Speaker Profile

Olaf Schmidt

Manager- Tourism Investments Africa, IFC

Olaf Schmidt is Manager, Tourism, Real Estate, Retail, Manufacturing, Health, Education, Africa Region at IFC (International Finance Corporation, a member of the World Bank Group).

He has done investments across all continents over the past 15 years. His previous responsibilities as Global Sector Lead for Tourism, Retail & Property and Hub Lead for MAS (Manufacturing, Agribusiness, Services) in Western Europe included helping build business with European sponsors across emerging markets and providing global coverage of investments with a variety of instruments including equity, mezzanine finance, and debt.

Before joining IFC in 2003, he worked in strategy consulting with A.T. Kearney in France and Germany and spent two years with OTF Group (formerly Monitor Country Competitiveness) in Africa.

Olaf holds a Business Administration degree from ESSEC, France and Mannheim University, Germany, and a MPA from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.