Afghanistan PERSISTS (Private Enterprise Recovery Scale-up & Initiating Sustainable Transitional Solutions)

Melinda Good is Country Director for Afghanistan for the South Asia region at the World Bank Group. Prior to this, she was the Operations Manager for Pakistan. She joined the World Bank in 2005 and has worked in several leadership positions across the World Bank, including in South Asia.  Before joining the World Bank, she worked with the Asian Development Bank in Manila, Philippines, and the Millennium Challenge Corporation in Washington, DC. She began her career as a private-sector lawyer in New York and Singapore. She has worked in South Asia, East Asia, Central Asia, the Pacific Islands, and North America.

Zeeshan Sheikh is the IFC Country Manager for Afghanistan and Pakistan. Zeeshan has extensive experience of advisory and investments in emerging and frontier markets, with a particular focus on energy and transport infrastructure. He has worked across several regions including the Middle East, North Africa, South Asia, and most recently Latin America, Europe, and Central Asia, where he was responsible for supporting IFC’s operations across the region. Prior to joining IFC in 2010, he worked in London for several years in investment banking and private equity. Zeeshan started his career with PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP in London and is a qualified Chartered Accountant, also having an honors degree in Accounting and Corporate Finance.

Gabi G. Afram is currently the Practice Manger at the World Bank’s South Asia Finance, Innovation and Competitiveness Global Practice. He joined the Bank in 2005 as a Young Professional and has 25 years of experience spanning, financial and private sector development, banking, project management, and macroeconomic policy. His work has focused on financial stability and inclusion, long-term finance, insurance, remittances, competitiveness, investment climate, value-chain development, and MSME development.

Mohammad Sulaiman Akbari is Senior Private Sector Specialist at the World Bank. Since joining the Bank in 2014, he has led several lending and advisory projects to improve Afghanistan’s investment climate, export competitiveness, and agribusiness. Prior to joining the World Bank, he worked for Mercy Corps and Afghanistan Investment Support Agency (AISA). In 2013, Asia Society recognized Sulaiman as one of the Asia 21 Young Leaders from across the Asia Pacific region.

Andrea coordinates a portfolio of analytical, advisory and project activities in his role at the Bank. His areas of interest are microeconomic determinants of enterprise performance, business environment, access to finance, development of supply chains including extractive industries, privatization of state-owned assets and reform of pension systems. Andrea has extensive work experience at the World Bank Group working in the Europe, Africa, and Central Asia regions. Prior to joining the World Bank Group, Andrea worked at McKinsey and Co, where he advised top-tier European banks and financial institutions on credit and risk management issues.

Wagma Mohmand is an economist, who has been working for private sector development and investments for more than two decades. As the Senior Country Officer for IFC Afghanistan she manages the program in the country, monitoring developments in the Advisory and Investment service portfolio, developing the business pipeline and serving as a Liaison and Relationship Manager for development partners and the business community. Amongst her other achievements, Wagma was engaged in the establishment of the Afghanistan Investment Support Agency.

Suleman Fatimie has served in a number of executive-level positions in the public, private, and development sectors in Afghanistan. Notable positions include CEO of Moore Afghanistan, Harakat – Afghanistan Investment Climate Facility, and the Export Promotion Agency of Afghanistan, and Vice President at the Afghanistan Investment Support Agency. In 2013, Suleman established the Afghanistan Center for Excellence focusing on project management, and skills business development. During his tenures at AISA and EPAA, AISA was recognized as the 2^nd Best Investment Promotion Agency by the World Association of Investment Promotion Agency and EPAA was recognized as the 'Best Trade Promotion Organization from a ‘Least Developed Country' by the International Trade Centre.

Dr. Al Dardari is a well-established change leader and reformer, who is focused on economic development and conflict related political economy in MENA and Asia. He is currently based in Kabul as the Resident Representative of UNDP Afghanistan, a position he has held since May 2019. Before joining UNDP Afghanistan, he served as Senior Advisor on Reconstruction at the World Bank MENA Vice Presidency, leading a large analytical program to design and pilot a new approach to reconstruction in MENA conflict countries. Prior to joining the World Bank, Al Dardari served as Deputy Executive Secretary and Chief Economist of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA).  Al Dardari was dubbed ‘The Reform Engineer’ in Syria during his tenure as Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs and Chair of the State Planning Commission. Al Dardari boasts a wide collection of published studies, lectures and research in Arabic, Syrian and global publications on development, investment, trade and the environment.

Afsana Rahimi has extensive experience working at senior management levels in private sector chambers and NGOs. She also serves as a chairperson of SAARC Chamber Women Entrepreneur Council (SCWEC). She is a successful entrepreneur managing ‘Shayar’ that she has established in 2013. Afsana has been one of the awardees of the international women entrepreneur’s challenger in 2018 for effective business management and creating jobs, particularly for women.

Ali Kasemi is the Chief Executive Officer of Bayat Power and has a career background spanning two decades in the private sector. Bayat Power is Afghanistan’s only operating fuel (natural gas) power plant and contributes 300 million kilowatt-hours of domestic electricity to the national grid every year. Ali has held executive positions across various industries in Afghanistan over the last decade, some of which include Telecommunication, Power Generation, Energy and Media.

Jeffrey Grieco has served as President and CEO of the AACC since 2017. Prior to AACC he served as a U.S. Senate-confirmed Presidential appointee as Assistant Administrator at the U.S. Agency for International Development/U.S. Department of State. In addition, Mr. Grieco serves as an independent foreign policy consultant with senior leadership experience within the U.S. Government and private sector providing a unique mix foreign policy, national security, international business development, Congressional and public affairs and international assistance. 

Mansoor Majid is among successful businessmen in Afghanistan who has also worked with public sector and international organizations. He is a visionary entrepreneur with more than 20 years of experience in establishing and investing successful business in Afghanistan such as Clarks, Chicking, Turkish Hyper Market etc. Mansoor is also the Board member of Harakat, an organization that aims to improve Afghanistan's business environment. His contribution to business and industry has been widely recognized and he has received numerous awards and recognitions for them.

Mohammad Shoaib Barak is an Afghan entrepreneur from Kandahar and the managing director of Barak Group. He has extensive experience working across many different industries in Afghanistan since early 2000 and is a prominent businessman, he owns companies in the infrastructure, construction, mining, and food processing industries. Barak initially started working as a construction contractor for the United States and their NATO allies and later for the government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan.

Michelle Morgan oversees DAI’s Afghanistan Management Unit, delivering programs in Afghanistan and managing risks in the new operating environment. She has worked in Afghanistan for the last 14 years focusing on private sector led economic growth programs. She has dedicated a career of nearly 30 years to private sector development—building local knowledge, skills, and processes for market-driven, sustainable economic growth. More recently, her work has focused on product development, export marketing, and employment creation across a wide range of value chains, along with women’s economic empowerment and application of technology in development delivery.

Saad Mohseni has built a reputation as an innovative entrepreneur. His organization, MOBY Group, has become one of the fasted growing, diversified media companies in South and Central Asia, the Middle East and Africa. As Chairman and CEO of the group, Mr. Mohseni has been widely applauded for empowering civil society, promoting accountability from governments and defending women’s rights. Time magazine recognized him in 2011 as one of the 100 most influential people in the world, in 2013 Foreign Policy named him among its 100 Global Thinkers, in 2015 the BBC identified him as one of 10 men globally championing gender equality and more recently in 2016 he was featured in the Business Insider 100 “The Creators” list.