Mr. Massimiliano Paolucci is Country Manager for Kosovo and for North Macedonia, in the Europe and Central Asia Region of the World Bank. He is an Italian national with more than twenty years of economic development experience. Massimiliano Paolucci was the World Bank Group Special Representative to the European Institutions, NATO, the Kingdom of Belgium and the Grand-Duchy of Luxembourg, a position he has held since November 1, 2013.

Prior to his current assignment, Mr. Paolucci served as Head of the World Bank Group Office for Southern Europe based in Rome, Italy where he coordinated the dialogue with constituencies in Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Cyprus and the Holy See.

Mr. Paolucci also served as Senior Country Officer for Brazil and several Caribbean countries. As such, he coordinated policy dialogue with the countries’ authorities, authored country assistance strategy documents and advised on portfolio issues.

Mr. Paolucci extensively worked on and resided in the Dominican Republic and Haiti, where he served as World Bank Group Liaison Officer during President Aristide’s and Preval’s second mandates.

Prior to joining the World Bank Group in 1999, Mr. Paolucci served with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, McKinsey – Brussels Office and the Statistical and Economics Department of the Faculty of Political Science of the University of Genoa, Italy.

Mr. Paolucci holds a M. A. in International Relations and Economics from the John Hopkins University, School of Advanced International Studies (Bologna/Washington, D.C.) and a summa cum laude (top 1 tier) Master’s equivalent degree in International Political Science. In addition to Italian, his native language, he is fluent in English, Spanish, French and Portuguese.