Karel Eckhorst is an Advisor in the Executive Boards of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank Group in 2012 and 2016 - current. He previously held positions in the Central Bank of Suriname between 1994 – 2016 and coordinated several intergovernmental workgroups. He was also a member of the Caribbean Economic Research Team (CERT) of research directors. He became the first Chair of the Board of Directors of the Savings and Stabilization Fund Suriname (SSFS) in 2019. At the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (UN-ECLAC) he was an economist in 2007.

Karel Eckhorst has lectured undergraduate and graduate level Economics, Econometrics and Statistics at the InHolland College and the Institute for Graduate Studies and Research (IGSR) at the Anton De Kom University of Suriname. He did his graduate studies in Macroeconomics at the Anton de Kom University of Suriname and Development Economics at the Erasmus University International Institute for Social Studies (ISS; The Hague). He authored and co-authored several papers in regional and international journals. He was Suriname’s chief negotiator for the IMF program and member of Suriname’s debt negotiating teams.