Egypt's Minouche Shafik (also known as Nemat Shafik) is set to take the reins as the director of the London School of Economics, one of the United Kingdom's most prestigious educational institutions.
LSE told Bloomberg that Shafik will be the first woman appointed to lead the university on a permanent basis. She will begin her new role as of September 2017.
In June of last year, Shafik was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire.
Shafik was less than halfway through her term as the deputy governor of the Bank of England – where she served as the BOE's most senior female policy maker – when she resigned to to head the elite university. She joined the BOE in August of 2014 and was set to stay in the role until July of 2019.
"We will say farewell to Minouche with gratitude and regret," BOE Governor Mark Carney said in a statement, according to Bloomberg . "She helped drive vital reforms on the domestic and international stages."
"This is an exciting time for the school," LSE’s acting chair Alan Elias said. "We are delighted to be welcoming an outstanding leader with such an exemplary track record and with a global standing to match LSE’s own international reach and reputation."
Born in Alexandria, Shafik has Egyptian, United States and British nationality. Shafik spent one year studying at the American University in Cairo before completing her bachelor’s degree in Politics and Economics at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst in the U.S. She then went on to complete her master's degree in economics at LSE and her doctor of philosophy at St. Antony’s College, University of Oxford.
Shafik had a successful tenure at the BOE. She is one of only three officials who sit on all three of the BOE’s policy committees: the Financial Policy Committee, the MPC and the Prudential Regulation Authority Board. She also led a review of the BOE’s market-intelligence operations and an overhaul of liquidity operations.