Bert Hofman is professor at the East Asian Institute of the National University Singapore. He was director of EAI 2019-2023 and was a Professor of Practice at the Lee Kuan Yew School of the National University Singapore 2019-2023. He is also a Senior Fellow at MERICS in Germany, Honorary Senior Fellow at the Asia Society, and Member of the World Association for China Studies at the China Academy of Social Sciences.

Before joining NUS in 2019, he worked with the World Bank for 27 years, 22 of which in Asia, and 12 of which on China.  Mr. Hofman was the World Bank Country Director for China 2014-2019, the country economist 2004-2008, and the Chief Economist for the World Bank in the East Asia and Pacific region 2011-2014.  He also worked on Indonesia, the Philippines, Korea and Mongolia, South Africa, Namibia, Zambia, Brazil, Russia, and others.

Mr. Hofman also worked at the Kiel Institute of World Economics, the OECD and NMB Bank (Now ING).  He studied economics in Rotterdam and Kiel.  Mr. Hofman has extensive experience in advising governments around the region on a wide range of development issues, and he has published on fiscal policy, decentralization and debt issues, and China's and Indonesia's recent economic history. His current interests include China's future growth trajectory, technology, aging, and geopolitics and China-US relations.