Jean-Michel Severino, France
Director General, French Development Agency
Former Vice President of the World Bank East Asia and the Pacific
Jean-Michel Severino is a French citizen who was born in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. He began his career
working for the French Ministry of Finance and Economy before becoming an adviser of the Minister
for Development in 1988. In 1990, he was in charge of the Development Ministry’s geographical
coordination before taking the Director’s seat for the Ministry’s Development Programs in 1994.
Severino’s career took an international turn in 1996 when he was appointed Director for Central
Europe at the World Bank. From 1997 to 2000 he was the World Bank’s Vice-President for Asia.
In 2000 Jean-Michel Severino returned to France for an appointment as the Inspector-General of
Finance in the Ministry of Economy, Finance and Industry in Paris. In 2001, he was appointed Chief
Executive Officer of the Agence Francaise de Developpement, the French agency for development
and cooperation, which intervenes on five continents to reduce poverty, finance economic growth
and protect Global Public Goods. Mr. Severino graduated from business school in Paris to enter
the Ecole Nationale Administration (ENA), the prestigious school for Public Administration and
Policy, from which he graduated in 1984.