Resource Persons Bios

(please click to view each speaker's biography.)

Mr. Aijaz Ahmad, CEO, Infrastructure Policy Development Facility, Pakistan
Mr. Francois Bergere, Secretary General, Mission d’Appui aux Partenariats Public-Privé, Ministry of Finance
Mr. Taziona Chaponda, Head of PPP Unit, National Treasury, South Africa
Mr. Denis Clarke, Chief Investment Officer, International Finance Corporation
Mr. René Cornejo, Head, Proinversión, Peru
Mr. Filip Drapak, Chairman, PPP Centrum, Czech Republic
Mr. Edward Farquharson, Project Director, International Department, Partnerships UK
Mr. Alexander Fleming, Sector Manager, Finance & Private Sector Development Division, World Bank Institute
Mr. Richard Foster, Acting Head, Department of Treasury and Finance, Partnership Victoria, Australia
Mr. Jose L. Guasch, Senior Adviser, Sustainable Development Department, World Bank
Ms. Junglim Hahm, Infrastructure and PPP Specialist, World Bank Institute
Mr. Clive Harris, Lead Infrastructure Specialist, SASEI, World Bank
Ms. Obiageli Katrya Ezekwesili, Vice President, Regional Vice President
Mr. Conor Kelly, Head of Infrastructure Finance, DEPFA Bank, Americas
Mr. Norman LaRocque, Public Policy Consultant, New Zealand
Mr. Victor Litlhakanyane, Chief Operations Officer, Network Healthcare, South Africa
Mr. Laszlo Lovei, Director Infrastructure Economics and Finance, World Bank
Mr. Jose Luis Irigoyen, Sector Manager, Latin America and Caribbean Transport, World Bank
Mr. Hirohiko Machida, Director, PFI Promotion Office, Japan
Mr. Moazzam Mekan, Principal Investment Officer, Advisory Services, International Finance Corporation
Ms. Michele E. de Nevers, Director, World Bank Institute
Mr. Paul Noumba Um, PPPI Program Leader, World Bank Institute
Ms. Catherine O'Farrell, Senior Investment Officer, International Finance Corporation
Ms. Susan Tinker, Director Procurement Services, Partnerships British Columbia, Canada
Mr. Carlos Uribe, Chief, Ministry of Public Works, Chile
Mr. Jonathan Walters, Sector Manager, Middle East and North Africa Sustainable Development, World Bank



Mr. Aijaz Ahmad, CEO, Infrastructure Policy Development Facility, Pakistan

Aijaz Ahmad is an internationally experienced expert in privatization,infrastructure development and project finance. At present he is the Chief Executive Officer of the Infrastructure Project Development Facility, Government of Pakistan. Before this he was with the Infrastructure Economics and Finance Department of the World Bank, where he was involved in Public Private Partnership programs spanning from the Middle East to South East Asia. Earlier he headed the PPP Unit, National Treasury, South Africa, and helped initiate and roll-out the South African Public Private Partnership program. Before moving to South Africa, Mr. Ahmad was with the Private Sector Development department of the World Bank where he advised Governments in Latin America and South Asia on their privatization programs. Mr. Ahmad's career in privatization began in the early 1990's with the Privatization Commission in Pakistan.

Mr. Ahmad's sector experience covers Transport, Energy, Social Services, Municipal Services, Tourism and Banking. His country experience includes assignments done in Brazil, Costa Rica, Egypt, Kuwait, India, Indonesia, Japan, Jordan, Pakistan, Poland, Saudi Arabia, Solomon Islands, South Africa and USA. Mr. Ahmad is a Member of the Financial Management Association and was the founding member of the International Project Finance Association, Africa Chapter.




Mr. Francois Bergere, Secretary General, Mission d’Appui aux Partenariats Public-Privé, Ministry of Finance France

François BERGERE, 48, has a diversified professional experience in the fields of management, project finance and infrastructure as Senior auditor at the Cour des comptes (France’s national audit office), member of external audit teams for multilateral organisations (UNDP,WMO,UNHCR,OECD...);he worked as administrative and financial corporate manager, then managing director of technical subsidiaries of the Caisse des Dépôts Group in Energy and Environment from 1989 to 1997 and manager of multinational Investment funds in infrastructures in Southeast Asia and Europe from 1997 to 2002. In April 2005, he joined the “Mission d’Appui aux PPP” (PPP task force) with the French ministry of Finance, as Secretary General. He is a graduate of HEC (French top business school) and Ecole Nationale d’Administration (ENA) and holds a Master of economics from University of Paris I-Sorbonne.


Mr. Taziona Chaponda, Head of PPP Unit, National Treasury, South Africa

Taz Chaponda is the Head of the PPP Unit in the National Treasury, South Africa. He has also served at the Treasury as Head of the Budget Office. Before the Treasury, Taz worked as economist for the World Bank and as a Management Consultant for Bain & Company addressing private sector business problems. He holds an MBA from INSEAD Business School as well as a masters degree in Development Economics. Taz is from Malawi and has travelled widely across Africa, Asia, Europe and North America.


 

 

Mr. René Cornejo, Head, Proinversión, Peru

Executive Director at the Investment Promotion Agency - ProInversión since March 2004. He leads big infrastructure projects and some of his duties include the drafting of national proposals for the removal of obstacles, distortions and barriers affecting the production and private investment-related processes. He held the post of Secretary-Executive at the Mortgage Fund for the Promotion of Housing, between January 2001 and early 2004. Besides, he was Operations Manager and Development Manager at FONAFE (holding company of the Peruvian State business activity). He also acted as Director of Concessions Projects at PROMCEPRI / COPRI between 1997 and 2000. He worked as investment specialist for the Project of Labor Restructuring (COPRI / BID / ESAN) and financial advisor for the Special Committee of Privatization of Electrolima, between 1993 and 1997.

 

 

 

Mr. Filip Drapak, Chairman, PPP Centrum, Czech Republic

Filip Drapák is a Chairman of the PPP Centrum, company being created to act in the role of Public Private Partnership promoter according to the PPP policy of the Czech republic. Filip graduated in Finance in1994 at the Prague University of Economics, and since 1995 lectured at the University while his main engagement has been in the investment banking: in years 1995- 1996 with Societe Generale, later as the head of financial advisory of Komerční bank of Societe Generale till1999 and since 1999 till 2001 as assistant director in PricewaterhouseCoopers. After 2001 Filip advised Chairman of national Property fund of Czech republic and acted in several Boards of companies including Czech airlines, Mero, Skoda Praha and SME. Filip focused in his engagements on the energy sector and mergers and acquisitions, especially disposals of power plants, project finance for power companies and outsoursing in this field as well as issues related to corporate and public governance, infrastructure projects and financing.

 

 

Mr. Edward Farquharson, Project Director, International Department, Partnerships UK

Edward Farquharson is the coordinator of PUK’s international work and a member of the UKTI PPP export advisory group. He is currently engaged on PUK’s assignments in Europe, Asia and Latin America.Edward joined PUK in May 2004 from the Commonwealth Business Council where he led the investment team, advising overseas governments on private sector investment, including PPPs. His background includes over 20 years in debt and private equity finance in infrastructure businesses in the UK, Asia, Latin America and Africa.

Between 1991 and 2001, Edward worked for CDC Capital Partners and led the infrastructure team responsible for developing an equity and debt portfolio of road, rail, airport and port projects in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Prior to this position, Edward was responsible for establishing a successful debt and equity investment portfolio for CDC inSouthern Africa where he was based for 6 years. From 1983 to 1991, Edward was a member of the international banking team at Morgan Grenfell developing limited recourse project financing, including the Dartford Crossing, the Channel Tunnel and Woodside Petroleum North West Shelf gas project.

Edward Farquharson has an MBA from Manchester Business School and is an alumnus of London Business School and INSEAD where he has attended various management and corporate finance programmes. He has a degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from Oxford University.

 

 

Mr. Alexander Fleming, Sector Manager, Finance & Private Sector Development Division, World Bank Institute

Mr. Fleming holds the position of Sector Manager for the Finance and Private Sector Development at the World Bank Institute. In this capacity, he is responsible for the Bank's capacity building initiatives world-wide in the fields of finance, private sector development, infrastructure development, and urban economics. Previously, Mr. Fleming was the Sector Manager for the Europe and Central Asia Region at the World Bank, where he led the Bank's financial and enterprise development work in the region. He has held several previous positions at the Bank since 1980, including: Principal Financial Economist, Europe and Central Asia Region; Senior Financial Economist, Latin America and Caribbean Region; Senior Economist, Resource Mobilization Division; and Economist, Financial Analysis Division.

Prior to his work at the Bank, Mr. Fleming served as Economist and Group Leader in the International Division of hte Bankof England, and Lecturer in Macroeconomics and Monetary Theory at the University of St. Andrews, Scotland. He holds a Masters in Polical Economy from University of St. Andrews in Scotland; a Masters in Economics from Brunel University in London; a Ph.D. in Economics from Brunel University; and an LL.D. Honorary Doctor of Laws from University of St. Andrews, Scotland. Mr. Fleming is the author of numerous articles and working papers on macroeconomics, capital markets, banking, transitional financial systems, and financial supervisory structures.

 


Mr. Richard Foster, Acting Head, Department of Treasury and Finance, Partnership Victoria, Australia

Richard started his career as a lawyer with a large Australian law firm in Melbourne and Papua New Guinea, working primarily in the banking and finance field and advising both government and private sector sponsors on a number of major infrastructure projects. He then moved to a major Australian bank, where he held several legal and operational risk management roles. In November 2002, Richard joined the Department of Treasury and Finance (Victoria, Australia) to take a key role in the development and implementation of the Partnerships Victoria Contract Management Framework. Richard now leads the Projects and Contract Management team within the Partnerships Victoria Unit and since December 2005 has been Acting Head of the Partnerships Victoria Unit.

 


Ms. Junglim Hahm, Infrastructure and PPP Specialist, World Bank Institute

Junglim Hahm is an Infrastructure and PPP specialist for the WBI PPPI Program. She is working for capacity building programs in several countries including, Thailand, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, and she also led the organization of PPPI Days 2007. Before joining the Bank in 2004, she worked at the Korean PPP unit- PIMAC/PICKO for six years where she advised the central and local governments on PPP policy and projects. Her area of expertise and interests are institutional issues, procurement, infrastructure finance, and risk sharing.

 


Mr. Jose L. Guasch, Senior Adviser, Sustainable Development Department, World Bank

A Spanish national, Mr. Jose Luis Guasch is currently Senior Regional Advisor in the Latin America and Caribbean Region of the World Bank in Washington, DC responsible for the areas of competitiveness, regulation, infrastructure, innovation and technological development, and is also a Professor of Economics at the University of California, San Diego since 1980. He holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Stanford University, California. He has written extensively in leading economic Journals. Among his most recent books include: (i) Managing the Regulatory Process: Design, Concepts, Issues and the Latin America and Caribbean Story; (ii) The Challenge of Designing and Implementing Effective Regulation: A Normative Approach and an Empirical Evaluation; (iii) Labor Markets: The Unfinished Reform in Latin America and Caribbean; (iv) Closing the Gap in Education and Technology in Latin America ; and (v) Granting and Renegotiating Concessions: Doing it Right.

 


Mr. Clive Harris, Lead Infrastructure Specialist, SASEI, World Bank

Clive Harris is a Lead Infrastructure Specialist in the Front Office of the South Asia Sustainable Development Department. He leads the region's work in PPPs in infrastructure. At present he is providing advice to the governments of India and Pakistan on their national level PPP programs. As well as in South Asia, he has worked on the economic regulation of infrastructure and private infrastructure in the UK, Australia, Eastern Europe, sub-Saharan Africa, Vietnam and the Philippines and Mexico and Central America.

 

 


Mr. Conor Kelly, Head of Infrastructure Finance, DEPFA Bank, Americas

Conor Kelly is a Managing Director and Head of Infrastructure Finance, Americas for DEPFA BANK plc (“DEPFA”). Conor has over 15 years experience within the banking industry, the last eight of which have been with DEPFA where he has been involved in financing over $10 billion worth of Public Private Partnerships (“PPP”) around the world including the very first PPP financings in Japan, Korea, Portugal, Norway, Estonia, Ireland, Cyprus and more recently in the United States. Prior to taking up his position as Head of Infrastructure Finance, Americas, Conor was responsible for DEPFA’s PPP development in the Baltics, Iberia, Ireland and the Netherlands.

Conor’s experience in advising and financing public infrastructure projects is wide ranging and includes transportation (toll roads, shadow toll roads, rail & airports), health, solid waste, water and wastewater, prisons and education. Some recent examples of PPP projects that Conor has either advised or structured and arranged include the Chicago Skyway Toll Road (Project Finance North American Deal of the Year 2004), the Indiana Toll Road, the Pocahontas Parkway toll road (Virginia) (ARTBA Deal of the Year 2006) and the Golden Ears Bridge project (B.C, Canada) (PFI's Infrastructure Deal of the Year 2006 and the Canadian Council for PPPs Deal of the Year 2006).

 


Mr. Norman LaRocque, Public Policy Consultant, New Zealand

Norman LaRocque is a public policy consultant and an advisor to the Education Forum (www.educationforum.org.nz), based in Wellington, New Zealand. His work covers all levels of education and has focused on the regulation of education, education finance, student loans, education contracting and public-private partnerships. Norman has worked in more than 15 countries in Asia and the Pacific, Africa and the Middle East. He has undertaken consulting projects for a range of organisations, including the World Bank, the International Finance Corporation, GTZ, the Asian Development Bank and the IBM Center for the Business of Government. He is a Research Affiliate with the State University of New York at Albany’s Program on Private Higher Education (PROPHE)

Norman has a number of publications, including Contracting for the Delivery of Education Services: A Typology and International Examples (2006), Who should pay? – Tuition fees and tertiary education financing in New Zealand (2003), The Promise of E Learning in Africa: The Potential for Public-Private Partnerships (2003), School Choice: Lessons from New Zealand (2005) and Private Education in the Philippines (2000). He was also a member of the team that prepared the World Bank’s Higher Education Policy Note Pakistan – An Assessment of the Medium-Term Development Framework (2006).

Norman has an MA and a BA (Honors) in Economics from the University of Western Ontario (Canada).

 


Mr. Victor Litlhakanyane, Chief Operations Officer, Network Healthcare, South Africa


Dr Victor Letsoejane Litlhakanyane was born in Bloemfontein on the 7th November 1964. He is married to Sylvia and they have 2 children (twins) aged 15 years. Dr Litlhakanyane is registered with the Health Professions Council of South Africa as a medical practitioner and a radiation oncology specialist. He is a member of the Health Professions Council of South Africa and an Associate of The College of Radiation Oncologists. He received the Oliver Tambo fellowship in health leadership in 1996. With the advent of democracy he was appointed as the Chief Director for health service in the Free State provincial government in 1995. He was promoted to the position of Superintendent General and head of the department of health in the Free State from the 1st April 2001 to November 2004. He is presently an Executive Director and Chief Operations Officer for Primary Care, Diagnostics and Partnerships of the private healthcare group, Netcare.

 

 


Mr. Laszlo Lovei, Director Infrastructure Economics and Finance, World Bank

Laszlo Lovei, a Hungarian national, joined the Bank in 1986. He worked on water, transport and urban development projects in Malaysia, Pakistan and Indonesia in 1986 -1990. Starting in 1991, Mr. Lovei worked on energy and environment issues in Central and Eastern Europe. He managed the preparation and implementation of several investment projects, technical assistance activities and adjustment operations and the preparation and dissemination of major sector reports.

In 2001, Mr. Lovei moved to the Operations Policy and Country Services group, where he worked in the Vice President’s office first as an Economic Adviser and subsequently as the Manager responsible for Operational Delivery Management. In 2005, he was appointed as the Director of the Infrastructure, Economics and Finance Department. Subsequently, as part of an internal reorganization, this department was merged with the Urban Development Department.

 

  Back to the top



Mr. Moazzam Mekan, Principal Investment Officer, Advisory Services, International Finance Corporation

Mr. Mekan is a program manager of IFC’s advisory services for the Middle East and North Africa. He has over 15 years ex perience in the field of infrastructure investments and privatizations. Since joining the IFC in 1998, Mr. Mekan has worked on a number of transactions, including that of the construction and concessioning of a US$2.2 billion underground mass transit line in Brazil and the privatization of the Bucharest water and sanitation services in Romania. Mr. Mekan also led teams advising the Governments of Armenia and Georgia on the privatization of their electricity sectors. Currently he is advising a number of governments in the Middle East and North Africa on implementing private sector participation transactions in the water, electricity, and transport sectors. Most recently, he led the IFC teams for the success concession of the Queen Alia International Airport in Amman, Jordan and a specialized passenger terminal in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

Before joining IFC, Mr. Mekan was a senior member of the World Bank team responsible for financing the 3,500 km long Bolivia-Brazil Gas Pipe and the post-privatization financing of the Buenos Aires mass transit system. He has extensive experience in financing and privatization of infrastructure projects including that of railways, urban transport systems, energy, water resources, and oil & gas.

 

 

Mr. Paul Noumba Um, PPPI Program Leader, World Bank Institute

Paul Noumba is a senior Infrastructure specialist in the Finance and Infrastructure division of the World Bank Institute. He is working in the areas of regulation, and policy support related to infrastructure sector reforms in developing countries. He joined the World Bank in 1998 as a telecommunications policy specialist in the Energy Mining Telecom Department. From October 2000 to March 2003, Paul was regional coordinator for Africa in the ICT policy division part of the Global Information and Communications Technology Department. Before joining the Bank Paul worked as an economist with France Telecom Research and the Development Center (CNET) in Paris, and as a lecturer and researcher in telecommunications and regulatory economics in the Ecole Nationale Superieure des Telecommunications de Bretagne (France). Between 1987–1992 Paul was the head of the economic analyses unit in the Ministry of Post and Telecommunications in Cameroon. Paul combines analytical skills and hands-on operations experience, and has established a strong track record both inside the Bank and outside in client countries on dealing with issues related to telecommunications development and reform. Paul received a PhD in economics from University of Rennes 1 (France) in 1995, and a Masters in Telecommunications engineering in 1987 from a French grande école.

 

 

Ms. Susan Tinker, Director Procurement Services, Partnerships British Columbia, Canada

Susan Tinker joined Partnerships BC in September 2004. As Director of Procurement Services, she supports the development and use of best practices and standardized approaches to key issues throughout the procurement process.Susan has worked as a management consultant and project manager and communications consultant in the fields of climate change, electricity distribution and generation, education, health, high-tech and software, telecommunications and oil and gas.Prior to working with Partnerships BC, her recent clients included Climate Change Central, the Alberta Electric System Operator and the City of Calgary. Susan has a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism from the University of Regina, a post-graduate certificate in political science from the University of Saskatchewan, a Masters in Communication Studies and a Masters in Business Administration from the University of Calgary.