Ethiopis Tafara

Ethiopis Tafara is IFC’s regional Vice President for Africa. In this capacity, he oversees all investment and advisory operations in a region with a committed portfolio of $17 billion and nearly 800 staff working to expand the private sector’s role in addressing urgent development challenges in the financial, manufacturing, agribusiness and services, and infrastructure industries.

Previously, Mr. Tafara served as the Vice President, Chief Risk, Legal & Sustainability Officer and Partnerships for the World Bank Group’s Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), where he was responsible for the supervision and oversight of MIGA’s Finance and Risk Management Group, the Economics & Sustainability Group, and the Legal Affairs & Claims Group, in addition to overseeing MIGA Partnerships.

Prior to this, Mr. Tafara served as Vice President and General Counsel for IFC where he was responsible for non-financial risk management, including the Legal, Compliance and ESG functions. In that role, he was named as Financial Times Global GC 25 in 2018.

Prior to joining IFC, Mr. Tafara served as the Director of the Office of International Affairs at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. He practiced as a regulatory lawyer for close to 20 years, focusing on international securities regulation and cross-border law enforcement litigation. Mr. Tafara was the recipient of the prestigious Chairman’s Award and has been recognized for his work on facilitating cross-border investor access by promoting mutual recognition of comparable regulation.

Mr. Tafara also held leadership positions in several international bodies, including as the Vice Chairman of the Board of the International Organizations for Securities Commissions, the Chairman of the Public Interest Oversight Board Monitoring Group, and the SEC Deputy to both the Financial Stability Board and the IFRS Foundation Monitoring Board.