Bisrat Aklilu

Bisrat Aklilu is a senior advisor for sustainable development and fund management for various governments and international organizations. He worked for the United Nations for over 30 years starting as Portfolio Manager for the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), Deputy Executive Director and Director of Operations of the UN Office of Project Services (UNOPS) and Executive Coordinator of the UN-wide Multi-Partner Trust Fund Office (MPTF Office) in UNDP. He established and managed the MPTF Office, which when he left the UN in 2013, had a portfolio of over 100 UN Trust Funds with $6 billion funding and was the first UN Office to introduce full public transparency through real-time financial and narrative reporting.

Bisrat has served on the Boards of Oxfam America, the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) and the United Nations Peacebuilding Fund (UNPBF). At present he is on the Boards of Chemonics International (as Vice-Board Chair), Ethiopian Diaspora Trust Fund (EDTF) and advisor to the Syria Recovery Trust Fund (SRTF). He holds a Ph.D. and M.A. in Economics from Boston University, where he was also an Assistant Professor and a M.Sc. in Agricultural Economics from the University of Massachusetts.