Five politicians and financiers scramble for a place in the OECD race

The race to become the next head of the OECD has shrunk to five candidates, who are vying for the leadership of an international organization which in recent years has sought to play a leading role on tax, inequality and macroeconomic policies.

Under the leadership of Angel Gurría, general secretary for the past 15 years, the Paris-based club of wealthy nations has raised its profile, seeking to to define its role of creating “better policies for a better life”.

The choice of new leadership by its 37 member states will determine whether the organization continues to try to shape the global agenda or to retreat to its founding status as a technocratic think tank.

The OECD is celebrating its 60th anniversary this year, resulting from the Organization for European Economic Cooperation, created after World War II to help distribute Marshall Aid money.

With a slowly expanding membership from wealthy democracies, it has little hard power but is influential with its use of soft power in a wide range of areas. These include seeking to resolve global disputes over corporate taxation, combating tax evasion, producing corporate governance codes, highlighting successes and failures in education and monitor the quantity and quality of foreign aid.

Its statistics are highly regarded, using the highest quality of international comparison so that countries can assess their progress.

But not all Member States are happy when the OECD is in the limelight.

Cecilia Malmström, Sweden

For nearly a decade, Ms Malmström was European Commissioner, leading the important trade directorate between 2014 and 2019. A academy and center-right politician in Sweden by training, she returned to academia after leaving the Commission European.

National leaders mock the secretary-general’s equal status in photos of the G20 summit and fear that the organization – which recently spoke strongly against austerity and the damage to economic growth caused by rising inequalities – has strayed too far from its core mission of increasing growth rates and increasing productivity.

Over the past 15 years of dynamic top-down management by Mr. Gurría, the OECD has made advocacy a defining role. Formerly known as the Think Tank, Mr Gurría set out to change that, to complain that the sentence “transforms my liver into foie gras”. He said the organization “likes to think of itself as a do-tank”.

Of the top 10 nominees, the opaque selection process, led by UK Ambassador to the OECD Christopher Sharrock, narrowed the field to five after half withdrew following ‘consultations’ among the members.

Anna Diamantopoulou, Greece

Former Greek minister and center-left politician, Mrs Diamantopoulou was also European Commissioner for Employment and Social Affairs. She now runs a think tank in Athens.

US candidate Christopher Liddell, candidate for the Trump administration, stepped down on the day of Joe Biden’s inauguration.

With U.S. backing to win, the top contenders pursued a diplomatic line, praising the organization’s role and calling for global cooperation on difficult topics such as corporate taxation and stronger, cleaner and fairer growth. .

Cecilia Malmström, former Swedish European Trade Commissioner, is one of the firsts since her appointment last year and is highly regarded by OECD staff. She campaigned to use this role to forge global compromise in controversial policy areas.

“You must listen to everyone, be it small [countries] or fat, ”she said of her time on the commission.

Philipp Hildebrand, Switzerland

The former president of the Swiss National Bank resigned in 2012 in a currency exchange scandal involving his then wife. SNB internal committees then deleted it wrongdoing. Since then, Mr. Hildebrand has built a successful financial career as Vice President of BlackRock.

Statements like these indicate that his OECD would not be as pugilistic as it has sometimes been under Mr. Gurría.

But unlike many selections for international positions, like the head of the IMF, Europe has not united behind a single candidate – even if a European has not led the OECD since 1996. And his support for Washington does. can be presumed, being playing hard on digital taxes and US tariffs during her tenure as a trade commissioner.

Swiss Philipp Hildebrand is a non-EU leader, having served as director of the country’s central bank.

He is now vice president of BlackRock, the investment management giant, where he was close to Brian Deese, who has recently appointed as director of Mr. Biden’s National Economic Council.

Mr Hildebrand’s candidacy focused on priorities such as achieving a “just transition” to zero net climate policies, tackling social inequalities and international cooperation.

Ulrik V Knudsen, Denmark

The current Deputy Secretary General of the OECD is a civil servant who has spent most of his career at the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Mr. Knudsen has extensive experience with the OECD, having served as Danish ambassador to the international organization during the financial crisis.

But his resignation from the SNB after that of his then wife controversial currency exchanges in 2011 could be a stumbling block. Insiders say some officials are “very disturbed” by his candidacy, given the role of the OECD in corporate governance and ethical capitalism.

Mathias Cormann, Australia’s former finance minister, has toured the world on the country’s military jets to promote his candidacy.

He is the oldest national politician still in the race despite having an international hinterland, having emigrated from Belgium to Australia in the 1990s.

In an interview with the Atlantic Council, he said he was uniquely qualified to take on this post because of “my European experience and my Asia-Pacific networks”. He has distanced himself from the climate skepticism of his former Australian liberal party, although that remains a challenge for his candidacy.

The other two candidates still in the running – Anna Diamantopoulou of Greece and Ulrik V Knudsen of Denmark – are not seen as pioneers, but could emerge as compromise candidates.