Date: 3 April 2025
Rick Samans Joins the GFI Board of Directors
Distinguished economic thought leader and advocate of inclusive social and economic development joins GFI Board
Washington, DC – The Global Fairness Initiative (GFI) has announced that Rick Samans will be joining the GFI Board of Directors. Mr. Samans serves as Senior Economic Adviser to the World Business Council for Sustainable Development; Special Advisor to the United Nations Economist Network; Nonresident Senior Fellow of The Brookings Institution; and Senior Fellow at the Geneva Graduate Institute for International and Development Studies. His leadership on economic policies and affairs dates back to the Administration of GFI’s Founding Board Chair, President William Clinton.
“GFI was founded to create more equitable, sustainable opportunity for the working poor, and Rick has dedicated his career to finding economic solutions that uplift workers and give voice to those globalization has left behind,” said Global Fairness Initiative Founder Karen Tramontano. “Since serving with Rick in the Clinton Administration I know him to be bring both the intellect and the empathy we all need to create a more just, equitable future for workers.”
For the past 30 years, Mr. Samans has helped develop a practical, implementable approach to enabling market growth that is human-centered. Throughout his career he has built and promoted a vision of incorporating the living standards of the working poor through an “aggregate social welfare” process that expands the key measurements of economic growth past aggregate production or GDP alone. Through his leadership at the International Labor Organization (ILO), the World Economic Forum, and the White House, to name a few, Rick has approached national economic progress from a “kitchen table” perspective where the everyday lived experience of people is the central indicator of economic progress and the root of economic policies.
“We are very fortune to have Rick Samans join the GFI Board of Directors,” said Kabine Komara, former Prime Minister of Guinea and the GFI Board Chair. “I am a strong believer in his vision for a common prosperity that is centered on the common worker and I look forward to serving with him on GFI’s distinguished Board.”
The Global Fairness Initiative is an international NGO that works to create a more fair, sustainable approach to economic development, and to make our global economy work for those who need it most − the world’s working poor. For over twenty years GFI has steadily built a track record of success through innovative programs to reduce poverty, enfranchise workers, and ensure that communities of promise become centers of prosperity.
ABOUT RICK SAMANS
Richard Samans is an internationally-recognized expert on strengthening the growth and development prospects of economies through fundamental improvement in their social inclusion and environmental sustainability. He has proposed corresponding structural reforms of macroeconomic theories and policies, corporate governances, and the international economic architecture, which he characterizes as an agenda to adapt the “source code” and “operating system” of market economies to 21st century circumstances, thereby improving their social and political cohesion as well as growth. A former senior US government official and international organization chief executive, he is the author of numerous publications, including Human-Centred Economics: The Living Standards of Nations, which the Financial Times selected as one of the best books of 2024 on Economics.
He currently serves as Senior Economic Adviser to the World Business Council for Sustainable Development; Special Advisor to the United Nations Economist Network; Nonresident Senior Fellow of The Brookings Institution; and Senior Fellow at the Geneva Graduate Institute for International and Development Studies. He served previously as Director of the Research Department and G20/G7 Sherpa of the International Labour Organization as well as founder and chairman of the Climate Disclosure Standards Board, a precursor of the International Sustainability Standards Board. He was formerly a Managing Director of the World Economic Forum; Director-General of the Global Green Growth Institute; Special Assistant to the President for International Economic Policy and National Security Council Senior Director for International Economic Affairs in the second Clinton-Gore Administration; and economic policy advisor to former US Senate Democratic Leader Thomas A. Daschle.