Landry Signé, PhD

Landry Signé is a David M. Rubenstein Fellow in the Global Economy and Development Program at the Brookings Institution. He joins the Africa Growth Initiative where his research focuses on the political economy of growth, sustainable development, governance, fragile and failed states, regional integration, and business in Africa.

Professor Signé is a distinguished fellow at Stanford University’s Center for African Studies, chairman of the Global Network for Africa’s Prosperity, an Andrew Carnegie Fellow, a 2016 Woodrow Wilson Public Policy Fellow, and a professor and senior adviser on international affairs to the chancellor at the University of Alaska Anchorage. He serves as special adviser to world leaders on international and African affairs.

Professor Signé has been recognized as a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader for “finding innovative solutions to some of the world’s most pressing issues” and as a Tutu Fellow. Previously, Professor Signé served as president of a strategy firm and as a visiting scholar at the University of Oxford. He also served on the board of AMPION Catalyst for Entrepreneurship and Innovation in Africa, Citizens Governance Initiative, and the United Nations Association of Canada–Montreal, and was appointed by a United Nations Undersecretary-General to serve on the Global Network on Digital Technologies for Sustainable Urbanization.

Professor Signé has authored many academic and policy publications focused on Africa, the global political economy, the politics of economic reform and foreign aid, emerging and frontier markets, institutional change, political regimes, state capacity, service delivery, and governance. Among those publications are "Innovating Development Strategies in Africa: The Role of International, Regional and National Actors" and the forthcoming "African Development, African Transformation: How Institutions Shape Development Strategy," both published by Cambridge University Press. His work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Harvard International Review.

Professor Signé holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Political Science as well as a master's in Political Science from Jean Moulin Lyon III University, and a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Montreal. Additionally, he attended Stanford University for Postdoctoral Studies in Political Science, attended the Executive Program in Leadership at the University of Oxford, and studied Global Leadership and Public Policy for the 21st Century at Harvard Kennedy School Executive Education.