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Renos Vakis brings behavioral science to the forefront of policy design, shaping how governments address some of the world’s most pressing development challenges. As Head of the Mind, Behavior, and Development Unit (eMBeD) at the World Bank’s Development Impact Department (DECDI), he leads an interdisciplinary team working across a broad range of policy areas to improve outcomes at scale. This includes human development—such as improving school performance, promoting healthier behaviors, and enhancing mental well-being and aspirations; government effectiveness and public institutions—by addressing service delivery bottlenecks, strengthening policy uptake, and increasing frontline accountability; and climate-related challenges—by supporting climate adaptation and shifting social norms around resource use. Through his leadership at the Institute for Economic Development (IED), Renos drives work on knowledge diffusion, impact analytics, and AI integration. This, along with his broader portfolio, focuses on scaling behavioral solutions, accelerating experimentation, and making knowledge more actionable, accessible, and widely used by policy and practitioner communities. He actively promotes the adoption of behavioral science through global advisory work, teaching, and speaking engagements with governments, development partners, and the wider behavioral science community. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley—and brings not only academic and policy insights, but also his skills in magic and music, helping make the practice of development more engaging, creative, and impactful.