As part of the Practice Leadership team, in this role Dr. Gooptu is the technical lead of the cross-section of staff in the Practice that have professional interests and abilities in the Fiscal Policy-related work (Global Solutions Group) of the World Bank Group at the strategic, global or country levels. He has a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, U.S.A. and over 25 years’ experience in the World Bank where he has had research, operational and managerial roles. His assignments have included work on: debt and fiscal policy and risk management; assessments of fiscal risks from PPPs and contingent liabilities, public expenditure reviews, emerging markets' portfolio flows, sovereign debt buyback and restructuring operations; policy-oriented macroeconomic research. He was the World Bank’s Lead Economist for China and Mongolia between 2001-2008, after which he served as the Sector Manager for the World Bank’s, Economic Policy and Debt Department and a Practice Manager in the Macroeconomics & Fiscal Management Global Practice.