Nadereh Chamlou is a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s empowerME initiative and an international development advisor. Previously, she was a senior advisor at the World Bank, where over a 30+ years career, she held managerial, technical, coordination, and advisory positions in such fields as economic management, corporate governance, private sector development, financial markets, environment, infrastructure, and gender.
Her work has focused on private sector and entrepreneurship development, particularly on issues related to promoting growth and competitiveness through better utilization of the talent pool and benefiting from diversity and inclusion. She co-authored the World Bank flagship report on “Corporate Governance: A Framework for Implementation,” which led to the founding of the World Bank/OECD-sponsored Global Corporate Governance Forum; and, headed its Secretariat from 1998-2000. Other publications include “Gender and Development in the MENA Region – Women in the Public Sphere”; “The Environment for Women’s Entrepreneurship in the MENA Region“; and “Women, Work, Welfare in the MENA Region”.
Additionally, she served as an Adjunct Professor at New York University’s Wagner School for Public Policy, as a Member of the scientific committee of the Dutch Gender Task Force (2009), and was the Founding Member of the World Bank-sponsored Gender Economic Research and Policy Analysis (GERPA) for the MENA Region and a member of its Steering and Advisory Committees (2006-2013).
Presently, Mrs. Chamlou is actively involved with several premier international organizations focusing on women’s empowerment, innovation, and entrepreneurship, such as Member of the Board of iBridges initiative for IT entrepreneurship; Member of the International Advisory Committee of Nyenrode Business Universiteit in The Netherlands; Advisor to the Center for International Private Enterprise; Member of the Board of the International Iranian Economic Association; ex-Member of the Board of the World Bank Retiree Association and Chair of its Pension Group; Member of the Board of Advisors of the National Iranian-American Council; Advisor to the Board of the Tunis-based Center for Arab Women’s Training and Research; Member of the Board of the Arab International Women’s Forum; and co-Founder of The Billion Dollar Fund for Women.
Besides continuing her research work and publications, she is a frequent speaker at international conferences, and an oft-invited commentator on current issues related to the Middle East and women’s empowerment. She was educated at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service and its Graduate School of Economics, and received The Global Alliance for Women’s 2015 “Making a Difference” Award.