LAGOM GROUP

DR. VINOD K. GOEL, CEO & PRESIDENT

Vinod K. Goel, a former World Bank official, is a leading expert on financial and private sector development, innovation and competitiveness. He is globally recognized for his pioneering work on R&D and innovation, including “inclusive innovation,” a set of strategies increasingly adopted by policy makers, multinationals, and development professionals worldwide to integrate the world’s largest socio-economic group – the so-called “Bottom of the Pyramid” – into national innovation systems and promote shared prosperity and growth.

Mr. Goel is as comfortable in the halls of government as he is in the board room, with considerable experience designing policy, regulatory and corporate initiatives, leading discussions with senior government officials and corporate executives, and proposing investment projects and taking them to the Board. He is also equally proficient in analysis and execution, having conducted numerous policy and sectoral studies and led the design and implementation of many complex development projects and initiatives. He also has considerable financial management and administrative executive experience; he was once the Chief of Financial Management of a World Bank department with over 450 staff, where he was responsible for managing over $150 million in budgetary resources.

Representative design, implementation, and/or supervision experience includes:

  • Design and implementation of national R&D and innovation policy: enhance intellectual property rights (IPR) regimes, devise inclusive innovation strategies, develop technology parks and venture finance programs; upgrade metrology, standards, testing and quality systems; and reform public and university R&D systems to promote applied research and technology commercialization (Turkey, India, Vietnam, Croatia, Serbia, Macedonia, Albania, Moldova, Ethiopia)
  • Reform of wide-ranging public and private sector (including banking) institutions: regulatory reforms, privatization, restructuring and consolidation, and other management and policy efforts to improve efficiency and impact while reducing fiscal burdens. (Philippines, Turkey, Russia, Croatia, Kazakhstan, China, Zambia, Albania)
  • Design and implementation of national development programs targeting micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME), inclusive businesses, cooperatives, micro- and rural-finance institutions, and agro-processing (Korea, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, India, Sri Lanka, Turkey, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Croatia, Macedonia, Poland, Albania)
  • Improve fiduciary management, monitoring & evaluation, and conduct industrial surveys, impact assessment and capacity building across a wide range of public, private & NGO sector institutions (Turkey, Croatia, China, Lao PDR)

Mr. Goel also led or participated in several policy and sectoral studies for the Asian Development Bank (ADB), World Bank, CAF-Development Bank of Latin America, Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC)/Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), and the Centennial Group (among other organizations) on issues including:

  • Reform of higher education, R&D, and innovation policy and ecosystems
  • Reform of public sector enterprises
  • Sovereign risk analysis
  • Industrial and infrastructure finance
  • Agriculture productivity and food security
  • Performance-based resource allocation for providing concessional finance to developing countries
  • Knowledge management best practices at global organizations- public, private and non-profit/non-governmental

He regularly presents at conferences and facilitates workshop discussions involving senior public and private sector officials, and has published numerous books and reports in his areas of expertise.

Mr. Goel is currently a Senior Consultant at the World Bank; Head of Entrepreneurship and Innovation Practice at Centennial Group; President of G2 Group, Board member and Treasurer of Centerline Biomedical Inc., and CEO and President of Lagom Group, an advisory firm specializing in international development. Outside his work in international development, he has served as a senior advisor, board member and investor in technology startups and small businesses.

He holds an MBA with distinction and a PhD from Cornell University, USA, and a Masters from NDRI, India.