Janet Heckman is Managing Director for the Southern and Eastern Mediterranean (SEMED) region at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). She was appointed to this position in February 2017.
Based in Cairo, Ms Heckman is responsible for the formulation and delivery of the EBRD strategy and business plan for this new region of operation covering Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Tunisia, Lebanon and West Bank and Gaza. Ms Heckman is also the EBRD Country Head for Egypt.
An American national, Ms Heckman joined the EBRD in July 2012 from Citi. During her tenure as EBRD Director for Kazakhstan, she contributed to a significant increase in the Bank’s footprint in this country, including through an expansion of the EBRD network of local offices. She was also instrumental in designing and implementing a ground-breaking, multi-faceted Enhanced Partnership with the Government of Kazakhstan.
Over her long career at Citi, Ms Heckman was Managing Director for its corporate banking activities in Algeria and held many field roles in Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and Bahrain, with a focus on corporate banking. She was also responsible for global relationship banking across Citi’s Central, Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa (CEEMEA) region, and later for Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) industrial clients and CEEMEA consumer industries and healthcare.
Ms Heckman holds a Master’s of Science in Foreign Service from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., and a B.A. in History from Kenyon College. She also studied at the American University in Beirut, Lebanon.