On the occasion of the 50th World Economic Forum annual meeting, Devex, World Vision and UNICEF hosted an interactive workshop engaging donors, commercial investors, and private sector leaders for an important conversation on financing in fragile settings. During the event we looked at what enabling conditions and coordination mechanisms are needed to allow investors, partners, and governments to better collaborate, partner, and invest in these settings.
Charlotte Petri Gornitzka took up her role as Assistant Secretary-General and UNICEF Deputy Executive Director, Partnerships, on 15 October 2018. Ms. Gornitzka, who served as the Chair of the Development Assistance Committee at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) prior to her appointment, brings to the position 20 years of experience in international development. She has successfully built innovative partnerships with leaders from civil society, national governments and the private sector to deliver programme results and influence critical policy changes.
S. Vijay Iyer is Vice President and COO at the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), the political risk insurance and credit enhancement arm of the World Bank Group. He is responsible for overseeing the Guarantee Operations Group of the Agency and leading the Agency’s partnerships with the World Bank Group, other Multi and Bilateral institutions and Governments. Iyer served at the World Bank Group between 1993 and 2015, where he has held various positions, including Sector Manager, Africa Energy; Director, Sustainable Energy and Extractives; and Senior Adviser, Infrastructure. He joined MIGA from Rio Tinto, a leading global metal and mining company, where he served as Managing Director in India for the past three years. Iyer previously had important positions in public administration and economic development as a member of the Indian Administrative Services, and experience in banking and private industry. He holds MS Chemistry from Jabalpur University India, and a Masters in Management from Yale University.
Louise is the global co-lead for Accenture Development Partnerships, dedicated to guiding clients and driving societal impact. She has a deep understanding of the UN Sustainable Development Goals and a particular expertise in cross-sector partnerships between civil society and the private sector. Louise is based in London.
In his role as Editorial Director Richard oversees content for digital series, reports and events, leading a talented team of writers and editors, conducting high-level video interviews and moderating panels at events. Previously partnerships editor and an associate editor at Devex, Richard brings to bear 15 years of experience as an editor in institutional communications, public affairs and international development. Based in Barcelona, his development experience includes stints in the Dominican Republic, Argentina and Ecuador, as well as extensive work travel in Africa and Asia.
Henry is a member of the investment team at Capricorn Investment Group, a firm born from the desire to demonstrate the huge investment potential that resides in breakthrough commercial solutions to the world’s most pressing problems, and as such is one of the original impact investors. At Capricorn, Henry helps catalyze capital towards the solutions to the climate change crisis. Prior to Capricorn, Henry was a strategy consultant with the Boston Consulting Group in Paris, Casablanca and Dubai and with Oliver Wyman in New York. His last year as a consultant was spent with the World Economic Forum where he was in charge of the infrastructure finance initiative, a project aimed at rapidly scaling up essential infrastructure, including renewable energy, in emerging countries. Henry is a former captain in the French Marine Infantry, serving within NATO forces in Afghanistan in 2007. He is a graduate of Ecole Normale Superieure (rue d’Ulm), of Ecole Superieur de Commerce de Paris and of the Saint-Cyr Special Military School (ROTC).
Ivo is Swiss Re's Managing Director for public sector business across Europe, Middle East and Africa and is based in Zurich. He also leads Swiss Re's development of new public sector and micro insurance products globally. He started his career as specialist for natural hazards in 1998 and held various key positions at Swiss Re over the past 19 years, including Head of Sustainability & Emerging Risk Management, Managing Director of Corporate Strategy and Managing Director of Enterprise Steering, reporting directly to the CEO. He co-established Global Partnerships in 2011 and led the organization's emerging market strategy efforts as well as its business activities with the public sector across Asia-Pacific from Singapore until 2015. He then served as client executive for global accounts and business development activities with governments, development and non-governmental organisations until mid-2017.
Jonathan Papoulidis is the Executive Advisor on Fragile Contexts at World Vision where he provides leadership on the Agency’s U.S. policy, programming and partnerships for fragile states. He has held appointments as Visiting Scholar at Stanford University's Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies and York University's Centre for Refugee Studies. He previously served with the United Nations, including in Indonesia as UN Coordinator for Aceh and UN Security Coordinator for Sumatra; in Liberia with the UN peacekeeping mission where he was an advisor on relief, recovery and governance to the UN Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General; in Turkey as UN OCHA senior representative preparing for the 2003 Iraq response and at UN Headquarters focusing on the protection of civilians, conflict prevention, private sector partnerships and post-crisis transitional planning. He has written for the Brookings Institution, OECD, Harvard International Review, Yale Journal of International Affairs, DevEx, New Humanitarian and the Cambridge Review of International Affairs. He has a Masters in International Relations from the University of Cambridge.