Dr. Frannie Léautier

Dr. Frannie Léautier, Senior Partner at SouthBridge Group and CEO of SouthBridge Invest-ments, is a highly experienced and well-known finance and development expert, with long-standing global experience leading and transforming organisations in the private, public and non-for-profit spheres. She had an illustrious career at the World Bank Group (WBG), where during her 15-year tenure, she held senior financial positions across the Group. Frannie was Chief of Staff to the President, and served as Vice-President for seven years of her tenure at the WBG. She was Infrastructure Director and played a critical role in the strategic work around the joint World Bank/IFC infrastructure products and played a crucial role in develop-ing the WBG’s infrastructure strategy. At the WBG, she won several awards for her outstand-ing support and contributions. She was Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer at the African Development Bank (AfDB) and chaired the AfDB Board for much of the time she was there. Dr. Léautier has held senior leadership roles at The Trade and Development Bank (TDB) Group, including Vice Chair of the Board, Special Advisor to the President before be-coming TDB’s first Chief Operating Officer. She also led the Asset Management business of TDB, including the launch of a unique product for trade finance in Africa.

Dr. Léautier is known for her skills in operational management, transformational leadership, resource mobilisation, working with complex multi-constituency gov-ernance structures, and engaging with the highest levels of govern-ment. She has founded several companies. In addition to her exten-sive career, Dr. Léautier holds advisory and governance roles on sev-eral boards, including the UN Foundation, where she is a member of the Board and serves on the Program Committee and Nominating Committee; Orca Energy Group, a Toronto Exchange publicly listed company, where she is member of the Risk and Audit Committee and chairs the ESG Committee; chair of the board of Norsad Finance Ltd; was member of the Executive Board at AZA Finance, a cross-border payments platform; trustee at ODI; chair of the Risk and Audit Committee of CFAO; and is a member of the board of Les Eaux Minérales d’Oulmes, where she sits on the Audit and Risk Committee. She is also Chair of the Board of FSD Africa and FSD Africa Investments, and a member of the Board of World Resources Institute (WRI). She was a member of the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Regional Advisory Group for Africa and has previously served as co-Chair for the Global Agenda Councils of the WEF on youth unemployment and also for Africa. In the creative industry and luxury sector, Dr. Léautier is emeritus Board Member of the Africa Culture Fund (ACF), and was on the Board of the Great Green Wall Organization Foundation. Other advisory board roles she has held include with MIT, OCP Group, African Economic Re-search Consortium (AERC) where she was Treasurer and chair Audit and Risk Committee, In-stitute for Security Studies (ISS), King Badouin Foundation US (KBFUS), and Nelson Mandela Institute for Science and Technology (NM-AIST).

She brings a rich experience in the insurance and banking space, having served as chair of the Audit and Risk Committee of the Board African Risk Capacity Ltd, a Bermuda regulated insur-ance company offering insurance for drought and floods to countries and now developing

specific products for pandemic risks, as well as her roles at the World Bank, AfDB and TDB. This is in addition to over fifteen years in infrastructure finance and over a decade in private credit and investment both on the advisory, executive and investment side with her roles as chair of Norsad Capital Ltd, FSDA/I, and in her executive roles at SouthBridge Group.

She has authored several books including “Leadership in a Globalized World: Complexity, Dy-namics and Risk”. She was distinguished professor at Sciences Po Paris, and has lectured at MIT where she developed a course on infrastructure systems. She has also been invited to lecture at Harvard and the University of Tokyo. She holds a Masters of Science in Transporta-tion, and a PhD in Engineering (thesis on Infrastructure Systems) from MIT. She holds a doc-torate in Humane Letters from North Central College and a doctorate in Law from Lancaster University, honoris causa.

She is a Councillor of the World Future Council since September 2019.