Washington, D.C., July 1, , 2004.-
Today, Atul Mehta will become Director of the Latin America and Caribbean Department at the International Finance Corporation, with responsibility for all IFC activities in the region. He brings broad experience to his new position, including more than seven years developing and structuring some of the Corporation’s larger and more complex projects in the region.
IFC, the private sector arm of the World Bank, promotes sustainable private sector development in emerging markets. IFC’s portfolio in Latin America and the Caribbean accounts for more than a third of the Corporation’s portfolio: $6,145 million of a global portfolio of $16,777 million, as of June 2003.
Bernard Pasquier, who has been IFC’s Director for Latin America and the Caribbean for about three years, will depart the World Bank Group after 20 years of service to return to his home country, Monaco. There he will take a senior position in a local financial institution. Bernard Pasquier has been instrumental in helping IFC broaden its activities beyond traditional project finance and become more of a long-term partner to companies in the region. He has also helped make corporate governance and environmental and social responsibility central to IFC’s operations.
Before taking this new assignment, Atul Mehta was Chief Investment Officer in IFC's Latin America and Caribbean Department, where he has led projects in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru. He has worked in sectors including general manufacturing, services, financial markets, information technology, power, oil and gas, and petrochemicals, in Eastern Europe and Asia as well as Latin America.
Prior to joining IFC in 1989, Atul Mehta worked at Ernst and Young in the United Kingdom. He holds an MBA from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, and a Masters in Mathematics from Syracuse University.
IFC (
www.ifc.org
) makes loans and equity investments in private sector projects in emerging markets, mobilizes finance from global capital markets, helps clients improve social. environmental and corporate governance standards, and provides investment advisory services to companies and governments.
IFC's committed financing in Latin America and the Caribbean in fiscal 2003 (July 2002-June 2003) amounted to $2.18 billion for 54 projects over 16 countries, the highest of any region. This was an increase of $706 million from fiscal year 2002, and the largest amount in recent years. Total financing included $918 million mobilized from banks participating in IFC syndicated loans. IFC's financing to the region in fiscal year 2003 accounted for almost half 44 percent of IFC's global funding in the fiscal year 2003, which totaled $5.0 billion.
