Marco Ferroni

Marco Ferroni, "a former executive at the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) in Washington DC, has extensive management and operational experience in government and multilateral institutions. He has designed, negotiated and implemented many operational programs in developing and middle-income countries and combines managerial, analytical and interpersonal skills with a recognized ability to lead and motivate, form partnerships, and mobilize resources.

"As the Deputy Manager of the Sustainable Development Department of the IDB until July 2007, Mr. Ferroni had responsibility for the development of regional sector policy and technical project support to the Bank’s country departments. He made contributions to knowledge management and led economic and sector work with a particular focus on sustainability issues (economic, social, governance, competitiveness and environmental).

"Prior to this assignment, Mr. Ferroni was the IDB’s principal evaluation officer in the Bank’s independent Office of Evaluation and Oversight. In this capacity he directed numerous evaluation studies that assessed the relevance, performance, and results of Bank strategies, policies, instruments, and country programs while working with Bank management, the Board of Executive Directors and borrowing countries to build learning communities, explain evaluation results, and strengthen the demand and authorizing environment for independent evaluation.

"Earlier in his career, Mr. Ferroni was a senior advisor to the World Bank’s Vice Presidency for Resource Mobilization and Co-financing (now the Concessional Finance and Global Partnerships Vice Presidency), a member of the Boards of Executive Directors of the IDB and the Inter-American Investment Corporation representing European constituencies, and an economist, program manager and division chief at the Ministries of Public Economy and Foreign Affairs in Switzerland.

"At the World Bank, Mr. Ferroni spearheaded work on global/international public goods, advising the Bank on this then emerging topic and the implications for donors and foreign aid. Working for the Swiss Government, Mr. Ferroni (among many other responsibilities) managed balance-of-payments support to developing countries and conducted operations of a bilateral debt reduction facility that sought to lower bilateral external debt obligations of eligible low-income debtors and brought Swiss position on eligible Paris Club debt to de minimis status for these countries.

"Mr. Ferroni holds a doctoral degree in agricultural economics from Cornell University. He has worked in Latin America and Africa and has published and lectures frequently on foreign aid, debt and development finance, international public goods, social protection and the Millennium Development Goals, and sustainability challenges in open economies in the context of globalization.

"Marco Ferroni is a Swiss national. He is married to Ann Ferroni-Strattner, a US citizen. The couple have two children aged 20 and 25."

• Director, Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture