Tomas Plaza Reneses (BA International Relations 2015)

Catching up with Tomas Plaza Reneses (BA International Relations 2015)

Tomas Plaza Reneses (BA International Relations 2015) is a Health, Nutrition and Population Consultant with The World Bank in Washington DC, US.  Here he reflects on the highlights of his time at Exeter and how the skills and experiences it gave him have helped in him in his career to date.

‌‌"Coming from Madrid, Spain, where I grew up and attended school, I chose Exeter due to the size of the city, which I always felt was perfect for students, and for the high quality of the courses offered. My programme included a year of study abroad that I spent in Aix-en-Provence, France. This was an outstanding opportunity to experience student life in a different country, study new subjects and make friends that I still keep in close contact with. In Exeter, I enjoyed classes with innovative teaching methods or exercises, such as a very detailed simulation of Arab-Israeli peace talks that was organized as part of course on this topic. Finally, I felt fortunate that my programme allowed for a huge variety of modules to choose from, which allowed me to explore interesting courses such as Political Philosophy, American Politics and History of the Middle East.

I studied International Relations at Exeter, with the idea of going into either diplomacy or international development. By my final year, I decided international development would be more rewarding and a good way to develop a wider variety of knowledge and skills.

After leaving Exeter I completed an MSc in Population and Development at the London School of Economics. During my postgraduate degree I focused on issues such as housing, migration and health. After graduation I worked at the Organization of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) for one year as a Health Policy Consultant. I mostly contributed to work on Latin American countries (particularly Peru and Costa Rica) related to health systems and policy. I left the OECD for a fellowship program in the United States, Global Health Corps (GHC). As a GHC fellow, I worked at the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) in Washington DC as a Social Protection and Health Consultant. I worked on Latin American health policy focusing on a regional study on health systems efficiency and institutions, as well as some work on specific countries such as Uruguay and Barbados. I also did some work on the economic impact of ageing. After IDB, I joined the World Bank which is where I currently work. At the moment, I have just finished coordinating a regional publication on health systems status and their progress towards Universal Health Coverage and the Sustainable Development Goals. I am also part of the core team preparing and executing the Bank's health projects in Honduras and El Salvador, and in recent months I have been busy working with countries across the region to respond to COVID-19.

I have been fortunate in the fact that so far I have been able to work on the type of projects and environments that I always hoped for. In particular, I love feeling that my job has a real impact on people's lives, and that it is guided not by economic profit or chance, but by the needs of those that we benefit. I also enjoy the mix between technical and practical know-how that is required on a daily basis. For example, we regularly hold meetings with government officials to decide on technical project details, but these are always influenced by the reality of the institutions we work with. I enjoy the game of compromise that this entails. It is fundamental to keep an open mind and to always be willing to learn and re-evaluate one's perspective.

My plans for the future are to continue working in international development while specializing in population health. I would like to go on to do a PhD on this subject."

Date: 16 July 2020