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New executive director at CECI

All countries

On behalf of CECI’s Board of Directors, I am pleased to announce the arrival of Philippe Dongier as Executive Director, starting May 31, 2021.

Mr. Dongier has nearly thirty years of international experience in leadership responsibilities in non-profit organizations, multilateral institutions, and the private sector - including CECI, World Bank, McKinsey & Company, and General Electric. He has spent 15 years in Africa and Asia, leading programs in poverty reduction, social inclusion and gender equality, climate change adaptation and infrastructure development. He also has extensive experience leading decentralized global teams, strategic planning and organizational transformation. His career is marked by his commitment to social justice, participatory governance, environmental protection and the search for sustainable impact.

Following studies in economics and anthropology at McGill University in Montreal, it was at CECI that he began his career as a volunteer in Nepal. He then contributed to the opening of the CECI office in Nepal and was its first country director from 1986 to 1992. He then obtained an MBA from the European Institute of Business Administration (INSEAD) and then moved to join the Montreal office of McKinsey & Company in 1994, where he worked as a consultant in business strategy and change management. From 1998, he made a career at the World Bank where he remained for 18 years, working mainly in Asia and Africa in regional (Afghanistan, East Africa, South Asia) and sector management roles ( water and sanitation, community development, development based on digital technologies, infrastructure). In 2016, he joined General Electric to lead the company's government affairs in Africa and, starting in 2018, to lead that same function globally outside of the United States. He is currently leading a carbon neutral initiative to support General Electric's main customers in Canada. He will leave General Electric to assume the general management of CECI from May 31, 2021.

“My approach is based on teamwork around analysis, dialogue and communications to foster engagement and alignment, both internally and with partners, around a shared vision.”

As we welcome Philippe Dongier, we will say goodbye to Claudia Black, who has provided leadership at the helm of CECI for the past 9 years. We would like to thank her for her invaluable contribution and dedication to the organization. In recent years, among others, she has accompanied a major shift towards an international CECI network which mobilizes actors of change in the world, to reduce poverty and strengthen equality and inclusion. Claudia will remain in office until May 28 before handing over to her successor until June 4.

Join me in welcoming back Philippe Dongier in the CECI family!

Danielle Lamy
President of CECI’s Board of Directors

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