Ian Gary directs Oxfam America’s global policy, advocacy and program work focused on promoting transparent and accountable financial flows – for example from oil and mining revenues, taxes and aid – to fight poverty. Based in Washington, DC, Ian leads a team of policy managers, advisors and researchers. Prior to joining Oxfam in 2005, Ian was Strategic Issues Advisor – Extractive Industries at Catholic Relief Services (CRS) from 1999 to 2005. He has held positions with the Ford Foundation as well as international development organizations in the U.S. and Africa.
Ian is the author of the Oxfam America report Ghana’s Big Test: Oil’s Challenge to Democratic Development (2009); co-author, with Terry Lynn Karl of Stanford University, of the CRS report Bottom of the Barrel: Africa’s Oil Boom and the Poor (2003); and co-author of Chad’s Oil: Miracle or Mirage?(2005), issued by CRS and the Bank Information Center.
Ian has been a member of the World Bank Extractive Industries Advisory Group; a member of the Global Steering Committee of Publish What You Pay; and a founding steering committee member of the Open Contracting Partnership. Ian has been a frequent commentator on extractive industries issues in major media outlets including New York Times, The Economist, The Guardian (UK), Le Monde, Washington Post, Financial Times, BBC, NPR and other outlets. He has testified twice before the US Congress and given presentations at the European Parliament, World Bank, Royal Institute of International Affairs, United Nations, U.S. State Department and Harvard University, among other venues.
Ian was an advisor with the World Bank Extractive Industries Advisory Group from 2005-2009 and was a steering committee member of the Open Contracting Partnership. Ian has conducted field research on extractive industries issues in Ghana, Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Mali, Republic of Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Angola, Kenya, Uganda, Peru, Laos and Cambodia. He holds a MA degree from the University of Leeds (UK) in the Politics of International Resources and Development and a BA from the University of Missouri School of Journalism.
