Katherine Sierra

Katherine Sierra "was named as World Bank Vice President for Sustainable Development in July, 2006. This new Vice Presidency brings together people and programs previously centered in two other Network Vice Presidencies: Environmentally and Socially Sustainable Development, and Infrastructure, which Ms. Sierra had led since October 2004. In her new capacity she has overall responsibility for the Bank’s work in environment and natural resource management, social development and science and technology policy, as well as for agriculture and rural development, transport, water, energy, and urban policies and strategies. She also manages, jointly with the International Finance Corporation global product groups for Information and Technology and for Oil, Gas, Chemicals, and Mining.

"Ms. Sierra chairs several international consultative groups. These include the World Bank/WWF Alliance for Forest Conservation and Sustainable Use; CEPF (the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund); the Cities Alliance; ESMAP (the Energy Sector Management Assistance Programme); and the Water and Sanitation Program. Other international groups she chairs are InfoDev, which supports information and communication technologies for development, and the Public-Private Infrastructure Advisory Facility, promoting private participation in infrastructure.

"Ms. Sierra is an urban planning specialist by training. She joined the World Bank in 1978 and, over the next 15 years, worked extensively in Latin America and the Caribbean as a transport and environment economist and project officer. In 1993 she joined the China and Mongolia Department as Chief of the Environment and Urban Development Division. She was appointed Director of the Bank’s Operational Core Services network in 1997 and Vice President of Operational Core Services in 1999. In 2000, Ms. Sierra was named Vice President, Human Resources, responsible for personnel policies covering more than 8,700 staff members stationed in more than 100 countries around the world.

"Ms. Sierra, a U.S. national, holds a Master’s degree in Urban and Regional planning from Harvard University and Bachelor of Arts degrees in Anthropology and Hispanic Civilization from the University of California at Santa Barbara."


 * Chair, Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research