Simon Maxwell CBE is a development economist and was director of the Overseas Development Institute, the UK's leading independent thinktank on international development and humanitarian issues, from 1997 to 2009.

For 10 years Simon worked as a development economist in Kenya, India and Bolivia, before joining the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, where he worked for 15 years.

He is currently executive chair of the Climate Change and Development Network, and also works on European Development Cooperation, through ODI and the European Think Tanks Group. Simon Maxwell is a Specialist Adviser to the House of Commons International Development Select Committee. He is a past president of the Development Studies Association of the UK and Ireland. He was awarded a CBE for services to international development in 2007.