Bangladesh’s Junaid Kamal appointed VP of World Bank

The World Bank has appointed Junaid Kamal Ahmad, a Bangladeshi national, as a vice president of the multilateral lending institution.

Ahmad will lead the WB’s Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) from April 16.

After Faisal Chaudhary, he is only the second Bangladeshi national to reach such a high position in the history of the WB.

“Ahmad brings to this post deep experience and understanding of international development and an exemplary track record of thought leadership and service to World Bank Group client countries,” MIGA said in a statement on Saturday.

In this role Ahmad will work to advance and enhance MIGA’s brand partnering across the World Bank Group and with financial institutions, private investors and development actors, originate and pursue meaningful, impact-driven projects and lead the Operations team to deliver on MIGA’s mandate of mobilizing private finance for development projects in Emerging Market Developing Economies, reads the statement.

He has been the country director for the WB’s India office since September 2016. He joined the World Bank in 1991 as a young professional and worked on infrastructure development in Africa and Eastern Europe. He has since held several management positions, leading the Bank’s program in diverse regions including Africa, the Middle East and North Africa, as well as in India and South Asia, and the Chief of Staff to World Bank Group President. During a part of this period, Mr. Ahmad was based in Johannesburg and New Delhi and in 2004 was a core member of the World Development Report Making Services Work for Poor People.

Through his career, Ahmad has focused on the role of service delivery in building and leveraging state capability and markets towards the goals of eliminating poverty, enhancing shared prosperity, and tackling climate change, said the WB.

It said a particular emphasis has been on the development of private-public partnerships in infrastructure sectors and with municipal governments and through them the mobilization of private equity and long-term debt from capital markets.  These projects were located across Africa, Middle East and North Africa, and South Asia covering the full spectrum of WBG’s IBRD and IDA clients.  As the first Senior Director of the World Bank’s Water Global Practice and currently as the Country Director for India, Ahmad has initiated and overseen multi-billion-dollar sector and country programmes covering finance, infrastructure, and human development. He is recognized for his strategic leadership of teams to impact at scale.

He holds a PhD in Applied Economics from Stanford University, a 2Yr-MPA from Harvard University, and a BA in Economics from Brown University.

The WB said Ahmad has been selected to this position through an international, competitive recruitment process. He will report to Hiroshi Matano, executive vice president for MIGA.