Renowned Indian economist and Head of the Human Resources Department of the IMF, Kalpana Kochhar, will soon retire from the organization and join the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

The IMF announced that Kochchar, who has served the institution in various senior positions over the span of 30 years, will retire on July 30. She will take up the position of Director of Development Policy and Finance at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said that in her 33 years at the fund, Kalpana had led the team dedicatedly and worked towards fulfilling the fund’s mission. She added that Kalpana was very passionate about her work and always focused on helping those the fund serves.

As the Director of Human Resources of the IMF, Kochhar took care of the fund’s HR policies. She also handled the retention and recruitment of more than 4000 IMF employees from across 150 countries.

In the past five years under the leadership of Kalpana, the IMF successfully reviewed and modernized its compensation and benefits program. She also helped in implementing a large and complex human capital management IT system, which helped in simplifying, streamlining, and modernizing HR at the fund.

Apart from possessing excellent leadership skills, Kalpana is an accomplished author. She had carried out research on Asia, gender, and various development issues, which has appeared in various IMF working papers, staff discussion notes, and so on.