Asia-Europe Economic Cooperation: Fostering Greater Trade and Investment

Pierre Amilhat is Director for Asia, Central Asia, Middle East/Gulf and Pacific in the Directorate General for International Cooperation and Development of the European Commission. Mr. Amilhat began his career at the College of Europe, as an assistant in the department of Political and Administrative Studies. In 1982, he joined the European Commission, dealing with electronic documentation & Community Law. Then in 1987 he moved to the Court of Justice working with the Court Registrar. Returning to the European Commission in 1993, he has worked in External Relations, Trade and Maritime Affairs & Fisheries, as well as serving in the EC Delegation to Vietnam.

A French national, Pierre Amilhat holds a Master’s degree in Law and a Master’s degree in European Studies.

Mohammad Ishaq Dar is Minister for Finance, Revenue, Economic Affairs, Statistics and Privatization, Pakistan since June 2013. He held first public office (1992 – 1993) as Minister of State/Chief Executive of Pakistan Investment Board (PIB). He served as Federal Minister for Commerce & Investment (1997–1999). He was twice Federal Minister for Finance, Economic Affairs, Revenue and Statistics (1998-99 and 2008). He was leader of the opposition in the Senate of Pakistan in 2012-13, before assuming the office of Finance Minister for a third time in June 2013. He is currently serving his fifth term in the Parliament.

Mr. Dar's professional acumen and remarkable understanding of complex financial, economic, social, trade, investment and industrial issues have earned him wide acknowledgment as a thorough professional. He has 42 years of professional experience in audit profession, financial advisory, management consultancy, business, commerce and industry, both in private and public sectors, in Pakistan and abroad.

Stephen Groff is Vice-President (Operations 2) of the Asian Development Bank. He assumed office in October 2011. Mr. Groff is responsible for the full range of ADB's operations in East Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific. His mandate includes establishing strategic and operational priorities in his areas of responsibility, producing investment and technical assistance operations amounting to approximately $5 billion annually, managing an existing portfolio of about $23 billion, and leading about 650 staff. Prior to joining ADB, Mr. Groff was Deputy Director for Development Cooperation at the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Prior to this he was the Deputy Vice-President for Operations at the Washington- based Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC). Prior to MCC, Mr. Groff held several staff positions at the ADB.

Mr. Groff holds a Master's degree in Public Administration from Harvard University and a Bachelor of Science degree in Environmental Biology from Yale University.

Liqun Jin has served as AIIB's President-designate since September 2015. Prior to that, he was Secretary-General of the Multilateral Interim Secretariat and Chairman of CICC. From 2008 to 2013, he served as Chairman of the Supervisory Board, China Investment Corporation. From 2009 to 2012, Mr. Jin served first as (Deputy) Chairman of the International Forum of Sovereign Wealth Funds. From 2003 to 2008, Mr. Jin was (Ranking) Vice President of the ADB. Mr. Jin joined the Ministry of Finance in 1980, where he became Vice Minister in 1998. Earlier in his career, he worked at the World Bank, the Global Environment Facility and the ADB.

Norbert Kloppenburg has been working for KfW since 1989. He headed the Brussels office in the mid-1990s and was afterwards responsible for the Energy and Environmental Technologies Division of the Export and Project Finance Department in Frankfurt/Main. From 2002 to 2007 Mr. Kloppenburg headed the Asia and Europe Directorate at KfW Development Bank. He has been on the Executive Board of KfW since 2007 in charge of the international financing activities which are carried out by KfW Development Bank and by the fully-owned subsidiaries of KfW, DEG and KfW IPEX-Bank. Mr. Kloppenburg was a member of the Intergovernmental Committee of Experts on Sustainable Development Financing of UN from 2013-2014, and still is an active member of the German-Indian Advisory Group and German-Indonesian Advisory Group.

Kae Yanagisawa is Vice President of the Japan International Cooperation Agency, responsible for operations in East and Central Asia and the Caucasus Region. Before assuming current post in October 2014, Ms. Yanagisawa worked extensively for the region both at headquarters and field office, including as Director General of East and Central Asia and the Caucasus Department and Resident Representative of JICA’s office in Uzbekistan. She also experienced various positions at JICA, covering both technical cooperation and financial assistance in different sectors. From 2005 to 2008 she served as Senior Advisor of the UNDP’s South-South Cooperation Unit.

Ms. Yanagisawa received her M.A. in international relations from the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies of the Johns Hopkins University.

Toby Fildes is the Managing Editor of Emerging Markets, the daily newspaper of multilateral development banks’ meetings; and GlobalCapital, the capital markets newspaper. He joined GlobalCapital (then called EuroWeek) in 1998 as a syndicated loans reporter and was made editor two years later. He stepped up to managing editor in 2006. As one of the senior members of the GlobalCapital team, he is responsible for the editorial output of the group, including the weekly paper, the website and special reports. Toby has also helped develop many of GlobalCapital’s new ventures in recent years including the Bond Market Dinner and the SRI Report.