Iker Lekuona joined the Basel Institute on Governance in May 2019 and is currently Deputy Director of the International Centre for Asset Recovery (ICAR). He is a governance and anti-corruption specialist with over 15 years of experience at strategic, management, programme and policy levels for multilateral, civil society and private sector organisations. 

As Deputy Director, he is responsible for the overall direction and leadership of ICAR’s country programmes and teams in Asia Pacific, Eastern Europe, Central Asia, Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa. He is also a member of the Basel Institute's Management Group.

Prior to joining the Basel Institute, Iker was Head of Governance and Stability at the international development firm Adam Smith International (ASI). In this role, he oversaw, managed, and grew a portfolio of anti-corruption programmes worth USD 35 million across Sub-Saharan Africa. 

As a Governance Specialist for the World Bank in Uganda, he contributed to designing and delivering a portfolio of supply- and demand-side governance programmes. These included coordinating the evaluation of the Government of Uganda’s cross-sectoral performance for a USD 250m-per-year, multi-donor budget support operation; supporting the implementation of the anti-corruption component of the country’s largest social protection programme; and providing technical assistance to a civil society coalition monitoring government contracts in the education, health and road sectors. 

Moreover, Iker created and led the strategic research and capacity building departments of PODER, a non-governmental organisation whose goal is to improve corporate transparency and accountability in Latin America. 

Iker holds an MA in Social Sciences – International Relations and Political Theory – from the University of Chicago, a Graduate Minor in Human Rights from the University of Minnesota, and a BA in English from the University of Deusto.