ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Bertrand Badré is CEO and Founder of Blue like an Orange Sustainable Capital, an investment fund with the objective to deliver market-level financial returns while at the same time achieving credible, sustainable development outcomes.

Previously, Bertrand was Managing Director and Chief Financial Officer of the World Bank Group, where he led a number of the most important reforms that the group undertook and also represented the group in various international forums, such as the G20 and the Financial Stability Board. Prior to joining the World Bank Group, Bertrand was the Group Chief Financial Officer at Société Générale and before that, at Crédit Agricole, two of the world’s leading financial institutions; he helped navigate both banks through the financial crisis. Before joining Crédit Agricole, Bertrand was a Managing Director of Lazard in Paris and was responsible for the Financial Services Group.

In 2003 Bertrand was invited to join French president Jacques Chirac’s diplomatic team and was closely involved in the preparation of the G8 summit in Évian, France. In that capacity, he served as the president’s deputy personal representative for Africa and as a spokesman for the working group on new international financial contributions to fight poverty and fund development, which produced the Landau report. In 2002 he was a member of the World Panel on Financing Water Infrastructure, chaired by Michel Camdessus, the former Managing Director of the IMF.

Prior to joining Lazard, Bertrand served in France’s Ministry of Finance, where he led a number of control, audit, and consultancy missions for the French National Audit Office. Bertrand began his career in 1989 as Assistant Group Controller for BFI-IBEXSA, a Franco-American company that is now part of Avnet.

Bertrand has served as director on a number of boards, including the supervisory board of private equity firm Eurazeo, the board of manufacturing company Haulotte Group, and various boards of the leading French regional daily newspaper group Ouest- France. He represented Crédit Agricole and Société Générale on the boards of a number of their subsidiaries. He is a member of the board of Wealthsimple, a leading Canadian fintech based in Toronto, and nonexecutive chairman of Future Positive Capital, an impact venture capital technology company based in Europe.

Bertrand is a member of the advisory board of the newly created International Water Bank and of the Paris-based IDDRI (Institute for Sustainable Development and International Relations). He is also a board member of the French-American Foundation, an honorary member of the Cincinnati Society, and a fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States. He is Cochair of the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on International Governance, Public- Private Cooperation and Sustainable Development.

Bertrand has taught in a number of schools and universities and is the author of several books. He is a graduate of ENA (Ecole Nationale d’Administration) and Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris. He also studied history at Paris IV University (La Sorbonne) and graduated from HEC Paris (Hautes Etudes Commerciales de Paris) business school. Bertrand is married to Vanessa; they have four children and live in Washington, DC.