Dr. Raphael L'Hoest is Deputy Director General for Structural and Regional Policy in the Directorate General for Economic Policy of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Change in Berlin.
He is an economist and holds a PhD from the University of Cologne, which he gained after research fellowships at Harvard and Cornell University, as well as a Master degree in Political Science from the George Washington University (GWU). He entered public office in 1998 and has held multiple senior positions in economic, structural and financial policy that included service at the German embassies in Washington, D.C. and Bangkok, the Federal Chancellery in Berlin as well as the preparation of G7/8 Summits.
He is also currently a member of the Supervisory Board of the German Federal Financial Services Supervisory Authority (BaFin) and of the Board of Trustees of the FIW (“Forschungsinstitut für Wirtschaftsverfassung”: A German research institute focusing on competition issues). He is a Mercator Science-Policy Fellow at the Goethe-University in Frankfurt a.M. and a fellow of the “Atlantik-Brücke” (a non-profit transatlantic professional network). As a counsellor for the Friedrich-Ebert-Foundation he is part of the process selecting fellowships for talented students.
Dr. L’Hoest has extensive teaching and research experiences also outside Germany; o.a. in the US, Southeast Asia and the UK. He published various articles / papers and books on economic policy issues.