Centre for
Central Banking

Ignazio Visco was born in 1949. After receiving a degree in Economics from ‘La Sapienza’ University of Rome, he obtained an M.A. and a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania (USA).

He received the Leontief Award for Best Dissertation in Quantitative Economics (Eastern Economic Association, 1982) and the ‘Best in Class’ prize from ‘La Sapienza’ University of Rome (2006). He was given the title of ‘Cavaliere di Gran Croce al Merito della Repubblica italiana’ in 2011. He has also authored numerous publications.

He began his carrier at Banca d’Italia in 1972 and was appointed Head of the Research Department in 1990. From 1997 to 2002 he was Chief Economist and Director of the Economics Department of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Upon his return to the Bank, he was appointed Central Manager for International Affairs in 2004 and Central Manager for Economic Research in March 2006.

In 2007 he became a member of the Bank’s Governing Board as Deputy Director General, until October 2011.

He was appointed Governor of Banca d’Italia in November 2011, heading the Bank until October 2023. On 28 November of the same year, the Board of Directors of Banca d’Italia appointed him as Governor Emeritus.

Pablo Hernández de Cos serves as General Manager of the BIS since 1 July 2025.

Mr Hernández de Cos served as Governor of the Bank of Spain from 2018 to June 2024. During his tenure, he was a member of the Governing Council of the ECB and Chair of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision from 2019 to 2024. He also held key leadership roles, including membership in the Financial Stability Board and the BIS Group of Governors and Heads of Supervision.

Mr Hernández de Cos began his career at the Bank of Spain in 1997, where he held various roles, including Director General Economics, Statistics and Research. He also served on the boards of the International Center for Monetary and Banking Studies and the Foundation for Applied Economic Studies. His expertise spans macroeconomics, fiscal and monetary policy, and financial stability.

Mr Hernández de Cos holds a PhD in economics from the Complutense University of Madrid. He also has a degree in economics and business administration from CUNEF Universidad and a degree in law from the UNED.

François Villeroy de Galhau was born in Strasbourg on 24 February 1959 into a family with roots in Lorraine and Saarland. A former ENA student and Inspector of Finance, he joined the French Treasury in 1988 (Africa desk, then Europe desk) and subsequently became European advisor to the Minister of Finance and then Prime Minister (Pierre Bérégovoy) from 1990 to 1993.

He went on to hold various positions at the French Treasury, before becoming financial advisor at the Permanent Representation of France in Brussels. From 1997 to 2000, he was chief of staff of the Minister of the Economy, Finance and Industry (Dominique Strauss-Kahn, then Christian Sautter). He was head of the French General Tax Directorate from 2000 to 2003. In 2003, he became the Chief Executive Officer of Cetelem, then headed BNP Paribas’ retail banking activities in France (2008). François Villeroy de Galhau served as Chief Operating Officer of BNP Paribas group, in charge of domestic markets and corporate social responsibility from 1 December 2011 until 1 May 2015, when the French government entrusted him with an assignment on business investment financing. In September 2015, the then President of the French Republic, François Hollande, nominated him for the position of Governor of the Banque de France. After receiving the approval of the Parliament, he was appointed Governor of the Banque de France in the Council of Ministers on 30 September 2015 and took office on 1 November 2015 for a 6-year term.

In October 2021, the President of the Republic Emmanuel Macron proposed that he be reappointed for a second term, a decision approved by the members of Parliament and then ratified by the Council of Ministers on 27 October 2021.

François Villeroy de Galhau is a member of the Governing Council of the European Central Bank (ECB), Chairman of the Autorité de contrôle prudentiel et de résolution (ACPR) and, since January 2022, President of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS). He has notably published L’espérance d’un Européen (Odile Jacob, 2014) and Retrouver confiance en l’économie (Odile Jacob, 2021).

Mervyn King served as Governor of the Bank of England from 2003 to June 2013. He was previously Deputy Governor from 1998 to 2003, Chief Economist and Executive Director from 1991, and non-executive director of the Bank from 1990 to 1991. He was knighted (GBE) in 2011, made a life peer in 2013, and appointed by The Queen to be a Knight of the Garter in 2014.

Lord King is the Alan Greenspan Professor of Economics and Professor of Law at New York University and Emeritus Professor of Economics at the London School of Economics.

In 2016 he published The End of Alchemy. With a new preface, it appeared in paperback in 2017, and has been translated into many languages. His new book (with John Kay) Radical Uncertainty was published in March 2020.

Born in 1948, Mervyn King studied at King’s College, Cambridge, and Harvard (as a Kennedy Scholar) and taught at Cambridge and Birmingham Universities before spells as Visiting Professor at both Harvard University and MIT. From October 1984 he was Professor of Economics at the London School of Economics where he founded the Financial Markets Group.

Mervyn King is a Fellow of the British Academy, an Honorary Fellow of King’s and St John’s Colleges, Cambridge and holds many honorary degrees. He is a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is Chair of the Philharmonia Orchestra and a member of the House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee.

Boris Vujčić was born in Zagreb on 2 June 1964. He graduated in 1988 and received his doctor’s degree in 1996, both from the Zagreb Faculty of Economics. He worked as assistant lecturer at the Faculty of Economics in Zagreb from 1989 to 1997, when he was appointed assistant professor. As a Fulbright fellow he attended doctoral study at the Department of Economics, Michigan State University, USA, in the period between 1994 and 1995. In 1995/1996 he worked in the European Commission in Brussels, first as a trainee, and then as an external advisor in the Monetary Matters Department. From December 1996 till his appointment as Deputy Governor of the CNB he worked as Director of the CNB Research Department. Boris Vujčić was appointed Deputy Governor of the Croatian National Bank on 15 July 2000 pursuant to the decision of the Croatian Parliament. On 13 July 2006, the Croatian Parliament reappointed Deputy Governor Vujčić for a second six-year term of office. From 2005, Mr Vujčić was also Deputy Chief Negotiator in the Republic of Croatia’s negotiations with the European Union. He has been a member of the General Council of the European Central Bank since 2013 and a member of the European Systemic Risk Board’s Steering Committee and Chairman of the Vienna Initiative 2.0 Steering Committee since 2016. Governor Vujčić has been a member of the Governing Council of the European Central Bank since 1 January 2023, when Croatia joined the eurozone.

Mr Vujčić has been an associate professor at the Zagreb Faculty of Economics since 2003. At the Zagreb Faculty of Science, Department of Mathematics, he has lectured as visiting professor since 2004. Mr Vujčić’s fields of expertise and teaching include monetary analysis, labour economics and international finance. He is the author of numerous scholarly papers on economic issues. During his career he was a visiting scholar/lecturer at different Universities, such as U. of Sussex, U. of Freiberg and U. of Kentucky, he worked as external collaborator for the International Labour Organization (ILO), he was on editorial boards of journals, like Comparative Economic Studies, a member of the Advisory Committee of the Center for Financial Innovation and Financial Stability, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, a Board Member of the Global Development Network, etc.

In 2018, Boris Vujčić was awarded Central Bank Governor of the Year for Central and Eastern Europe by the publication GlobalMarkets and magazine The Banker named him the Best European and Global Central Bank Governor. In 2021, the Executive Board of the Central Bank of Hungary presented him with the prestigious Lamfalussy Award, a coveted international award honouring his long and successful career, placing special emphasis on his achievements in the successful process of Croatia’s EU integration, including its accession to the European Exchange Rate Mechanism II.

Pierre Wunsch is Governor at the National Bank of Belgium, member of the ECB’s Governing and General Council, member of the European Systemic Risk Board, member of the Board of Directors of the Bank for International Settlements, IMF Governor, Chairman of the Resolution College, member of the High Council for Finance, member of the Board of Directors of the National Accounts Institute. He is also a President/Administrator of the King Baudouin Foundation. He was Director of the Strategic Finance Cell at the Ministry of Finance during the financial crisis of 2008. He holds a PhD in Economics (UCL) and a Master’s degree in Public and international Affairs (Princeton).