Jean-Michel Severino is the President of Investisseurs & Partenaires, an impact investing group dedicated to SMEs of Sub-Saharan Africa.
He previously held the position of Director of Development at the Ministry of Cooperation (1994-1996), Vice-President for East Asia at the World Bank (1996-2000) and Chief Executive Officer of the French Development Agency (AFD) from 2001 to 2010.
He is a member of several boards, including Ecobank International, Orange (France Telecom), Danone ad Sanofi Foundation. He chairs the board of Convergences 2015, a think-tank on development and poverty alleviation work. He is a senior fellow of the German Marshall Fund and of the Foundation for International Development Study and Research (FERDI). He also served as a member of the UN General Secretary’s eminent persons’ panel on the post 2015 development agenda.
In May 2011, Jean-Michel Severino succeeded Patrice Hoppenot as President of Investisseurs et Partenaires (I&P), where he now implements the theories developed in his book “Africa’s Moment,” co-authored with Olivier Ray and published in 2010.