Massimiliano Paolucci

As of July 1, 2025, Massimiliano Paolucci is the World Bank Group Country Manager for Albania, in the Europe and Central Asia Region. He is an Italian national with more than twenty years of economic development experience.

Prior to his current assignment, Mr. Paolucci served as World Bank Country Manager for Kosovo and North Macedonia, and prior to that 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 has an extensive carrier with World Bank Group, serving different roles such as the World Bank Group Special Representative to the European Institutions, NATO, the Kingdom of Belgium and the Grand-Duchy of Luxembourg.

He also served as Senior Country Officer for Brazil and several Caribbean countries as well as worked on and resided in the Dominican Republic and Haiti.

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.