Professor (Dr.) Ali Cheema is a distinguished economist whose research focuses on economic development with an emphasis on human capital, inclusion and economic mobility, gender dynamics, and political economy. Associated with LUMS since 1999, he has served distinguished years as an Associate Professor of Economics and Politics, Director of the Mahbub Ul Haq Research Centre, Chair of the Economics Department, and now as the Vice Chancellor. Dr. Cheema has been a member of the Board of Trustees of the Institute of Development Studies, Sussex, and was a founding member of the Stockholm Challenge Award-winning portal, Relief Information System for Earthquakes, Pakistan. He is a co-founder of the Centre for Economic Research in Pakistan (CERP), a Senior Research Fellow at IDEAS Pakistan, a co-lead academic of the International Growth Centre’s Pakistan programme, and an Invited Researcher at Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) at MIT. Presently, he serves on the Board of Directors of the State Bank of Pakistan. Dr. Cheema holds a PhD in Economics from Cambridge, an MPhil in Economics and Politics from Cambridge, and a BA (Hons.) in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics from Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar. He was also a visiting Fulbright and SAI Scholar at Harvard Kennedy School in 2010-11.