Bertrand Renaud

Dr. Bertrand Renaud is an international consultant on urban development and financial markets. He was part of the initial team that developed policies for World Bank activities in urban development and later held various positions throughout that institution. His last position was Adviser in the Financial Development Department where he was responsible for the quality of World Bank operations in the development of housing finance systems worldwide. He was the first Head of the Urban Affairs Division of the OECD in Paris. He has worked on urbanization issues, the development of financial markets, and real estate finance in a large number of quite different countries from the largest, China, to one of the smallest, Seychelles. He led the first World Bank mission on housing reforms to China hosted by the State Council in 1988. He has contributed to other World Bank work for China since then. He also designed and led a major technical cooperation project on housing reforms and privatization between the World Bank and Russia, immediately after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Previously, Dr. Renaud was Professor of Economics at the University of Hawaii where he specialized in Asian urban development. He has taught and done research in the US and Asian universities, including MIT, Seoul National University, Hong Kong University, and the KDI School of Public Policy in Seoul, Korea. He has lectured on real estate finance and financial stability at Peking University. In January 2020, he was invited by China’s national television chain CGTN to give an in-depth interview on the outlook for cities during China’s present growth transition. He was also asked to present seminars on these issues at the Institute of the Market Economy that advises the State Council (China’s cabinet of ministers) and at Peking University.

He has published extensively and is the author or co-author of seven books most of which have been translated in multiple languages, numerous monographs, scientific papers, and policy reports. He has been a keynote speaker at international meetings in Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America. His two latest books are: The Dynamics of Housing in East Asia co-authored with Kyunghwan Kim and Man Cho, Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2016; and, International Housing Market Experience: Implications for China co-edited with Zhi Liu and Rebecca L.H. Chiu, London: Routledge (Taylor-Francis), 2019, with a Chinese version coming out in early 2020.

Dr. Renaud received the Donald Robertson Memorial Award in the UK for his work on the Russian market reforms of the early 1990s. He is the recipient of the Global Korea Award for his studies on Korean development. He is a Fellow of the Weimer School of Advanced Studies, Homer Hoyt Institute, USA.

Born and educated in France, Bertrand Renaud holds MS and Ph.D. degrees from the University of California at Berkeley, and an engineering degree from the Paris Institute of Technology for Life Sciences and the Environment, France.

Dr. Renaud loves to travel, especially with his granddaughter. He is an avid reader of science, literature, philosophy, and history, enjoys cultural exchanges with friends over the internet, listens to music, attends performances and exhibitions, lectures, and parties! bmrenaud@gmail.com.