International Network for Economics and Conflict

Ian Gary is Senior Policy Manager for Extractive Industries with Oxfam America. Prior to joining Oxfam in 2005, Ian was Strategic Issues Advisor – Extractive Industries at Catholic Relief Services (CRS) from 1999 to 2005. He has held positions with the Ford Foundation as well as international development organizations in the U.S. and Africa. Ian is the author of the Oxfam America report Ghana’s Big Test: Oil’s Challenge to Democratic Development (2009); co-author, with Terry Lynn Karl of Stanford University, of the CRS report Bottom of the Barrel: Africa’s Oil Boom and the Poor (2003); and co-author of Chad’s Oil: Miracle or Mirage? (2005), co-authored with Nikki Reisch and issued by CRS and Bank Information Center. Ian has been a frequent commentator on extractive industries issues in major media outlets including the New York Times, Washington Post, Financial Times, BBC, NPR and other outlets. He has testified twice before the US Congress and given presentations at the World Bank, Royal Institute of International Affairs, United Nations, U.S. State Department and Harvard University, among other venues. Ian was an advisor with the World Bank Extractive Industries Advisory Group from 2005-2009. Ian was a leading advocate in the Publish What You Pay US effort that culminated in a new US law requiring disclosure of payments from oil and mining companies to host governments around the world. He has conducted field research on extractive industries issues in Ghana, Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Mali, Republic of Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Angola, Peru and Cambodia. He holds a MA degree from the University of Leeds in the Politics of International Resources and Development and a BA from the University of Missouri School of Journalism.