SIFEM - Swiss Investment Fund for Emerging Markets

Dr Jörg Frieden
Chairman of the Board, Chairman of the Investment committee, since 2018

Jörg Frieden’s career at the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, from 1986 to 2018, covered a broad range of posts and responsibilities. He worked as coordinator in Mozambique, advisor for the World Bank in Washington, and as Head of the Eastern and Southern Africa Section in Bern. Between 1999 and 2003, his professional career took a sidestep to the Federal Office for Refugees where he held the position of Deputy Director. In 2003, he returned to the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) where he took up the position of Resident Director of Development Programmes in Nepal. From 2008 to 2010, he was Deputy Director of the SDC and headed the Global Cooperation Department. He was also an advisor to and representative of Federal Councillor Micheline Calmy-Rey in the UN Commission on Sustainable Development. From 2011 to 2016, Jörg Frieden was Executive Director of Switzerland at the World Bank Group, specifically at the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and then Swiss Ambassador to Nepal until 2018. Jörg Frieden is also a board member of Helvetas, an NGO working in the field of development cooperation based in Zurich, and member of the development commission of the Canton of Fribourg. He has also recently been appointed to serve in an expert panel to assess the internal evaluation function of the World Bank.