Kristalina Georgieva

Early life and education

Kristalina Georgieva holds a PhD in Economics and an MA in Political Economy and Sociology from the University of National and World Economy in Sofia, Bulgaria. Her thesis was on "Environmental Protection Policy and Economic Growth in the USA". She also did post-graduate research and studies in natural resource economics and environmental policy at the London School of Economics in the late 1980s and at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

She held a range of academic and consulting positions in Bulgaria and the US, and has lectured on development topics in universities around the world, including the Australian National University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Tsinghua University, Yale University, Harvard University, London School of Economics, the University of the South Pacific and others.

Georgieva is fluent in Bulgarian, English, and Russian, and can also speak some French.

Early work (1993–2010)

Georgieva started her career at the World Bank Group in 1993 as an environmental economist for Europe and Central Asia. Following this, she served in various positions in the bank ultimately rising to become Director of the Environment Department in charge of World Bank's environmental strategy, policies, and lending. From 2004–2007 she was the institution's Director and Resident Representative in the Russian Federation, based in Moscow.

She returned to Washington DC, to become director of Strategy and Operations, Sustainable Development. Her final position at the World Bank, vice president and corporate secretary, conveyed lead responsibility for liaison with the members of the institution's Board of Executive Directors, representing the Bank's shareholders (the member country governments). During that time, she worked on the Bank's governance reform and accompanying capital increase in the wake of the 2008 international financial crisis.

In January 2010, Georgieva announced her intention to resign from this post in view of her nomination to the Commission of the European Union.

European Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection, 2010-2014

Nomination and confirmation

After the former Bulgarian nominee, Rumiana Jeleva, came under fire during the confirmation hearing from members of the European Parliament over both her competence for the post and allegations of gaps in her declaration of financial interests, she withdrew her bid. The Bulgarian government then proposed Kristalina Georgieva as their new candidate. On 21 January 2010 the European Commission President José Manuel Barroso met with Georgieva and expressed his approval, stating that "Mrs. Georgieva has solid international experience and knowledge with which she is going to contribute significantly in her capacity as a EU Commissioner".

The confirmation hearing of Georgieva took place at the European Parliament on 4 February 2010. She faced questions on her suitability for the international cooperation, humanitarian aid, and crisis response portfolio. Georgieva identified Haiti as a priority, especially the need to provide shelter and health services and to restore the functions and service of the government, so as to start work on reconstruction and long-term development. Other key issues raised in discussions with MEPs had been improving co-ordination within the EU (and within the Commission), and between humanitarian and military players in order to meet the dual challenge posed by expanding needs and shrinking budgets. The need to improve the effectiveness of EU actions and for better response capacity had also been stressed, together with the establishment of European Voluntary Humanitarian Corps.

Georgieva was given a warm response by MEPs, with Labour MEP Michael Cashman praising her "honesty and deep breadth of knowledge". She was applauded by committee members when she told British Conservative MEP Nirj Deva that she would stand up for the interests of the EU and be an independent mind. Ivo Vajgl, a Liberal MEP, also praised her, saying: "let me compliment you on your peaceful manner and the confidence you are exuding today". Her performance at the hearing was widely publicized in Bulgaria and broadcast live on many national media, where it was seen as question of restoration of national honor following Jeleva's unsuccessful hearing.

The second college of the Barroso Commission, including Georgieva, was approved by the European Parliament on 9 February 2010 by a vote of 488 to 137, with 72 abstentions, and she took office the following day.

Tenure

During her term in office as Commissioner for International Cooperation, Humanitarian Aid, and Crisis Response, Georgieva oversaw the delivery of life saving assistance to nearly 500 million children, women and men affected by conflicts and natural disasters around the world. Immediately after taking office, she took responsibility for coordinating the EU response to the humanitarian consequence of the 2010 Haiti earthquake. As result of her actions, the EU became the primary humanitarian donor in the devastated country. Following this initial baptism of fire, Georgieva has ensured EU's response in a number of crises and disasters that struck the world in 2010, including the earthquake in Chile and the floods in Pakistan.

After taking office, Georgieva's presence in the field – in Haiti, Chile and Pakistan as a response to the natural disasters that have struck there; Sahel in relation to the ongoing food crisis threat; Darfur as a way to tackle a forgotten conflict; Kyrgyzstan as a reaction to a sudden onset conflict; disasters within the EU such as the 2010 Romanian floods, the Hungarian industrial accident at Ajka, Hungary – along with timely and effective response to these crises, natural and man-made disasters has led to increased EU visibility.

Amid the Southeast Europe floods in May 2014, Georgieva coordinated post-disaster assistance and helped prepare Serbia's request for aid of as much as 1 billion euros ($1.4 billion) a year.

She also has worked to ensure that longer term prevention and preparedness strategies are in place. In parallel with reacting to natural and man-made disasters, Georgieva has continued to make good progress on the three declared priorities of her mandate: building up EU's disaster response capacity, creating the European Voluntary Humanitarian Aid Corps foreseen in the Lisbon Treaty, and proceeding with the mid-term review of the European Union Humanitarian Aid Consensus action plan. This work is expected to pave the way for future legislative proposals.

Georgieva, in discussing the situation in the Gaza Strip, said that she believes that the "humanitarian crisis...was artificially created because of the blockade". However, she also commented that the idea of a Gaza flotilla is not the correct action to take: "We are not in favor of attempts to help people in this way".

Vice-President of the European Commission, 2014-2016

In 2014, news media reported that the ambassadors of several Western EU countries early on indicated their countries’ support for Georgieva to be nominated for the incoming Juncker Commission, indicating that she might get the post of High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy. Her candidacy had been uncertain because of political infighting in Bulgaria. The socialist party wanted to block her because she is a member of the centre-right Gerb party, preferring Kristian Vigenin instead. The collapse of the socialist government, however, cleared the path for her nomination. By August, Georgi Bliznashki, Bulgaria's interim prime minister, announced her candidacy to replace Britain's Catherine Ashton.

Incoming European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker instead assigned the post of Vice-President for Budget and Human Resources to Georgieva. She is thus the most senior technocrat in the Juncker Commission, the only one of the seven vice-presidents never to have served as a national minister. In her current capacity, she is in charge of reporting on how the budget of the European Union is spent to the European Parliament, the Council and the European Court of Auditors. Within months of taking her new position and amid skepticism about the European Union and its budget of around $159 billion reaching new heights, Georgieva was able to negotiate a several-billion-dollar budget increase for 2014.

In May 2015, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon appointed Georgieva and Nazrin Shah of Perak as co-chairs of the High-Level Panel on Humanitarian Financing, an initiative aimed at preparing recommendations for the 2016 World Humanitarian Summit. In recent years, Georgieva has been repeatedly mentioned a possible successor to Ban Ki-moon as United Nations Secretary-General.

In June 2015, Georgieva announced the European Commission's appointment of Jonathan Faull as head of a task force dealing with reforms demanded by Prime Minister David Cameron to keep the United Kingdom in the European Union.

In October 2015, Georgieva announced that the European Commission's legal services are preparing an overhaul of the European Anti-fraud Office (OLAF), after a damaging leak of internal correspondence revealed a bitter rift between the office and independent supervisory panel.

Work after the European Commission

On 28 October 2016, the World Bank announced that from 2 January 2017 Kristalina Georgieva will be the new Chief Executive Officer for the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the International Development Association.

Other activities

Awards

As recognition of her work and her efficient reaction to the humanitarian crises of the year, Georgieva was named Commissioner of the Year in the "Europeans of the Year 2010" awards, organized by the influential European Voice newspaper, which also named her "European of the Year". The winners are chosen on the basis of online voting, which is open until 31 October of each year. In 2016, Georgieva was honored with the Devex Power with Purpose award for her work in global development.

Personal life

Kristalina Georgieva is married and has one child. She has been living in Washington DC, but is based in Brussels as of 2014. Her hobbies include travelling, guitar playing, dancing and cooking exotic dishes.