Sony started out as an investment banker in India. After working with development charities, he then set up a think tank to encourage financial rigour in the NGO community. He has worked with or advised most of the major financial institutions in the world, including the UN, ECB, IMF, World Bank and European Commission, as well as many governments and central banks. He talks about the political dynamics, social and technological upheavals, and the banking and financial policies that shape the world, as well as what we might learn from developing economies.
Sony Kapoor is an economist whose experience stretches from central banking and investment to charities and policy makers. His focus and that of his think-tank Re-Define is to find a solution to the global challenges of economics, technology and sustainability, and to define the reforms required.
Having trained as a chemical engineer, Sony moved into business and started his career in commercial banking at the International Credit and Investment Corporation, one of India’s top banks before working in leveraged finance at Lehman Brothers in London and Aquila Energy. He then left the financial sector to work on reforming the financial system and improving public policy-making.
Sony has since been a strategy adviser to the ministry of foreign affairs in Norway, and to Oxfam, and has headed Development Economics at Christian Aid. He has been a member of the board of various international NGOs including Eurodad (European Debt & Development), the international Tax Justice Network and Stamp out Poverty. He has been a consultant on international finance and development at the World Bank, IMF, the European Parliament, the United Nations and several governments in the developed and developing worlds. He has also helped set up the inter-governmental task force on illicit financial movements and served as a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council.
Although an expert on a wide range of global economic and developing world issues, Sony looks beyond the boundaries of the purely financial to the bigger picture. He considers what measures policy makers and businesses need to take to ensure they are prepared for the future, whilst also playing their part in social and environmental issues. Within his international outlook, Sony is particularly informed on Europe. He was the inaugural Chairman of the Banking Stakeholder Group of the European Banking Authority, has served as a Visiting Fellow at the European Commission, and was a member of the panel advising the European Parliament’s special committee on the financial crisis.
Sony continues to advise parliaments, government bodies and social organisations around the world and is frequently featured in international media including the FT, Le Monde, Bloomberg, BBC, Sky and Handelsblatt.