Reimagining public finance. Making public resources work for development outcomes

Arturo Herrera is the Global Director for Institutions in the Prosperity vertical, World Bank.

Mr. Herrera, a Mexican National, has extensive experience in governance, as a practitioner and from the development and academic perspectives. He joined the World Bank in 2010 as Senior Public Sector Management Specialist in the Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) region. He held various positions in the Bank including as Sector Manager in LAC, Practice Manager in Governance Global Practice for the LAC and East Asia and the Pacific regions in the Global Unit before leaving the World Bank Group in 2018. 

Between 2018 and 2021 he has held leadership positions in the Government of Mexico as Co-Head of the Finance Team in Presidential Transition Team, Deputy Finance Minister and, most recently, as Minister of Finance and Public Credit. He was also the Chairman of Mexico’s Exchange Commission and Member of the Board of the Central Bank.

As Global Director for Institutions, country-level governance, especially in fragile, conflict and violent settings; maximizing the effectiveness of operational support for public financial management and public procurement; fostering excellence in the Bank's Prosperity vertical work on public sector administration and operational support for legal and judicial reforms.

Mr. Herrera has also taught Monetary and Banking and Macro and Micro Economics at both El Colegio de Mexico and New York University where he completed his doctoral studies in Economics.

Charlotte Kan is an international journalist, moderator, and Master of Ceremonies with over 20 years of experience. She began her career as a business journalist in London, reporting on finance, markets, and global affairs for various media outlets (Bloomberg TV, AFX News, Standard & Poor's, RTL-TVI, M6, etc.). Since then, she has moderated and hosted major international conferences for organisations including IMF, World Bank, ITU's AI for Good Global Summit, Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week, Astana International Forum, Amundi World Investment Forum, Women's Forum for the Economy & Society etc. 

Her work spans finance, sustainability, technology, and women empowerment.

Chigo Mtegha-Gelders is a Senior Governance Adviser and Team Leader (Public Financial Management & Macroeconomics), at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO).  She leads the FCDO’s policy and strategy on public financial management: supporting country-owned and politically-led PFM reforms that ensure public resources are managed effectively to deliver services and drive inclusive growth.

Chigo brings over two decades of leadership in governance, fiscal policy, and institutional reform across Africa, Asia, and the UK. She has held senior roles within FCDO, including Chief of Staff to FCDO’s Chief Scientific Adviser & Director of Research, Head of Strategic Capability and Challenge, and Head of Policy at Wilton Park. In these roles, she built strategic capability, supported senior decision-making, and strengthened FCDO’s global policy and strategy functions. As FCDO’s Head of Profession for Governance, she provided leadership to the cadre of governance advisers across FCDO’s global network, championing technical excellence, thought leadership and professional development. She has extensive frontline experience as a governance adviser in fragile and conflict-affected contexts, leading complex reform portfolios in Sierra Leone, South Sudan, Afghanistan, and Malawi.

She has also served with the African Development Bank, UNICEF, and UN World Food Programme in governance advisory and evidence-based policymaking capacities.

Philippe Brügger works as a program manager in the Macroeconomic Support Section within the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs. He leads the sections global work on public financial management and oversees its country portfolios in Ukraine and Indonesia. He holds a Masters in Economics and Behavioral Economics from the University of Zurich.

Heewoo Kang is the Director of the Center for Performance Evaluation & Management at the Korea Institute of Public Finance (KIPF), where he is responsible for supporting the overall operation of Korea’s fiscal performance evaluation system managed by the Ministry of Economy and Finance. His research interests focus on generating, managing, and utilizing information to enhance the efficiency of fiscal programs. In recent years, his work has centered on strengthening the feedback of fiscal performance evaluation results, introducing spending review mechanisms to support sustainable fiscal consolidation, and developing performance management frameworks for cross-cutting programs. He received his Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 2014 and has since been serving at KIPF.

Margaux is a Governance Specialist at the World Bank, French Senior Civil Servant, whose expertise spans across economic policy, green strategies, and PFM. Her career is marked by her role as the Coordinator of the Paris Collaborative on Green Budgeting OECD, where she led initiatives to integrate climate into PFM. Prior to this engagement, Margaux was Deputy Head and then Head of Office at the French Ministry of Economy and Finance, where she was instrumental in formulating and implementing budgetary policies, recovery plans, fiscal strategies, and green budgeting. Prior to joining the bank, she was also a PFM expert for the IMF. She has worked extensively across different regions, supporting reforms and policy implementation in countries including Cameroon, China, Côte d’Ivoire, Egypt, Gabon, Ireland, Italy, Mozambique, Türkiye, and Moldova.

Her professional journey started as a Financial Magistrate at the French Supreme Audit Institution, evidencing her commitment to the principles of good governance, transparency, and fiscal accountability. She is involved in academia, imparting her knowledge of Public Finance and Budgeting as a Professor at both Sorbonne University and the French National School of Administration. Margaux holds two Master's degrees from Sciences Po and Université Panthéon-Sorbonne-École Normale Supérieure.

Emana Shunnom is a Program Officer with the World Bank’s Financial Management Umbrella Program (FMUP), where she oversees the program’s coordination, grant monitoring, and communications to strengthen transparent and accountable public financial management in World Bank client countries. She facilitates high-level dialogue, moderates panels, and drives strategic engagement with donors and partners. Her 15-year career spans government, policy, and technology. At Cybastion, she managed policy and strategic communications across African markets as the Senior Po; at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, she advanced U.S.–Africa business and trade relations as an Africa Fellow; and at NNPC Retail Ltd., she managed a multi-billion-naira fuel station portfolio. A 2016 Mandela Washington Fellow under the United States Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI), Emana holds dual masters, an M.A. in International Policy & Practice from George Washington University, and a Master’s in International Affairs & Strategic Studies from the Nigerian Defence Academy.

Florence Kuteesa is an economist with four decades of experience in public financial management (PFM). She is an independent consultant in PFM and member of ODI Global - PFM Advisory Group. She has worked with governments, private consultancy firms, policy advocacy NGOs and development partners to improve practices in national and sectoral planning, annual and multi-year budgeting, program-based budgeting, public investment management, fiscal decentralization, and gender and equity-based budgeting. She served in Fiscal Affairs Department in the International Monetary Fund providing technical assistance to ministries of finance in anglophone countries in Africa (2007-2016). Prior, she served as a Director Budget in Ugandan Ministry of Finance and was instrumental in enhancing credibility in public sector budgeting (1998- 2004). She is a founder member of Collaborative African Budget Reform Initiative (CABRI) – a network of budget officials in Africa started in 2003. She, together with Tim Williamson and others, authored a publication: “Uganda Economic Reforms: Insiders Account”. She holds a master’s degree in human resource development from University of Manchester in UK, and a Hubert Humphrey Fellowship in strategic planning, public finance and policy from University of Texas at Austin in USA.

Philipp Krause specializes in public finance and public administration. He is a visiting fellow in German politics and government at the University of Potsdam and serves on the board of the African Economic Research Consortium. In the past, he held leadership positions at CABRI (Africa’s network of senior budget officials), the Gates Foundation, and the Overseas Development Institute. He also worked for the governments of Germany and Mexico, the World Bank, as well as the University of the Witwatersrand. In those different roles, Philipp had a chance to cover everything from macro-fiscal policy to procurement and performance budgeting but remains most interested in the role and structure of ministries of finance. He recently published (together with Richard Allen) a survey of contemporary issues in PFM. Philipp holds a PhD from the London School of Economics.

Nicola Smithers worked as a World Bank staff for over 20 years, with roles including Governance Practice Manager, Global Lead on Public Financial Management and Lead Public Sector Specialist, and a focus on Africa, East Asia and South Asia.  In addition, she headed the multi-partner Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability (PEFA) program, leading the development of the PEFA tool launched in 2005, and was also a steering committee member for its 2016 revision.  Prior to the World Bank, she was a PFM consultant, UK Department for International Development resident adviser in East Africa and Overseas Development Institute fellow in the Fiji Ministry of Finance

Paolo de Renzio is a public finance practitioner and scholar, and Senior Adjunct Professor at the Escola Brasileira de Administração Pública e de Empresas of Fundação Getulio Vargas (FGV EBAPE). Paolo also holds a regular visiting faculty position at the London School of Economics and Political Science and is a consultant with the World Bank on public finance matters. Previously, he was Senior Research Fellow at the International Budget Partnership (IBP) in Washington, DC, where he coordinated research on fiscal policy, governance, and development, and visiting faculty at the Harvard Kennedy School. He also worked in the Ministry of Finance of Papua New Guinea, with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Mozambique and as a Research Fellow at the Overseas Development Institute in London, and has extensive consulting experience with international institutions, governments, and non-governmental organizations. He holds a doctorate from the University of Oxford, and has spent the 2021/22 academic year as a Policy Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (CASBS) at Stanford University.