Olaf Merk

Olaf Merk is Administrator Ports and Shipping at the International Transport Forum (ITF) of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), an international organisation in Paris. As such, he directed studies on ports and maritime transport. Olaf Merk is the author of various OECD books including “The Impact of Mega-Ships” (release end May 2015) and “The Competitiveness of Global Port Cities” (2014). While managing the OECD Port-Cities Programme, he directed more than a dozen studies on port cities, including on Hamburg, Hong Kong and Shanghai. He has authored various port-related articles in academic and professional journals. He also is an assistant professor at the Institute for Political Science (Sciences Po) in Paris, lecturing on the governance of port cities. Prior to the OECD he worked for the Dutch Ministry of Finance. He holds a master’s degree in political science from the University of Amsterdam.