Economist An economist and senior vice president of the World Bank Syed Shahid Husain played a key role in economic assistance to countries in Latin America, Africa and East Asia, in his 33-year career at the international financial institutions. He joined the Pakistani civil service in 1956 and in 1963 joined the World Bank at the age of 42 - the youngest person to have been appointed a vice president of the institution, according to the World Bank. There, he introduced several innovations in economic analyses, which later would catch the attention of World Bank President Robert S. McNamara, who in 1974 made him vice president for Eastern Africa. Born in Patna, India, and grew up in Hyderabad, Syed Shahid Husain moved to Karachi, Pakistan, following the Partition of India, in 1947. He graduated in 1952 from the University of Karachi and received a master's degree from the London School of Economics in 1956. He also received a master's degree in economics from Williams College in Massachusetts, in 1963. Syed Shahid Husain retired in 1996 and served as an adviser to the Islamic Development Bank. In 2002, he was in Pakistan for a year working on tax reform. Syed Shahid Husain died of Parkinson's disease at his home in Bethesda, Maryland, USA.