David T. King, Ph.D., a professional development economist since 1996, has since then served as Chief of Party (Director) of seven USAID projects in the Western Balkans – Bosnia & Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, and Kosovo. For USAID, the World Bank, EBRD, and global consultancies including PwC, Deloitte, and IBM, he has supported economic growth strategy development and implementation in twenty countries of Eastern Europe, Africa, the Caucasus, and South and Central Asia. He specializes in enterprise competitiveness and financial sector development.
As the lead facilitator over eight years for USAID’s week-long Economic Growth Officers Training course, delivered to more than 500 staff from USAID Washington and its worldwide missions, Dr. King was instrumental in the major revision of the Agency’s official economic growth strategy during the 2000s, advancing in particular its overarching focus, in all program areas, on the improvement firm-level competitiveness.
Dr. King entered the development assistance business from the private sector. In 1989 he founded a designer and manufacturer of children’s outerwear, which grew over a five-year period from a 4-person startup to 120 employees in a large factory in Providence, RI. He was named Small Business Leader of the Year by the Rhode Island Chamber of Commerce in 1993. The company was also recognized as one of the 10 Best Places to Work in the state, and one of the fastest-growing companies in New England.
His previous career positions include Division Chief at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Administrator at the OECD in Paris, and Department Head at Citibank in New York and Chicago. He created Citicorp Mezzanine Investments, which provided some $200 million in finance to mid-sized manufacturing and service companies across the USA. Dr. King has taught and lectured on economics, finance, and banking at Yale University, Rutgers University, New York University Stern School of Business, London Business School, and INSEAD, and has published in scholarly journals and the popular press, including The Financial Times and the Wall Street Journal. He received his doctorate in economics from Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana, in 1976.
David King Economics 