Mr Jarmo Kotilaine | Chief Economist
National Commercial Bank | Saudi Arabia

Jarmo Kotilaine joined the National Commercial Bank (NCB) of Saudi Arabia as its Chief Economist in November 2010. Prior to that, since 2008, he had served as Chief Economist of NCB Capital, the investment arm of the NCB Group. Dr Kotilaine has built a high profile amongst the GCC business community and with the regional and international media. Dr Kotilaine previously worked for a number of years as an economic and financial consultant with a primary focus on emerging markets. He advised the Spanish stock exchange, Bolsas y Mercados Españoles (BME), headed the financial services consultancy of Oxford Analytica, a global strategic consultancy firm, and subsequently of Control Risks Group (CRG), a London-based international business risk consultancy. During this time, Dr Kotilaine’s main clientele consisted of banks, stock exchanges and financial regulators, some of which he has continued to serve as an external advisor. Dr Kotilaine studied economics and economic history at Oxford, Cambridge, and Harvard. He subsequently joined the faculty at Harvard where his primary research focus was the long-term economic and institutional development of Eurasia as well as on international trade and finance. His languages include Russian, German, French and Polish.