Sevi Simavi

Sevi Simavi is a senior executive, qualified lawyer and an author with more than 15 years of experience driving and measuring complex change initiatives in emerging markets with a focus on women’s economic empowerment and women’s rights, financial inclusion, SME development, technology and innovation. She is currently the Head of EBRD's Procurement function for the technical assistance and consultancy engagements in connection with Bank’s lending and policy operations worth over GBP 110 million a year.

Prior to her current role, she was the Chief Executive Officer of Cherie Blair Foundation for Women, where she oversaw the growth and impact of the Foundation, building high-level partnerships, developing innovative solutions and bringing a results focus to its portfolio. She also spent over a decade at the IFC/ World Bank Group in Washington, DC, where she initiated, scaled up and measured the effectiveness of innovative programs, products and business functions from ground up, and advised governments, central banks and private sector around the globe on access to finance for SMEs, financial inclusion, women’s economic empowerment, business regulation and peer to peer learning.

She has published extensively on women’s economic empowerment, financial inclusion, ICT for development and business environment and is a frequent speaker at international conferences. Sevi is also a Disruptive Foundation Fellow and served as the co-chair of the Women and Technology subcommittee of the International Business Women’s Leadership Council, set up by Hillary Clinton.

Sevi is Global Fund for Women UK’s nominated safeguarding trustee and can be reached via [email protected]