Jean-Louis Sarbib

Director of Middle East and Africa, Centennial Group; Distinguished Fellow, Emerging Markets Forum

From March 2009 to December 2018, he was Chief Executive Officer at Development Gateway, an international nonprofit social enterprise whose mission is to support the use of data, technology, and evidence to create accountable institutions that listen and respond to the needs of their constituents and are efficient in targeting and delivering services that improve lives.

From 1980 to 2006, Mr. Sarbib was at the World Bank where he occupied a number of senior positions: Vice President for Africa, Vice President for the Middle East and North Africa, and Senior Vice President for human development.

Upon leaving the Bank and before leading Development Gateway, Mr. Sarbib joined Wolfensohn & Company, a private equity firm, as a managing director. He was a non-resident senior fellow at The Brookings Institution and taught at Georgetown University. He serves on a number of non-profit boards (Partnership for Transparency Fund, Feedback Labs, and Open Data Watch). He is a member of the board of governors of the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, and a non-executive director on the boards of the African University of Science and Technology, the Nelson Mandela Institution, and NOI Polls in Nigeria. Mr. Sarbib is currently chair of the ACET Advisory Panel for the G20 Compact with Africa.

Prior to joining the World Bank Mr. Sarbib taught at the University of Pennsylvania and the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and worked for the French Government.

In 2006, Mr. Sarbib was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso and received a Lifetime Award for Diversity and Inclusion from the World Bank. He received numerous honors from the countries where he worked.

Mr. Sarbib is a graduate of the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Mines de Paris (now Mines Paris Tech) and holds a Master in City Planning from the University of Pennsylvania. He attended the General Manager course at Harvard Business School.

 

Areas of Expertise:

Africa

Middle East

Strategy

Human development

General management

Past Experience:

Senior Vice President at the World Bank

Managing Director at Wolfensohn & Company

CEO, Development Gateway

Key Advisory Engagements

Senior Vice President at the World Bank

Managing Director at Wolfensohn & Company

CEO, Development Gateway