Moderator: Leah C. Gutierrez

Director General, Pacific Department

Asian Development Bank

Leah  Gutierrez  is  the  Director  General  of  the  Pacific  Department (PARD) at the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in  Manila,  Philippines. Ms. Gutierrez is a national of  the Philippines. She holds a doctorate degree in economics from   the University  of  Pennsylvania, USA and a bachelor’s degree in business  economics from the University of  the Philippines. 

Ms. Gutierrez  has more than 33  years of  professional  experience with 19 years at ADB. She is an economist with social sector experience in both project operations and policy research. 
Prior to  joining ADB, she was  in  the  faculty  of  the Department of Public Administration of Syracuse University’s Maxwell School in New York, USA.

She joined  ADB  in  2000  as  a  project  economist  and progressed through  various  levels  of  responsibility  across operations and   non-operations   departments.   Since   2012, she  has held  managerial  roles  in  an  operations  department, the corporate secretary office, and the strategy department.
Prior  to  joining  the  Pacific  Department,  she  served  as  the Deputy   Director   General   of   the   Strategy,   Policy   and  Partnerships Department.