authored several books and articles on socio-economic issues. He is a member of the Polish Academy of Sciences.

In 2005 Belka received The Warsaw Voice’s annual award Chair of the Year, granted traditionally to persons, institutions and objects that had the largest influence on Poland and Poles in the previous year.