John Calvin Williams Jr.

Mr. Williams was born and raised in Prairie View, Texas, the home of Prairie View A&M University, one of the most prestigious historically black colleges. He is a graduate of Kansas State University, with a dual major (Architecture Class of 1968 - and Philosophy), where he earned numerous academic honors, was a leader in student government (Vice President for Cultural Affairs, and Chancellor of the University Tribunal), and was the first African-American member at Kansas State University of Blue Key National Honor Society. After graduation from K-State, he joined the Peace Corps, where he served as a volunteer in Niger (2 years) and Morocco (1 year).

At the end of four years of service in the Peace Corps, Mr. Williams was recruited by Chase Manhattan Bank in New York City and entered Chase's Management Training Program, which then had the reputation of being the best of its kind in the banking field. At the completion of the program, he ranked second in his class. By virtue of his outstanding performance in the training program, he was given his choice of assignments to start his career at Chase. He chose to teach bank credit analysis at the Chase office in Paris, and thereafter was appointed Manager of the Training Program in Geneva, where he also served as Secretary of the Branch Credit Committee. From Geneva, he was assigned to the Chase office in London as a commercial lending officer in the Africa Trade Division, and after London he returned to Chase Headquarters in New York. Overall, he worked as a commercial lending officer at Chase for eight years providing trade finance for companies doing business in Africa. His last line assignment with Chase was to manage the Africa Office in Paris. For the last eighteen months at Chase, he was responsible at headquarters for strategic planning in Africa.

In the spring of 1981, Mr. Williams was granted a leave of absence from the Chase Manhattan Bank at the request of the Reagan administration to become Director of Special Projects for the Peace Corps in Washington, where his primary responsibility was to reach out to the U.S. private sector on behalf of the Peace Corps. Through contacts in Washington, he was introduced to the U.S. Executive Director of the IMF. This encounter coincided with the emergence of the first Mexican financial crisis, and by virtue of his in depth knowledge of the banking profession, he was asked to join the office. He worked as Assistant to the Director for two years, and for about a year, there were only two professionals in the office. This intensive involvement in the formulation of economic policy in the Executive Board of the IMF exceeded the equivalent of earning a PhD in Macroeconomic Policy from the most prestigious university.

Subsequently, Mr. Williams was invited to join the African Department of the IMF in April 1984. He had only expected to stay for two years before returning to banking, but the work was extremely rewarding, and offered an exceptional opportunity to beneficially serve Africa. Thus, he ended up spending twenty years on the staff of the IMF, and rose to the rank of Senior Economist. For most of his time on the staff of the IMF, he was the only African-American professional in the economist career stream.