Karl P. Sauvant

Karl P. Sauvant (born 1944) is Senior Fellow at the Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment (CCSI), and Lecturer in Law at the Center for International Commercial and Investment Arbitration, Columbia University, New York City. He was also Lecturer in Law at Columbia Law School. He was Director of the Investment and Enterprise Division at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) from 2001 to 2005, where he also served for many years as Chief of the research section.

Sauvant is an expert in the field of foreign direct investment (FDI), working on policies that increase the development benefits of FDI flows. He is known for a number of international initiatives and contributions to FDI research and policy. In 1991, he created the ''World Investment Report'', a prestigious annual report on FDI and development published by the United Nations, and was its team leader and lead author until 2004. He is founder and Editor-in-Chief of the ''Columbia FDI Perspectives'', was co-founder and co-editor of the United Nations ''Transnational Corporations'' journal, and was founder and editor of the ''Yearbook on International Investment Law & Policy''. Sauvant established the Columbia Center on Sustainable International Investment in 2006, serving as its Executive Director until February 2012. He has published extensively in scholarly publications and books in the fields of foreign direct investment and development, international investment law and policy, and international political economy.

Sauvant has initiated and championed several important policy initiatives, including a proposal for an international support program to facilitate sustainable investment which was taken forward in the World Trade Organization, where it led to the conclusion of the Investment Facilitation for Development Agreement. He championed the establishment of CONNEX (Contract Negotiation Support), a facility assisting developing countries in negotiating better investment contracts, especially in extractive industries, where he serves as the Co-Chair of the Advisory Committee. He has also advocated for the establishment of an Advisory Centre on International Investment Law, which has been taken forward in the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) for the establishment of an advisory centre on international investment dispute resolution.

Sauvant is a Fellow of the Academy of International Business and was awarded a Distinguished Honorary Fellowship of the European International Business Academy. Provided by Wikipedia