Eric Werker

Eric Werker is the William Saywell Professor and academic director of the PhD program at the Beedie School of Business at Simon Fraser University. Werker researches how less developed countries can build more thriving and inclusive private sectors, particularly when they are rich in natural resources, and how international actors can play a positive role in creating successful societies. He has written on foreign aid, private sector development, natural resource governance, non-governmental organizations, inter-governmental organizations, refugees, and Ebola. Werker teaches about strategy, policy, and global economics to MBAs and executives and has authored numerous case studies on companies and countries around the world.

Outside of academia, Werker serves on the Emerging Economy Task Force of the Province of British Columbia and is an advisor to the Liberia program of the International Growth Centre. He set up and directed the International Growth Centre’s Liberia program, served as economic advisor to the President of Liberia, was a member of the Centre for International Policy Studies study group on Canada’s sustainable development policy and the academic directorate of the Canadian International Resources and Development Institute, consulted to the NGO Conservation International on low-carbon development and to the US Government’s Millennium Challenge Corporation on foreign aid projects, and worked with the Refugee Law Project in Uganda.  

Werker earned his A.B. and Ph.D in economics at Harvard, and then spent nearly a decade on the faculty of Harvard Business School before returning home to Vancouver.