Who We Are

Dr. Olivier Mahul is the Practice Manager of the World Bank's Crisis & Disaster Risk Finance (CDRF) unit. He oversaw the implementation of the Global Shield Financing Facility (GSFF) and its predecessor, the Global Risk Financing Facility (GRiF). Olivier has been involved in the development of innovative disaster risk financing and insurance solutions in more than 40 countries and a number of flagship regional initiatives.

Niels Holm-Nielsen is the Practice Manager for the Global Unit for Disaster and Climate Risk Management at the World Bank. He also is the Head of the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR), which is a multi-donor partnership within the World Bank that funds technical assistance and advisory services to improve climate and disaster risk management (DRM) at country, city, and community levels. Prior to taking up his current position, Niels was the World Bank’s Global Technical Lead for Resilience and DRM, supporting team leads and managers to deliver the highest possible technical quality of DRM services to our clients. He has led and co-led the creation and implementation of a series of global technical assistance and knowledge service partnerships, including risk reduction for education facilities as well as the City Resilience Program. He joined the World Bank in 2006 as Junior Professional Officer in Middle East and North Africa region after working for the Inter-American Development Bank for five years, and has also been Lead DRM Specialist for the Africa region, and the Latin America and Caribbean region for the World Bank. He holds a M.Sc. in Political Science from the University of Aarhus, Denmark.

Sumati Rajput is a Senior Financial Sector Specialist in the World Bank's Crisis & Disaster Risk Finance (CDRF) unit. She co-leads the overall program management of the Global Shield Financing Facility (GSFF), as she did for its predecessor, the Global Risk Financing Facility (GRiF). Sumati has experience working on disaster risk management and risk financing projects in Africa and Asia as well as managing large donor communities and trust fund operations.

Ronette Jordan is a Disaster Risk Management Specialist for the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR), which is housed at the World Bank Group and supports mainstreaming of disaster risk management in developing country policies and investment programs. Ronette supports donor relations and trust fund administration activities for the Canada-Caribbean Resilience Facility and Global Risk Financing Facility (GRiF).  Immediately prior to this role, she worked as an Advisor to the World Bank’s Executive Director for Canada, Ireland, and the Caribbean covering issues related to climate, disaster risk management and resilience.  Before joining the Bank, she worked as an Economist and Project Management Specialist for the Government of St. Vincent and the Grenadines where she was managed the Government’s investment program and provided technical inputs for development policy and strategy formulation.  Ronette holds degrees from Nottingham University, where she completed a master’s in Development Economics and Policy Analysis, and the University of the West Indies, where she completed her undergraduate studies in Economics. She also has post-graduate certifications in Project Planning, Appraisal, and Management from the University of Bradford.

Kaavya Krishna is a Senior Finance Specialist in the World Bank's Crisis & Disaster Risk Finance (CDRF) unit. She leads the coordination of the overall communications and learning activities of the Global Shield Finance Facility (GSFF), as she did for GSFF's predecessor, the Global Risk Finance Facility (GRiF). Kaavya also oversees knowledge management and learning for the CDRF unit.

Linh is a Financial Sector Specialist in the Crisis & Disaster Risk Finance global team at the World Bank. Her prior position was in the Budget Performance Review and Strategic Planning division, where she was in charge of planning, analyzing, and monitoring the sources and uses of the bank budget and external funds for the Equitable, Growth, Finance, and Institutions Practice Group. Before that, Linh worked in the CEO Strategic Initiative unit to support the World Bank Group Capital Increase process.

Linh is a Certified Practicing Accountant member of CPA Australia. Before joining the World Bank, she was awarded the Endeavour Award by the Prime Minister of Australia for researching international banking regulations in Sweden and Canada. Linh also worked as a finance officer at Hilton Asia Pacific and a researcher at the Centre for International Finance and Regulation in Australia.

Anja Robakowski is the Gender Coordinator of the World Bank Group’s Equitable Growth, Finance and Institutions (EFI) Vice Presidency. She focuses on women’s economic empowerment across a range of sectors and topics. Anja’s work includes project design and delivery, conceptualization of learning events, and the creation of cross-cutting knowledge products, taking into account EFI-wide lessons and convening staff to share experiences. Anja has been part of the WBG since 1997 when she joined a team to develop the institution’s Education Sector Strategy. Subsequently, Anja worked in MIGA’s technical assistance (TA) unit, building counterpart capacity to attract foreign direct investment, applying adult-education principles in curriculum design and training delivery. She also developed systematic approaches to monitor results achievement - following a merger of MIGA's TA with IFC, Anja was part of an incubator team that developed and piloted various iterations of an innovative monitoring and evaluation framework which is still applied to IFC’s advisory projects today.

Dr. Claire Simon is a senior consultant supporting the Global Shield Financing Facility (GSFF), as she did with its predecessor, the Global Risk Financing Facility (GRiF), in the design and use of tools to monitor, evaluate, and learn (MEL) from GSFF investments. Claire has two decades of international experience working with complex programs to measure, learn, and adapt based on emerging quantitative and qualitative evaluation research and data.

Lisa Roberts is a senior consultant supporting the Global Shield Financing Facility to develop strategies to help countries apply a gender lens when designing and implementing financial solutions to manage shocks. Lisa has over twenty years of international experience working for bilateral donors, the United Nations, and NGOs on policy and programs addressing disaster risk management, human rights and humanitarian action.

Xiaofeng Li is an Operations Officer for the Global Unit for Disaster and Climate Risk Management. Since joining the World Bank through the China country office in 2007, she has served on a variety of assignments in disaster risk management, including managing trust funds at trustee and grant levels, overseeing trust fund portfolios, and serving as task team lead for advisory services and analytics including joint initiatives with GFDRR in Zanzibar and the Resilience Academy in Tanzania. She previously worked in the Bank's Urban, Disaster Risk Management, Resilience and Land Global Practice (GPURL). Before joining the Bank, Xiaofeng worked for the Chinese Government.

Sonal Chinchwadkar is a Learning, Capacity Building, Knowledge Management and Communications Consultant with the World Bank’s Crisis and Disaster Risk Finance (CDRF) in the Finance, Competitiveness and Innovations (FCI) Global Practice. Sonal brings with her 13+ years of global experience leading strategic knowledge management and communications initiatives aligned with organizational vision and business objectives in varied domains e.g., public sector transformation (capacity building, skill development, university education, executive education, edtech), financial services (insurance, banking), and management consulting. Within the World Bank, as a core team member of knowledge and communications team, Sonal is responsible for program management of full-stack capacity building programs, webinars (40+) and e-learning programs including all aspects of planning, design, stakeholder / vendor management, and smooth execution. She is also responsible for managing community engagement, communications planning and execution for Disaster Risk Financing and Insurance Program’s (DRFIP) Community of Practice which has 10,000+ members. Sonal has previously worked with Accenture Consulting, Tata Group Companies and KPMG amongst others. Academically, she is a Gold Medalist, Master in Mass Communications from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.

Anusha Vincent, a Communications and Knowledge Management Consultant, contributes her expertise to the World Bank Crisis and Disaster Risk Finance team within the Finance, Competitiveness, and Innovations Global Practice. Her primary objective is to expand the team's global reach and maximize the impact of their projects. Anusha undertakes a wide range of responsibilities, including the creation of technical notes, annual reports, year-in-review mailers, videos, newsletters, and news releases, among other essential tasks. She also helps manage her team’s websites. Anusha played a pivotal role in conceiving the 'In the Spotlight' interview series, a platform designed to showcase noteworthy projects and champions of Disaster Risk Finance. She has more than 10 years of experience as a journalist and has worked with esteemed Indian newspapers such as the Times of India and Deccan Chronicle. Her transition from journalism to the world of Disaster Risk Finance reflects her passion for making meaningful impact.