Name Tim Cullen | Role International development | |
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Tim Cullen MBE is a former Chief Spokesman and Director of Information and Public Affairs of the World Bank and Executive Director of the Small Countries Financial Management Centre. He is an Associate Fellow of the Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford where he directs and teaches on the Oxford Programme on Negotiation, and a Senior Associate Member of St Antony's College, Oxford. He has, since 2001, been a Commissioner for the Financial Supervision Commission of the Isle of Man Government. and was, in June 2014, awarded the MBE for services to International Financial Management.
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Early life
Born on 23 March 1944 in Harlow, UK, he is the son of Brian Cullen CBE, who joined the British Embassy in Stockholm as Commercial Counsellor in 1957, and brother of Dr. Pat Cullen.
He was educated at King William’s College, Isle of Man, gaining his MA from Trinity College, Dublin.
Early career
After spending two years as an English teacher in the United States Tim Cullen held international media relations positions in the UK with Ford Motor Company Limited, which he joined in 1969. In 1973 he transferred to the American parent company in Dearborn, Michigan. Between 1975 and 1978 Cullen headed the International Public Affairs Unit at Continental Bank in Chicago, which was at that time the sixth largest bank in the United States
World Bank
Tim Cullen spent 21 years at the World Bank, initially as Spokesman to the Washington Press Corps (1978 to 1984), before becoming Chief of External Relations in the World Bank’s European Office in Paris.
In May 1990 he returned from Paris to Washington as the Bank’s Chief Spokesman until 1996 and from 1996 until 1999 served as Senior Advisor for the World Bank's external and UN affairs Vice Presidency. From June to September 1997, he took on a special assignment as the World Bank’s representative in Hong Kong. Between 1990 and 1998 Cullen was a member of the Joint United Nations Information Committee (JUNIC) and was appointed by the Director General of UNESCO in 2000 to be a member of an Experts Group on Information and Communication.
The original term – A dollar a day, which came into common use after the publication of the World Bank's 1990 World Development Report (WDR) was coined by Cullen, although the research that led to the figure on which it is based ($370 per capita per annum) was conducted by World Bank economist Martin Ravallion and other members of the WDR team.
Cullen was associated with transformation of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe to market economies, and played an active role in the World Bank’s work on the reconstruction of Bosnia. He is the author of Yugoslavia and the World Bank (1979) and co-founder with Professor Miroljub Labus, former Deputy Prime Minister of Serbia, of a company located in Belgrade which states its mission as that of attracting investment into and protecting the reputation of Serbia.
Post-World Bank
Since leaving Tim Cullen has been a regular commentator on World Bank affairs and a media commentator and speaker on the challenges developing nations face.
He managed the Asian Development Bank’s Water Awareness Programme from 2002 to 2006. Cullen also moderated sessions at World Water Forums in Kyoto and Mexico.
He was involved in the creation of the World Commission on Dams and co-ordinated the launch of its final report in November 2000. He advised the Independent Commission on Growth and Development (Growth Commission) prior to the launch of their global Growth Report in 2008
Governance and ethics
Tim Cullen is a Member of the Financial Supervision Commission (FSC) of the Isle of Man Government and Executive Director of the Small Countries Financial Management Centre which runs the Small Countries Financial Management Programme, a capacity building initiative which began in 2009 to bring together senior finance government officials from small countries for a two-week annual executive education programme.
He speaks regularly on the subject of governance and business ethics and is a Trustee of The Institute of Business Ethics which was set up in 1986, to encourage high standards of business behaviour based on ethical values and to raise public awareness of the importance of doing business ethically.
Negotiation
Tim Cullen created the Oxford Programme on Negotiation at the Saïd Business School, University of Oxford with Sherman Roberts, formerly of the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard.