Songdo, Incheon City, Republic of Korea, 26 June 2013 - The Board of the Green Climate Fund is delighted to announce the selection of Ms. Hela Cheikhrouhou as the Fund's first Executive Director. The consensus decision by the Board follows an extensive global recruitment process to select the head of the Fund's Secretariat, which is currently in its start-up phase.
Ms. Cheikhrouhou, a Tunisian national, is currently Director of the Energy, Environment and Climate Change Department at the African Development Bank, where she has taken a lead in scaling up the Bank's green growth and climate resilient investments through an innovative blend of public and private finance. Educated in Tunisia and Canada, she started her career in the private sector as an investment banker with Citibank, responsible for market risk management in North Africa. She has spent the last ten years working in multilateral development banks, first in the Latin America and Caribbean region of the World Bank, and then for the African Development Bank, initially with the responsibility for growing the Bank's project finance activities across Africa.
Mr. Zaheer Fakir, Green Climate Fund Board Co-Chair stated:
'I am delighted that the Board selected Ms. Cheikhrouhou as our first Executive Director. Hela's financial expertise, coupled with her drive and enthusiasm, will help establish the Fund as an effective and credible funding facility to tackle climate change in the developing world.'
Mr. Ewen McDonald, Green Climate Fund Board Co-Chair, added:
'Hela was selected from a pool of high calibre candidates. She is widely recognized by her peers as an outstanding development banker who has great expertise in development financing. Hela has greatly impressed us with her dynamism and her track record in leading the growth of climate change investments at the African Development Bank. Her knowledge and abilities make her the ideal choice to drive the Green Climate Fund forward as we move towards its operationalization in our new home in Songdo.'
Ms. Cheikhrouhou stated:
'I am honoured to have been selected as the inaugural Executive Director of the Fund's Secretariat. I look forward to working under the guidance of the Board and in collaboration with our stakeholders. Together we can make the Fund a central contributor to the global financing of developing countries' response to climate change, with particular attention to the most vulnerable.'
The Green Climate Fund was established to channel support to developing countries to help limit or reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, and to adapt to the unavoidable impacts of climate change. The Executive Director will lead the Secretariat of the Fund, headquartered in Songdo, Incheon City, Republic of Korea, as it establishes itself as the leading funding facility for climate change actions in the developing countries.
More information on the Green Climate Fund is available on the Fund's website: www.GCFund.net.
