Daniel F. Runde

Daniel F. Runde is a senior executive, board director, and global strategist recognized for his expertise in foreign affairs, international finance, trade, and development. With over two decades of leadership across the public, private, and nonprofit sectors, he has advised U.S. presidential administrations, Congress, foreign governments, multilateral institutions, and Fortune 500 companies on strategy, governance, and global engagement.

Currently, Mr. Runde serves as a Senior Advisor at BGR Group, where he provides strategic counsel on foreign policy, national security, and development finance. He also advises Deloitte’s Future of Ukraine Initiative, contributing to efforts to rebuild Ukraine’s economy through innovation, investment, and institutional reform.

He currently serves on the boards of Spirit of America, a nonprofit that partners with U.S. troops and diplomats to support America’s missions abroad, and the U.S.-Ukraine/Moldova American Enterprise Fund (UMAEF), a $150 million investment fund that supports small and medium-sized enterprises in Ukraine and Moldova. He led the UMAEF board’s engagement on two significant capital infusions, including gaining approval from the U.S. Congress and the Biden administration for a historic $135 million transfer of frozen Russian funds originally held by TUSRIF to UMAEF in 2023. He previously served on the boards of the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) (2015–2024) and the Ashesi University Foundation (2018–2023).

Mr. Runde recently concluded 15 years at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), where he held the William A. Schreyer Chair in Global Analysis and served as Senior Vice President and Director of the Project on Prosperity and Development, one of the most influential global development programs in Washington. His work at CSIS included co-leading the Ukraine Economic Reconstruction Commission and shaping bipartisan policy frameworks to attract private sector investment to postwar Ukraine.

A trusted policy architect, Mr. Runde played a central role in the reauthorization of the U.S. Export-Import Bank in 2019, securing bipartisan support in Congress and the Trump administration. He was also a key architect of the BUILD Act, which transformed OPIC into the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC), and helped design the Prosper Africa Initiative, advancing U.S. economic engagement across the African continent as a strategic counterweight to China and Russia.

He also served as Chair of two U.S. federal advisory committees: the Advisory Committee on Voluntary Foreign Assistance (ACVFA) at USAID (2018–2021) and the Sub-Saharan Africa Advisory Committee at the U.S. Export–Import Bank (2018–2022), where he provided strategic guidance on development, trade, and risk finance in emerging markets.

Earlier in his career, Mr. Runde led the Foundations Unit for the Department of Partnerships & Advisory Service Operations at the International Finance Corporation. His work facilitated and supported over $20 million in new funding through partnerships with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, Kauffman Foundation, and Visa International, among other global private and corporate foundations.

Prior to joining the IFC, Mr. Runde served as Director of the Office of Global Development Alliances at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). He led the initiative by providing training, networks, staff, funds, and guidance to establish and strengthen alliances, while personally advising 15 USAID missions in Latin America, the Middle East, and Africa. His efforts leveraged $4.8 billion through 100 direct alliances and 300 others through training and technical assistance.

Mr. Runde began his career in financial services at Alex. Brown & Sons, Inc., in Baltimore, and he spent several years working in finance and emerging markets at Citibank and BankBoston in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Mr. Runde is the author of The American Imperative: Reclaiming Global Leadership through Soft Power (Bombardier, 2023), which highlights the strategic importance of sustained American engagement in global affairs in a new era of great power competition and argues for building a new global consensus through vigorous internationalism and the judicious use of soft power.

Mr. Runde has testified before the U.S. Congress, as well as the Canadian and Australian Parliaments. He is a frequent speaker, media contributor, and former host of “Building the Future: Freedom, Prosperity, and Foreign Policy” with Dan Runde, a CSIS podcast series that has a catalog of over 150 episodes between 2016 and 2024.

Mr. Runde is a Life Member of the Council on Foreign Relations, a member of the Bretton Woods Committee, and a past president of the Society for International Development (U.S. Chapter). He has received honors from the World Bank Group, USAID, and national governments, including Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, and Spain.

He received an M.P.P. from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and holds a B.A., cum laude, from Dartmouth College. He is fluent in Spanish. He lives in the Washington, D.C. area with his wife and three sons.