Mr. Lu Mai has been the Vice Chairman of the China Development Research Foundation since 2017. Since 2019, he has also served as Secretary General of the China Development Forum. Mr. Lu joined CDRF as Deputy Secretary General in 1998, then served as Secretary General from 1999 to 2019.
Under his leadership, CDRF made significant progress in international dialogues, executive training, policy research and social programs. In 2005, Mr. Lu coordinated the China Human Development Report 2005 which received UNDP’s 2007 Human Development Award for Excellence in Policy Analysis and Influence. In 2009, Mr. Lu launched the One Village One Preschool (OVOP) program which received 2018 WISE Award. Many of his research reports were awarded as DRC Outstanding Research Report.
Before joining CDRF, Mr. Lu worked for a number of research institutions at home and abroad. From 1995 to 1998, Mr. Lu served at the Development Research Center of the State Council of China (DRC) as senior research fellow and deputy director of the International Cooperation Department, among other positions. Previously, he was a senior research fellow in China Business Centre at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University from 1993 to 1995. In 1991-1993, he served as research associate at the Harvard Institute for International Development and the Department of Government at Harvard University. Mr. Lu started his career in the Research Center for Rural Development of the State Council of China in the late 1980s, where he assumed a number of positions including the director of Experimental Area Office for Rural Reform, and played a significant role in China’s rural reform. Mr. Lu also served in the World Commission on the Social Dimension of Globalisation of the International Labour Office from 2002 to 2004.
Mr. Lu has received several awards due to his contribution in charitable activities and poverty alleviation. In 2011, the LGOPAD Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development (of the State Council) named Mr. Lu as one of the “National Pioneers in Poverty Alleviation and Development”. Mr. Lu was also chosen as “CCTV Charitable Person of the Year” in 2018.
Mr. Lu earned his MA in public administration from John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University in 1991 and his BA in economics from Beijing College of Economics in 1982. He was a distinguished visiting scholar at MIT in 1999, and a Lulu Chow Wang Senior Visiting Scholar at Columbia Business School in 2010.