Staff at the Research Department

Organizational description | 13 July 2023
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Richard Samans is Director of Research and member of the Senior Management Team of the International Labour Organization and Chairman of the Climate Disclosure Standards Board. He is a former Managing Director of the World Economic Forum and Director-General of the Global Green Growth Institute. He served previously as Special Assistant to the President for International Economic Policy and National Security Council Senior Director for International Economic Affairs in the second Clinton Administration, and as economic policy advisor to US Senate Democratic Leader Thomas A. Daschle.  In the UN system, he has been a member of the ILO Global Commission on the Future of Work; the UN Secretary General’s Task Force on Digital Financing of the Sustainable Development Goals; and the UNEP Inquiry on the Design of a Sustainable Financial System.



Lawrence Jeff Johnson serves as Deputy Director of the Research Department. The focus of his work relates to the Future of Work and Sustainable Development Goals. Prior to this appointment, he served as ILO Country Office Director in the Philippines 2010-2015 and the Chief of the ILO Employment Trends between 1998 and 2010. Prior to joining the ILO, he served as an Economist with the United States Department of Labor for ten years. 


Publications
Dagmar Walter is Senior Adviser at Research and member of the Department Management Team. She has over 20 years of career with the ILO, worked in several regions and duty stations, latest as Director for the South Asia office in New Delhi (2018-2022). Contributing to the Sustainable Development Goals 2030, she strives to foster evidence-based policy making, integrated research, technical assistance and capacity building for ILO constituents, in collaboration with stakeholders and partners. Key areas include tackling employment and social protection challenges from an international labour rights perspective in an ever changing World of Work, promoting social justice through multi-stakeholder engagement. Prior to her ILO career, Ms Walter worked with international NGOs on development and human rights, as Consultant and Deputy Representative to the various UN human rights bodies in Geneva. Ms Walter holds a Master of Public Administration from the Swiss Graduate School of Public Administration (IDHEAP). Dagmar Walter | LinkedIn

Education and Traning
Naren Prasad is a Head of Education and Training. He coordinates the ILO’s International/Regional Training Courses on Evidence-based policy making for decent work. He has a wide experience working as an economist and expert trainer with various United Nations agencies in different regions. Naren has published on issues of social policy, employment and labour market, small island countries, middle class and privatization of public services. He hails from Fiji and he holds a PhD in Economics (University of Paris II-Panthéon Assas).

Department Support

Thuy Nguyen Couture is a Funds Control Officer of the department, looking after programme, budget, finance and human resources. Thuy hails from Vietnam, and she studied management, marketing, accounting and Swiss law in Geneva. She’s been working at the ILO since 1999, where she first worked on the French version of the Encyclopedia of Occupational Health and Safety. She then moved to the Department Support Unit of the International Institute of Labour Studies. Fascinated by design, she learned InDesign and handled the typesetting, layout and covers of flagship publications.
Alessandro Ippolito Neira is a Communication and Public Information Officer at the ILO Research Department. He is a communications specialist with a diverse background in various industries. Prior to this role, Alessandro acted as a Consultant at the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), on the subject of energy geopolitics. He has start-up experience, launching a supply chain consulting company in 2018. Alessandro spent time working in media, including roles such as Concept Writer at iZen Media, and an editorial role at the Shanghai Business Review. Early in his career, Alessandro interned at various U.N. Agencies, including ILO and UNAIDS. He currently holds a Masters in Business Management from IE Business School in Madrid, Spain and a Bachelor Degree in Communications from the University of Roehampton, London.

Skills, ALMPs and Policy Evaluation
Verónica Escudero joined the Research Department of the International Labour Organization in 2008 and today she is Head of the Skills, ALMPs and Policy Evaluation team. She is a Ph.D economist with over 15 years of experience specializing in the microeconometric analysis of labour market and social policies. Her research focuses on the skills necessary for effective transitions to decent work in low- and middle-income countries, using online data on vacancies and applications to labour portals. She also studies the effectiveness of labour market and social protection policies on job quality and social conditions, with views to understanding what policies work and under what circumstances and contributing to national policy formulation. Dr. Escudero was previously a Research Officer at the International Organization for Migration in Geneva and an Analyst at the Macroeconomic and Financial Consulting firm Multienlace in her home country Ecuador. She holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Paris School of Economics and the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS). Dr Escudero served as a Visiting Scholar with the Center for Effective Global Action (CEGA) at the University of California Berkeley in 2021-2022, demonstrating her expertise and commitment to the field of development economics.

Twitter @VeEscudero_
Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/verónica-escudero/
Webpage: https://www.escuderoveronica.com/

Recent publications:
Hannah Liepmann joined the ILO in 2018, where she works as an Economist in the Research Department. Within empirical labour economics, she is particularly interested in studying how labour market policies and phenomena of structural change affect labour market integration, with a focus on marginalized groups. Hannah obtained her PhD in Economics from Humboldt University Berlin, where she also worked for the Collaborative Research Centre “Rationality and Competition”. She is an IZA Research Affiliate and has been a visiting researcher at the Institute for Research on Labor and Employment at UC Berkeley and the Federal German Institute for Employment Research (IAB) in Nuremberg.

Recent publications:
Willian Adamczyk is an Economist at the International Labour Organization (ILO, Geneva). PhD in Development Economics at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul (PUCRS). Works with Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML) and Natural Language Processing (NLP) techniques to answer questions about labour markets. Published research on “Automation Technologies on Brazilian Labour Market”, “Skills and Employment Transitions in Brazil”, and “The Future of Automation in Brazilian Executive Branch”. Worked as Research Coordinator at the National School of Public Administration (ENAP), offering rapid answers for evidence-informed policymaking. Supervised policy reports to inform decisions in Brazilian Federal Government about Education, Labour, Disabilities and Culture.

Twitter @willianadamczyk
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/willian-adamczyk-67013016/
Research Gate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Willian-Adamczyk

Recent publications:


Macroeconomic Policy and Jobs Unit

Ekkehard Ernst is Chief of Unit, overseeing work related to the Future of Work Initiative and analysing alternative scenarios for jobs and working conditions. He is a regular speaker at international conferences and organizes a yearly summer academy where he gives hands-on advice on how to use macro-economic models to analyse labour market challenges. Prior to joining ILO he worked at the OECD and the European Central Bank. He holds a PhD from the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales.

Recent publications:
Stefan Kühn has been an economist at the ILO since 2011 and joined his current team in 2016. He currently manages the Trends Econometric Models used to produce the global estimates for the Trends publication series. Previous work comprises the development of the GEL model, a dynamic macroeconomic model for policy analysis. Stefan’s research areas of interest include macroeconomics, labour economics and international economics. In 2011, he obtained his PhD in Economics from Maastricht University, the Netherlands.

Rossana Merola is a Macroeconomist at the Research Department since 2014. Rossana is currently conducting research on Artificial Intelligence, the Future of Work, inequality and inclusive labour market. Before joining the ILO, Rossana worked at the ESRI in Dublin, the OECD and the European Central Bank. Rossana holds a PhD in Economics from the Université Catholique de Louvain and the University of Rome Tor Vergata.

RepEc profile: https://ideas.repec.org/f/pme425.html
ResearchGate profile: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Rossana-Merola

Recent publications:
Daniel Samaan is a Senior Economist at the Research Department of the International Labour Organization (ILO) in Geneva. He has been working on the impacts of globalization and technology on international labor markets. Recent publications include analyses on the effectiveness of labor provisions in free trade agreements, and research for the Future of Work Initiative of the ILO, discussing the effects of artificial intelligence (AI) on the world of work.
Miguel Sanchez-Martinez joined the ILO Research Department in May 2022. He is particularly interested in macroeconomic issues, in general, and related to the labour market, in particular. He previously worked in the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre as well as at the National Institute of Economics and Social Research. He holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the European University Institute. He has conducted applied research on several areas, including on productivity and macroeconomics and has experience in macroeconomic modelling and forecasting, as well as applied econometric analysis. He’s fluent in Spanish and English and has an intermediate level of French and Italian.

Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/miguel-sanchez-martinez-440bb73b
ResearchGate profile: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Miguel-Sanchez-Martinez-3

Recent publications:
  • Georg Duernecker and Miguel Sanchez-Martinez. 2022. “Structural change and productivity growth in Europe – past, present and future”. European Economic Review.
  • Miguel Sanchez Martinez & Martin Christensen, 2022. "Medium-to-long term macroeconomic effects of the COVID crisis: an investigation with RHOMOLO," JRC Working Papers on Territorial Modelling and Analysis 2022-11, Joint Research Centre, European Commission.
  • Fedotenkov, Igor & Kvedaras, Virmantas & Sanchez-Martinez, Miguel, 2022. "Employment protection and labour productivity growth in the EU: skill-specific effects during and after the Great Recession," Working Papers 2022-04, Joint Research Centre, European Commission.


Globalization, Competitiveness and Labour Standards

Marva Corley-Coulibaly is the Chief of the Globalization, Competitiveness and Labour Standards unit. Her current research focuses on trade, global supply chains and labour standards, enterprises and service economy. She also manages two research projects on labour provisions in trade and investment arrangements. Prior to joining the ILO, Marva was a Senior Economist at the United Nation’s Department of Economic and Social Affairs in New York. She also worked as an economist for the United States’ Department of Labor in Washington, DC. She holds a PhD in economics from Howard University in Washington, DC.

Recent publications:
Pelin Sekerler Richiardi has been a Research Officer in Economics at the ILO since 2010. She conducts research on labour market implications of issues related to innovation in firms, international trade, social protection, and inequality. Between 2013 and 2014, she was a visiting scholar at the University of California, Berkeley, where her research focused on developing multidimensional statistical indicators of welfare. Pelin holds a PhD in economics obtained jointly from the University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne and the University of Lausanne, Switzerland, where she also taught economics.

Recent publication:

Work Income and Equity Unit

Catherine Saget is the Chief of the Work Income Equity Unit with the Research department of the International Labour Office (ILO). She has led ILO research on the impact of climate change and environmental degradation on labour markets since 2017. Previously, she has contributed to the setting up of a unit on wages within the ILO and had worked on employment policies at times of economic crisis. She was the Senior Employment Specialist of the ILO Office in Delhi for a short time. As an Economist with the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, she participated in the OECD thematic review on youth employment policies. She holds a PhD in Economics from the European University Institute in Florence (Italy).

Recent publications:
Sevane Ananian joined the Research Department in September 2021. His fields of studies include inequalities and wage setting institutions. He previously worked as a wage specialist based at the ILO Cairo office, where he provided support on wage policies to African countries. He formerly served as an economist at the statistical service of the French ministry of labour (DARES), and acted as a rapporteur for the French minimum wage expert group.


Tahmina Karimova is a lawyer specialised in public international law, sustainable development, labour law and human rights law. She joined the Research Department in 2017; prior to that, she was the ILO National Coordinator for Tajikistan and a Project Coordinator for the ILO IPEC in Central Asia. From 2014 to 2017, Tahmina worked as a Human Rights Officer in the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. She holds a PhD in International Law from the University of Geneva (Switzerland) and the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies.

Recent publications:
  • Sustainable Development and Disasters” in Research Handbook on Disasters and International Law, edited by S. C. Breau, and K. L.H. Samuel, Edward Elgar Publishing, 2016, pp. 177-203.
  • Human Rights and Development in International Law, Routledge (2016).

Changing World of Work unit
Dorothea Hoehtker is a historian and Senior Researcher. She holds a PhD from the École des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS) in Paris and has previously worked for the German Forced Labour Compensation Programme (GFLCP). She joined the ILO in 2009 and is currently responsible for academic research and collaborations in the framework of the ILO Century Project.





Recent publications:
 ILO Centenary publications:
Irmgard Nübler is a Senior Economist. She is leading the research program on technology productive transformation and jobs. In previous capacities in the ILO she was responsible for developing work programs on Skills development and apprenticeship systems, and on Industrial policies and capabilities for job creation. Before joining the ILO, she was a Professor of Economics at the Free University of Berlin and conducted research, among others, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston and the Institute for Development Studies at the University of Nairobi. She holds a PhD in Economics from the Free University of Berlin.

Recent publications:

Nikolai Rogovsky is a Senior Economist. He has been holding a number of senior technical, research and managerial positions in the ILO, including Head of Knowledge Management Coordination Team (2014-2019). Prior to joining the ILO in1996, he has been an Associate Professor of Management at California State University. He also worked as consultant at Multinational Research Advisory Group at Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Nikolai has authored and edited a number of books and articles in the fields of HRM, cross-cultural management, CSR. He holds a PhD in Management from the University of Pennsylvania.

Recent publications:

International Labour Review
Aristea Koukiadaki is Managing Editor of the International Labour Review. Previously, she was Professor of Labour Law and Industrial Relations and Head of the University of Manchester Law School. Her research focuses on the empirical study of comparative labour law and industrial relations and on applied legal and policy analysis, with particular reference to collective bargaining, precarious work, enforcement of labour law and public procurement and working conditions. She has held visiting research and professorial positions in the University of Uppsala and ENS Paris-Saclay respectively. She holds research associate positions at the Centre for Business Research (University of Cambridge), the London Centre for Corporate Governance and Ethics (Birkbeck College) and the New Zealand Work and Labour Market Institute (Auckland Technical University). Aristea is a member of the Transnational Trade Union Rights Experts of the European Trade Union Institute (ETUI) and sits on the executive committee of the UK Institute of Employment Rights. Her research has been funded by a number of organisations, including the ILO, the European Union, the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions, the Economic and Social Research Council and the Leverhulme Trust. For a full list of publications, see here.

Her most recent publications include the following:
  • Trif, A., Paolucci, V., Kahancova, M. and Koukiadaki, A. (2023) Power resources and successful trade union actions that address precarity in adverse contexts: The case of Central and Eastern Europe, Human Relations, 76(1) 144–167.
  • Rasnača, Z., Koukiadaki, A., Lörcher, K. and Bruun, N. (2022) Effective Enforcement of EU Labour Law, Bloomsbury Publishing.
  • Koukiadaki, A. (2020) Individual and Collective Dispute Resolution Systems - A Comparative Review, ILO.

Esther Barrett is the Senior English Editor at the International Labour Review. She holds a degree in Modern History and French from the University of Oxford and an MA in Translation from the University of Geneva. Immediately before joining the Research Department in 2018, she worked for an intergovernmental commodity organization in Madrid, prior to which she was a freelance translator and report writer for various UN agencies in Geneva. In this capacity, she first came to the ILO in 2011.

Gaëlle Bossi is a translator and editor. She holds a diploma in translation and a certificate of terminology from the École de traduction et d’interprétation of the University of Geneva. She joined the Research Department in 2015 as the senior French editor for the International Labour Review. Prior to that, she was a freelance translator working for various international organisations and private clients and specializing in employment issues, human rights, sociological research and surveys. She also worked for the University of Geneva as teaching assistant.

Officers in the field
Ken Chamuva Shawa is a Senior Economist at the ILO's Regional Office for Africa. He supports the development and implementation of policy frameworks, leads the work on future of work, and coordinates regional research for the Africa region. His research interests include the macroeconomics of labour markets, saving and investment, industry and trade, debt, the growth-environment nexus, and agricultural policy. Prior to joining the ILO, he worked at the Catholic University of Eastern Africa, the COMESA and the African Union-IBAR. He holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Nairobi.

Recent publications:
Aya Jaafar is a Labour Economist at the ILO’s Regional Office for Arab States. She joined the ILO in 2011 and has since been involved in various country and regional level projects and activities. She has a solid knowledge of macroeconomic, employment and labour market issues in the Arab region and has developed and contributed to various research activities, including with other UN agencies.
Aya’s work centers on conducting and coordinating research and policy analysis, providing technical support on economic and labour market issues and contributing to the design and delivery of capacity building activities for tripartite constituents in the region. Aya has a B.A. in Economics from the American University of Beirut and a master’s degree in Finance and Economics from the London School of Economics and Political Science.