Expert resume of René Karsenti

Senior Adviser, former President of the International Capital Market Association; Honorary Director General of the European Investment Bank; former Chair of the International Finance Facility for Immunisation, and the International Council of Securities Associations ; Member of the Strategic Committee of the French Debt Management Office, and the Advisory Committee on Investments of the Food and Agriculture Organisation.

René Karsenti, Senior Adviser to the International Capital Market Association (ICMA), served as ICMA President from 2006 to 2019.

The mission of ICMA is to promote resilient and well-functioning international cross-border debt securities markets which are essential to fund sustainable economic growth and development. ICMA is a membership association committed to serving the needs of its wide range of members which includes private and public sector issuers, financial intermediaries, asset managers and other investors, capital market infrastructure providers, central banks, law firms and others worldwide. ICMA which was established more than 50 years ago, currently has more than 601 members located in 62 countries.

From 2009 to 2011, Mr. Karsenti was also Chairman of the International Council of Securities Associations (ICSA), and from 2008 to 2014, Chairman of the European Capital Market Institute (ECMI).

From 1995 until joining ICMA in 2006, he was Director General of Finance at the European Investment Bank (EIB) in Luxembourg, having previously served as Treasurer of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) in London from its inception in May 1991 to 1995. Prior to joining EBRD, from 1979 he held a variety of senior positions in the treasury organisations of the World Bank Group (IBRD & IFC), including as IFC Treasurer. From 1976 to 1979 he was a securities analyst and portfolio manager at Caisse des Depots, Paris.

Mr. Karsenti holds an engineering degree from ESCIL, Lyon and a PhD in Economics from the Sorbonne University in Paris. He has also carried out research in finance and economics at the University of California, Berkeley. He has been awarded the French Légion d’ Honneur.