Woods was born in New Zealand. She attended Rangitoto College in Mairangi Bay, Auckland, where she was head girl in 1980.^[3] She then attended the University of Auckland where she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics and a Bachelor of Laws degree. She studied at Balliol College, Oxford, as a Rhodes Scholar, completing Master of Philosophy and Doctor of Philosophy degrees in international relations.

From 1990 to 1992, she was a junior research fellow at New College, Oxford, and subsequently taught at the Government Department at Harvard University before taking up her fellowship at University College, Oxford.^[4]

Woods was named inaugural Dean of the Blavatnik School of Government in 2011.^[5] Her research focuses on global economic governance, the challenges of globalization, global development, and the role of international institutions.

Since 2013, Woods has written monthly commentaries^[6] on economic and regulatory policy for Project Syndicate, an international media organization.

In early 2021, Woods was appointed by the G20 to the High Level Independent Panel (HLIP) on financing the global commons for pandemic preparedness and response, co-chaired by Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Tharman Shanmugaratnam and Lawrence Summers.^[7]

In late 2021, Woods attended the World Economic Forum's Great Narrative Meeting stating:^[8]

"The good news is the elites across the world trust each other more and more, so we can come together and design and do beautiful things together.

The bad news is that in every single country they were polling, the majority of people trusted their elite less.

So, we can lead, but if people aren't following we're not going to get to where we want to go"

She then went on to say:

“Tonight more European countries are going into lockdown just when they thought they had this pandemic nailed. Because guess what? You can’t nail it without addressing it across the whole world. So we’ve got this incredible opportunity while we’ve got people’s attention to reset. I think the big opportunity is to do a reset. A really fundamental reset.”

Woods is married to the American-born, University of Oxford professor Eugene Rogan. They have two children together.^[2]

Corporate boards edit

• Arup, non-executive member of the board of directors^[9]
• Rio Tinto, independent non-executive director^[10]

Non-profit organizations edit

• Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), member of the international advisory panel^[11][12]
• Mo Ibrahim Foundation, member of the board^[13]
• Oxonia, member of the academic and policy board
• Ditchley Foundation, member of the board of governors^[14]
• Rhodes Trust, member of the board of trustees (since 2009)^[15]
• Center for Global Development, member of the advisory group
• Center for International Governance Innovation, member of the board
• Europaeum, member of the board of trustees
• World Economic Forum (WEF), co-chair of the Global Future Council on Technology, Values and Policy
• Trilateral Commission, member of the European Group^[16]

In the past, Ngaire Woods has served as an advisor to the IMF board, to the UNDP Human Development Report, and to the Commonwealth Heads of Government. She is a former regular presenter of the Analysis programme for BBC Radio 4, and in 1998 presented her own BBC television series on public policy. She has also served as a member of the IMF European Regional Advisory Group.

• Woods, N. The Globalizers: the IMF, the World Bank, and their Borrowers, Cornell University Press, March 2006; ISBN 0-8014-4424-1
• Woods, N. The Political Economy of Globalization, Macmillan, 2000
• Woods, N. "Exporting Good Governance: Temptations and Challenges in Canada's Aid Program" (with Jennifer Welsh, Laurier University Press, 2007)
• Woods, N. "Making Self-Regulation Effective in Developing Countries" (with Dana Brown, Oxford University Press, 2007)
• Woods, N. (Editor) Explaining International Relations since 1945, Oxford University Press, 1996; ISBN 0-19-874196-0
• Woods, N. (Co-Author) Inequality, Globalization, and World Politics, Oxford University Press, 1999; ISBN 0-19-829567-7
• Mattli, W and Woods, N (Co-Author) The Politics of Global Regulation, Princeton University Press March 2009; ISBN 0-691-13961-X

• Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford
• Global Economic Governance Program