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Ramin Toloui is a Distinguished Policy Fellow at the ºÃÉ«App Institute for Economic Policy Research. His research and teaching are focused on global economic and geopolitical competition, financial crises, and critical technologies. He was previously Professor of the Practice of International Finance and the Tad and Dianne Taube Policy Fellow at SIEPR from 2017 to 2022, teaching courses on financial crises and the economic impact of artificial intelligence. 

From 2022 to 2024, Toloui served as Assistant Secretary of State for Economic and Business Affairs, shaping multiple dimensions of the Department’s strategy at the nexus of economics and national security. He launched programs to deepen cooperation with allies to strengthen global supply chains, with a particular focus on semiconductors under the CHIPS Act. He represented the State Department on the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), ensuring that inbound investment does not compromise national security and developing a new outbound investment security program to protect technologies like artificial intelligence. He oversaw the Department’s sanctions programs, including imposing costs on Russia for its renewed aggression against Ukraine. He led State’s engagement in the G20 foreign ministry channel and advanced initiatives on infrastructure investment, debt relief, and food security in developing countries. 

From 2014 to 2017, Toloui served as the Assistant Secretary for International Finance at the U.S. Treasury Department, where he was responsible for global financial markets, G7/G20 coordination, and regional and bilateral economic affairs. Toloui played a key role in shaping the U.S. government’s approaches to navigating Ukraine’s financial crisis, threats to Eurozone financial stability, Brexit, and China’s foreign exchange and market volatility. He served as an emissary during crises and negotiated agreements with foreign finance ministries, central banks, and international financial institutions such as the International Monetary Fund.

Before joining the U.S. Treasury, Toloui served as Global Co-Head of Emerging Markets Portfolio Management at PIMCO, directing portfolio strategy and trading for $100 billion in emerging market investments at one of the world’s largest asset managers. Assets under management in PIMCO’s emerging market business doubled under his leadership. Toloui also chaired PIMCO’s Asia-Pacific Portfolio Committee and served as a member of PIMCO’s Investment Committee in 2007-8 as the firm navigated the initial stages of the global financial crisis. Prior to joining PIMCO in 2006, Toloui started his career as a civil servant at the U.S. Treasury working for seven years on stabilization programs around the globe, including Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, the Dominican Republic, Turkey, and the Balkans.Toloui received an A.B. summa cum laude in Economics from Harvard University and an M.Phil in International Relations from Balliol College at Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes Scholar.