Board of Directors
Board of Directors
North America
Yasmin Saadat joined SEAF’s Board of Directors in 2019, bringing 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. 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.