Dr. Duncan Wood Bio

For over 35 years, Duncan Wood, PhD, has worked in the areas of international relations and policy. He is an internationally renowned specialist on the geopolitics of energy, supply chain policy, critical minerals, Mexican politics and US-Mexican ties. He has frequently given testimony to the US Congress, is a widely quoted media source, and has published extensively on a wide range of global issues.  He is the author or editor of 12 books and more than 30 chapters and articles.

Born in Kent, England, he studied politics at Leicester University before pursuing graduate studies in political science at McMaster University and Queens University, both in Ontario, Canada. In 1996 he received his PhD and moved to Mexico City, to work at the Instituto Tecnologico Autonomo de Mexico, where he became a professor of and director of the program in International Relations. After 17 years in Mexico, working on international banking supervision, energy policy and North American integration, he became the Director of the Mexico Institute at the Wilson Center in Washington, D.C. In 2021, Dr Wood was promoted to the role of Vice President for Strategy and New Initiatives at the Wilson Center and worked alongside the Board of Trustees to design a new strategic plan for the center.

Over the past decade he has served as co-chair of the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Transparency and Anti-Corruption and has worked closely with the WEF on energy policy.  He is a board member of Transparency International, Signos Vitales (a Mexican public policy research organization) and Foreign Affairs Latinoamerica, and is an editorial advisor to El Universal newspaper. He has been a Fulbright Fellow and a Fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS); an editorial advisor to Reforma newspaper; Technical Secretary of the Red Mexicana de Energia; a consultant with McLarty Associates, the Economist Intelligence Unit, Horizon and Eurasia Group; and owner of a speakeasy in Mexico City.

Dr. Wood will start his role as Pacific Council President and Chief Executive Officer on July 1, 2024.