Willem H. Buiter is an adjunct senior fellow at the Council of Foreign Relations. He is a visiting professor at the School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) at Columbia University and a member of the Advisory Scientific Committee of the European System Risk Board (ESRB). He also works as an independent economic consultant and speaker. He was global chief economist at Citigroup from 2010 to 2018 and a special economic advisor at Citigroup from 2018 to 2019. Previously, he was an advisor to Goldman Sachs International from 2005 to 2009, chief economist and special counsellor to the president of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development from 2000 to 2005 and an external member of the Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of England from 1997 to 2000. He began his career as an academic at Princeton University and has held professorships at Yale University, the London School of Economics, Cambridge University, the University of Bristol, and the University of Amsterdam. He earned his PhD at Yale University as a student of James Tobin. He was made a Commander of the British Empire (CBE) in 2000 for "services to economics."

Buiter was a member of the Supervisory Board of Robeco Groep N.V., Rotterdam, Netherlands and has been a consultant to the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the International Development Bank, the Asian Development Bank and the European Commission, as well as to many central banks and finance ministries. He is a regular speaker and has given talks to a wide range of financial and non-financial corporations all over the world and to central banks, finance ministries, and international organizations.

Buiter has been a regular contributor to the Financial Times and was the author of its blog Maverecon. He also contributes to Project Syndicate and VoxEU. He has written scores of technical refereed journal articles and contributions to volumes and has published six books, with a new one forthcoming. He has been on the editorial boards of several journals and has supervised numerous PhD students.