"The Institute of Sovereign Investors appoints Catharine Savage, Seema A. Khan, Ahmad M. A. Bastaki, Udaibir S. Das, Paul O'Brien and Kristian Flyvholm as board members.
Sovereign institutions are entrusted with a key fiduciary duty: to steward national wealth and public balance sheets with clarity on mandate, prudence and a horizon beyond the political and market cycle. That duty is being tested by a more fragmented world, faster shifts in capital markets and technology, and heightened expectations of institutional resilience, legitimacy, and public trust.
Yet the global support system for sovereign institutions remains incomplete. Practical knowledge of governance, decision-making, operating models, and institutional effectiveness is too often dispersed, learned in isolation, repeated at cost, or held by individuals rather than embedded in institutions.
To address this gap, the Institute of Sovereign Investors has been established as a public-purpose platform for sovereign wealth funds, central banks, public pension funds, and related sovereign entities.
The Institute is established with a clear purpose to strengthen the institutions that carry sovereign financial responsibilities. It serves to master excellence and innovation for sovereigns by sharing knowledge and experience. The Institute will, therefore, be a reliable partner for sovereign leaders and their institutions: a place where peer learning and knowledge can be shared openly and respectfully, where practical frameworks can be developed and improved, and where research is produced to inform real decisions rather than to promote opinions. To safeguard this mission and set a high standard from the outset, we announce the appointment of the Institute’s inaugural Board of Directors, which will serve as a collegium. Together, the collegium brings policy experience, sovereign practitioner depth, geoeconomic consciousness, and governance discipline to guide the Institute’s standards and early work program.
The Board of the Institute will comprise Catherine Savage, a leader in fiduciary governance and institutional stewardship, including service as Chair of the New Zealand Superannuation Fund and the National Provident Fund; Seema A. Khan, a lawyer and global strategy leader with senior experience across government, investment, technology, and emerging markets; Ahmad M. A. Bastaki, a global sovereign wealth fund leader, who had a key role in the formulation of the Santiago Principles and the Kuwait Declaration, while serving his country as Executive Director at the Kuwait Investment Authority. Furthermore, the Board consists of Udaibir S. Das, a distinguished senior fellow, policy advisor and international public civil servant for more than three decades whose work has shaped sovereign asset management policy and financial governance across economic institutions and national authorities; Dr. Paul O’Brien, former Deputy Chief Investment Officer at Abu Dhabi Investment Authority with senior roles spanning central banking, multilateral economic policy, and institutional investment; and Kristian Flyvholm, an institutional leader across sovereign asset management and central banking, including service as the inaugural Secretary General of the International Forum of Sovereign Wealth Funds.