Dr. GILBERTO M. LLANTO, Ph.D., is presently the President of the Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS), the economic think-tank of the Philippine Government. His areas of expertise are Money and Banking, Public Finance, and International Trade. He holds an M.A. and a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of the Philippines. Prior to his entrance to UP, he attended the M.S. Economics Program of the Asian Social Institute (ASI).

Dr. Gilberto M. Llanto has been a Board Director of CARD Rural Bank since March 2003 and served as its Board Adviser from 1997 to March 2003.  As a professional economist, he has held various executive and technical (research) positions at the National Tax Research Center of the Department of Finance; Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (Central Bank of the Philippines); the Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Credit Policy Council and recently, the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA). He was previously a member of the Board of Directors of the Philippine Economic Zone Authority, the Guarantee Fund for Small and Medium Enterprises (now, the Small Business Guarantee and Credit Corporation) and the Philippine Crop Insurance Corporation (representing the Secretary of Agriculture). He was a founding member of the Microfinance Council of the Philippines (MCPI) in 1999. He is a member of the Philippine Economic Society, serving it as President in 2004.

In the past eighteen years, he has been a consultant on financial markets, microfinance, public finance and public economics to international organizations such as the World Bank (IBRD), Asian Development Bank (ADB), U.S. Agency for International Development, International Labour Organization (ILO), International Development and Research Centre (IDRC), Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and the Japan Economic Research Institute, among others. Being a research and policy analyst and international consultant, he has work and work-related exposure/experiences in the following countries: Japan, Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand, Myanmar, Indonesia, Singapore, Hong Kong, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Guatemala, Peru, Bolivia, Canada, Australia, United States of America, France, Netherlands and Germany.

He has authored, co-authored, edited and published various papers and studies in fiscal and monetary policy, agricultural and rural finance, microfinance, local government finance and public economics. To name a few, Risk-Based Supervision of Banks Involved in Microfinance, The Role of Government in Microfinance, Philippine Credit Policy and Microfinance Institutions: Some Lessons from the Latin American Experience, and The Role of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas in Microfinance.

He is a holder of PhD degree in Economics and Master of Arts in Economics from U.P. Diliman. He finished A.B. Philosophy at St. Francis Seminary.