LJD Week 2023 | Catalyzing Private Investment for Sustainable Infrastructure: The Role for MDBs

Anna Bjerde has been the World Bank’s Managing Director for Operations since April 3, 2023. The Office of the Managing Director brings together World Bank operations, comprising an active portfolio of 1,768 projects to a value of $323 billion as of end FY23. Prior to assuming the role of Managing Director, Ms. Bjerde had served, amongst others, as Vice President for Europe and Central Asia, Director of Strategy and Operations for the Middle East and North Africa Region, Director of Strategy and Operations in the Europe and Central Asia. Ms. Bjerde has over 30 years of experience working in development across sectors and regions with a specific interest in inclusive growth and sustainable infrastructure development. She is a recognized and experienced leader with a strong track record of delivering large client programs, mobilizing resources, and forging strong bilateral and multilateral partnerships.

                    @bjerde_anna

Diana Wilson Patrick is the General Counsel and Bank Secretary of the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB), a multilateral development financing institution providing development finance to 19 borrowing members in the English, French, and Dutch speaking Caribbean. As the Bank's chief legal advisor and member of its Executive Management, she provides legal support in all areas of the Bank’s work, including promoting private and public investment in the Caribbean region and mobilizing financial resources from within and outside the region for the Bank's lending program. She also leads the Secretariat function for the Bank’s Directors and Governors and on membership and external relations. Prior to joining CDB, Mrs. Wilson Patrick was a partner at Lex Caribbean, a regional law firm, where her primary practice was corporate finance, capital markets and mergers and acquisitions. Mrs. Wilson Patrick is a regular speaker at industry events and has written for several journals, including co-authoring several editions of “The Euromoney Emerging Markets Handbook”.

                    @Caribank

As Vice-President and General Counsel of IFC, Ramit Nagpal serves as the principal advisor for IFC’s Managing Director, Management Team, and Board of Directors on all legal, business risk and compliance matters. In this role, he oversees IFC’s Legal Department, Business Risk and Compliance Department, and the Nominee Directorship Center. Mr. Nagpal brings more than 35 years of legal experience, most recently as Managing Director, Deputy General Counsel at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). In that capacity, he led the Office of General Counsel’s work on corporate and institutional matters, donor partnerships, legal transition as well as the legal support for EBRD’s treasury operations. Prior to joining EBRD, he had been Deputy General Counsel at the Asian Development Bank. Mr. Nagpal also has an extensive experience in the private sector, including at American Express and as partner at one of India’s largest law firms.

                    @IFC_org

Katherine Meighan is Associate Vice-President, General Counsel, and United Nations Assistant Secretary-General at IFAD. As part of IFAD’s senior management team, Ms. Meighan sets the Fund’s strategy to double its impact for the rural poor while scaling up climate adaptation, private sector lending, and IT for development. She leads complex initiatives including amending IFAD’s Articles to enable private sector lending, lending to sub-national entities, creating a unique impact investment fund for small farmers, and attaining IFAD’s historic AA+ credit rating (as the first UN fund to be rated). While serving as IFAD Acting CFO, Ms. Meighan led IFAD’s legal and finance teams on the inaugural bond issuances for the institution, the largest framework loan in IFAD’s history. Before joining IFAD, she had been Assistant General Counsel at IFC. Beforehand, she had practiced law with a global firm in Washington and Paris focusing on international transactions and capital markets work for financial institutions.

                    @MeighanKatie                    @IFAD                    linkedin

Jorge Familiar is Vice President and Treasurer of the World Bank. He also serves as the Pension Finance Administrator of the World Bank Group. He assumed these roles on January 1, 2022. Before joining the World Bank Treasury, Mr. Familiar served in multiple roles in the World Bank Group as a member of the Board of Executive Directors; Vice President for the Latin America and Caribbean Region; WBG Corporate Secretary; and Vice President for Finance and WBG Controller. Earlier in his career, he was CEO of Mexico’s Instituto Fonacot, a government-owned institution focused on financial inclusion, and Vice-Chair of Securities and Derivatives Markets Supervision at the Comisión Nacional Bancaria y de Valores, a government agency in Mexico. Starting January 2022, Mr. Familiar is a Trustee at the IFRS Foundation, a public interest organization established to develop a single set of high-quality, understandable, enforceable, and globally accepted accounting and sustainability disclosure standards.

                    @Familiar_BM