Luc Laeven (born June 22, 1974 in Klimmen) is a Dutch economist, director-general of the research department of the European Central Bank 2015–present.
[1] Previously he held senior posts at the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
[2][1] After having completed his undergraduate and graduate studies in econometrics and international finance in 1997, Laeven worked for a year as a management trainee in the Amsterdam and London offices of ABN Amro Bank.
[2] He then went on to study at the London School of Economics and Political Science in the MPhil in Finance program, before finishing his PhD in economics at the University of Amsterdam in 2001, with a dissertation Essays on Financial Intermediation in Developing Countries written under the supervision of professor Sweder van Wijnbergen.
[2] He was then brought in by Raghuram Rajan, the chief economist of the International Monetary Fund, to help build a macro-financial linkages unit in the Research Department of the International Monetary Fund, first as senior economist and then as deputy division chief.