Meeting Schedules

Director of Middle East and Central Asia Department, IMF

Mr. Jihad Azour is the Director of the Middle East and Central Asia Department at the International Monetary Fund where he oversees the Fund’s work in the Middle East, North Africa, Central Asia and Caucasus. Mr. Azour served as Lebanon’s Finance Minister in 2005-08, during which time he coordinated the implementation of important reforms, including modernizing the country’s tax and customs systems. Before and since his time as finance minister, he held a wide range of positions in the private sector, including McKinsey and Booz and Co. where he was a Vice-President and Senior Executive Advisor. Prior to joining the IMF in March 2017, he was a Managing Partner at investment firm Inventis Partners. Mr. Azour holds a PhD in International Finance and a post-graduate degree in International Economics and Finance, both from the Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris. He also did research on emerging economies and their integration into the global economy as a post-doctoral fellow at Harvard. Mr. Azour has published several books and articles on economic and financial issues and taught extensively.

Interim President, Global Policy & Advocacy
Gates Foundation

Kalpana Kochhar leads the foundation’s work in international political and economic affairs, overseeing relationships with governments, intergovernmental organizations, advocates, and philanthropic partners worldwide.

Kalpana previously served as director of the Development Policy and Finance team, a group of economists and development finance experts working to ensure that the foundation’s global policy and advocacy work is informed by strong economic and financial analysis and insights, resonant with emerging trends, and connected to key decision-makers.

Before joining the foundation in 2021, Kalpana spent 33 years at the International Monetary Fund (IMF), where her most recent position was director of the Human Resources Department. She also served as deputy director of the Asia and Pacific Department, working on programs and issues related to India, China, Korea, Japan, and several other Asian countries, and as deputy director of the Strategy, Policy, and Review Department, where she launched the IMF’s work on gender and women’s economic empowerment. From 2010 to 2012, she was seconded to the World Bank as its chief economist for the South Asia region.

Kalpana’s research interests and publications have focused on emerging markets, including India and China; jobs and inclusive growth; gender and inequality issues; structural reforms; and regional integration in South Asia.

She has an M.A. and Ph.D. in economics from Brown University and an M.A. in economics from the Delhi School of Economics in India. She has a B.A in economics from Madras University in India.

First Vice President and Head of Client Services Group of European Bank for Reconstruction and Development

Greg Guyett is the EBRD’s First Vice President and Head of its Client Services Group, which encompasses the Banking and Policy and Partnerships departments. Mr. Guyett joined the Bank in September 2025, and has overall responsibility for implementing the EBRD's Banking and Policy objectives, ensuring that investments, policy engagement, and advisory services deliver the maximum transition impact in the economies where the EBRD works.

Senior Partner at SouthBridge Group and Chief Executive Officer of SouthBridge Investments.

Dr Frannie is an accomplished finance, investment and development leader with extensive international experience across the private, public and non-profit sectors. She has held senior executive roles at the World Bank Group, African Development Bank and Trade and Development Bank, and has led the transformation of complex organizations. She is a Senior Partner at SouthBridge Group and Chief Executive Officer of SouthBridge Investments. She brings to the Board deep expertise in African markets, asset management, development finance, risk oversight and corporate governance.

Southeast Asia Bureau Chief, Wall Street Journal

Gabriele Steinhauser is The Wall Street Journal’s Southeast Asia bureau chief. Based in Singapore, she manages the Journal's coverage of the 11 countries that make up the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and writes about geo- and national politics, economics and anything else interesting happening here. Recently, much of her reporting has focused on the global scam industry, especially on the power players and systems that drive its expansion. Before that, Gabriele covered sub-Saharan Africa for eight years, most recently as the Journal’s Africa bureau chief. Based in Johannesburg, she chronicled the fall of some of Africa’s longest-serving leaders, the economic and social fallout of the coronavirus pandemic and a surge in new and old conflicts, focusing on the impact on civilians.