Vivien Foster

Vivien Foster

Energy Economics Global Lead, World Bank Group (presentation)

Featured on:

Vivien, a British national, joined the Bank in 1999 as a Young Professional. She previously worked as a Managing Consultant of Oxford Economic Research Associates Ltd in the UK, advising private and public sector clients in the water and energy industries, both in Europe and Latin America, focusing particularly on the economic regulation of utilities. She holds a Doctorate in Economics from University College London.

At the Bank, she worked as a Senior Economist in the Latin America Region and Lead Economist in the Africa Region, leading a wide range of analytical, operational and corporate engagements; often cutting across infrastructure sectors and working on the macroeconomic and fiscal interface. In particular, she led the Africa Infrastructure Country Diagnostic a path-breaking knowledge program that covered 40 African countries and produced a large suite of influential analytical reports. She was lead author of “Building Bridges” an innovative analysis of the Chinese role in Africa’s infrastructure development, as well as “Water, Electricity and the Poor” focusing on the design of tariffs and subsidies to preserve affordability of services to the poor.

Since 2012, Vivien has been Sector Manager for the Energy Anchor, and subsequently Practice Manager Strategy & Operations for the new Global Practice. She was a core member of the team that developed and secured Board consensus for the Energy Sector Directions Paper in 2013. She positioned the Bank as a Knowledge Hub for the Sustainable Energy for All initiative developing a program of data-driven flagship global knowledge products, including the Global Tracking Framework and Readiness for Investment in Sustainable Energy, in collaboration with numerous external agencies. She promoted knowledge management in the practice through the establishment of two new Communities of Practice for Energy Efficiency and Energy Access, and created the Live Wire series of knowledge notes as a fast track for sharing and disseminating knowledge.

In 2015, Vivien was appointed Global Lead for Energy Economics, Markets & Institutions.

Read more

Past Events featuring Vivien Foster