11 Dec SEAF Welcomes IFC Veteran Yasmin Saadat to its Board of Directors
December 10th, 2019 – Washington, DC – SEAF is pleased to announce that Yasmin Saadat has joined the firm’s Board of Directors. Yasmin brings more than three decades of experience in development economics and investing in emerging markets.
She currently serves as a Senior Fellow at the Hunt Institute for Engineering and Humanity at Southern Methodist University where she researches technology application in promoting an inclusive economy in low-income communities.
“Yasmin’s experience and commitment to improving the lives of people and communities through entrepreneurship and technology makes her an ideal complement to SEAF’s Board of Directors. We look forward to her engagement across a range of our initiatives and our organization,” stated Bert van der Vaart, SEAF’s CEO and Co-Founder.
Prior to her current position, Yasmin spent over 30 years at the World Bank and the IFC, working on macro and agricultural sector policy and lending operations in a variety of roles including, as an economist, investment officer, and operations manager of trade finance portfolio facilities. Most recently, Yasmin served as the Product Head of the Commodity/Structured Trade Finance at the IFC where she launched and managed a newly created $1.5 billion line of business of structured trade finance with emerging market banks, and global traders.
From 2007 to 2009, Yasmin left the IFC to become a Principal Member and Chief Operating Officer of Potomac River Capital, at the time a newly established asset management company of a global macro hedge fund. Yasmin holds a BA in Economics from Université des Sciences Sociales in Grenoble and an MA and a Ph.D. in Development Economics and International Development from the Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy at Tufts University. She is a CFA charter holder.
Yasmin commented that she is “proud and honored to join SEAF’s board, a family of high-impact development funds with successful track records serving ventures across regions and sectors. This is my passion and my profession. I hope to add to the range of thinkers, creators, and doers at SEAF.”
About SEAF:
SEAF is a global fund management company headquartered in Washington, DC that invests in small and medium-sized enterprises in emerging and frontier markets. SEAF seeks financial returns as well as impact on economic and social development and provides technical assistance to improve the performance of the enterprises. SEAF, with committed capital of $1.2 billion, has 30 years of experience with 40 funds in over 30 countries. Since 2006, SEAF has also supported 14 Centers for Entrepreneurship and Development (CEED) around the world (www.ceed-global.org), providing training, mentoring, professional networks and global access to entrepreneur-run businesses. For more about SEAF, see www.seaf.com. ###