Nathalie Francken

Nathalie Francken, a Belgian national, is the Executive Director for the World Bank Group representing the constituency of Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Hungary, Kosovo, Luxembourg, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, and Türkiye (EDS10) since November 2024. She has been Member of the WBG Board since 2018, both as Alternate Executive Director for 5 years and as Senior Advisor for 1 year. She is Chair of the Human Resources Committee and co-Chair of the Gender Working Group at the WBG Board.

Prior to joining the WBG, Ms. Francken served as Advisor on Agriculture and Food Security at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development Cooperation of Belgium, Research Manager at the Centre for Institutions and Economic Performance (LICOS) at the Catholic University of Leuven, Associate Researcher at the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS) in Brussels and the University of Antwerp, and Chair of the Board of Directors of the Belgian Development Agency, Enabel.

Ms. Francken has field experience from various low- and middle-income countries, including countries suffering from fragility - mostly in Africa, and worked for the Cornell University Food and Nutrition Policy Program, the Government of Madagascar, Irish Aid, UNICEF, FAO, and the World Bank Group. She was also a Young Professional and worked as Economist at the African Development Bank for about 3 years.

Ms. Francken conducted research on development economics and political economy, more specifically on public finance, service delivery, food and nutrition security and the social implications of the natural resource curse. She published in several peer-reviewed international journals.

Ms. Francken earned a Ph.D. in Economics, an M.Sc. in Economics, and a Master of Agricultural Engineering at the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium.