Senior appointments at the African Development Bank

The President of the African Development Bank Group (www.AfDB.org), Dr Akinwumi A. Adesina, is pleased to announce the following senior appointments.

Director, Integrity and Anti-Corruption

Mr. Alan Bacarese has been appointed the Director for Integrity and Anti-Corruption in the Office of the President with effect from January 1, 2019. 

Alan, a British national, comes with 30 years of experience as a senior prosecutor, white-collar crime special counsel, internationally respected expert and consultant on anti-corruption. He is a leading authority on transnational bribery and corruption, money laundering, international cooperation and asset recovery.

He co-authored UK’s leading legal textbook on corruption (Corruption and Misuse of Public Office, 3rd Edition, Oxford University Press), which has become the leading legal textbook quoted in courts and in legal rulings around the world.

Until his appointment, he was the Director of Anti-Corruption and Asset Recovery at Stream House AG, an international anti-corruption consultancy firm, having been appointed in December 2014. In this capacity he led Anti-Corruption and Asset Recovery work and provided international consulting services on governance and accountability, anti-corruption, asset recovery, anti-money laundering and financial disclosure systems for the public and private sector.  He has designed and evaluated a wide range of governance and accountability programs, anti-corruption policies and capacity building initiatives in Asia, Africa and Eastern Europe. He has also led key risk advisory work, including open source analysis for private risk companies.

Alan began his career in 1988 as Senior Crown Prosecutor in the United Kingdom’s Crown Prosecution Service where he built up experience in criminal justice and later, fraud cases. In 2001, he became a Senior Policy Advisor, Policy Directorate in the Crown Prosecution Service, before working as Head of Legal and Case Consultancy, International Centre for Asset Recovery, Basel, Switzerland between May 2007 and July 2011. Thereafter, he was Special Counsel at Peters & Peters Solicitors LLP London, one of UK’s leading white-collar crime law firms, from August 2011 to January 2014.

He currently holds the post of external member of the Inter-American Development Bank Sanctions Committee since 2015 to date. He has worked as Technical Advisor to the Anti-corruption Bureau of Malawi on a UK- DFID project, where he advises on complex investigations and prosecutions of public corruption cases.

Alan holds a Bachelor of Law degree (LLB Hons) from Leeds Polytechnic/Metropolitan University (1984-87), a Bar Finals Pass (Master’s degree Equivalent) from the Inns of Court School of Law, London (1987-88) and a Higher Courts Advocate Certificate from Nottingham University (2004)

Dr. Adesina says, “Alan brings world class credentials to his position as Director for Integrity and Anti-Corruption. I am excited to have him on board the bank’s senior leadership team and look forward to supporting the much-needed reforms he will help implement at the bank, in order to ensure that the African Development Bank continues to promote sustainable economic development and social progress on the continent and in our Regional Member Countries”.

Director Human Resources

Mrs. Frauke Harnischfeger has been appointed Director of Human Resources in the Corporate Services and Human Resources Vice-Presidency of the African Development Bank with effect from January 1, 2019.

Frauke, a citizen of Germany, brings into her role over 25 years of international human resources leadership experience in international organizations across various industries. She is a dedicated innovator with a demonstrated ability to initiate and design change that drives organizational success. She also has a proven track record of delivering people-oriented solutions in complex settings, while building high-performing teams.

Until her appointment, Frauke was the Chief Human Resources Officer at the Institute of International Education in Washington D.C in the United States, an Independent not-for-profit organization and world leader in international education with over 700 staff in 19 offices. She helped transform and upgrade the human resources function to a high-performance organizational unit. Her leadership resulted in an exceptional improvement in organizational survey results regarding organizational orientation, empowerment, coordination and integration, and organizational vision.

A pragmatic and bold reformer, she helped re-design human resource business processes, and implemented organization-wide structural re-designs, while redeploying over 400 staff members across the world.  She built a learning organization through training programs for all staff levels; helped strengthen leadership pipelines to drive change and growth; redesigned recruitment processes to reduce vacancy rates; and she helped introduce an internal mobility framework that significantly reduced staff turnover.

Between 2008 and 2012, Frauke was the Vice President, Human Resources for CHF International, in Washington D.C., in the United States of America, a non-profit international development organization with over 2,000 staff globally and operating in 25 countries. Prior to joining CHF International, she was the Interim Senior Director of Global Human Resources Management for Women International, Washington D.C., USA, from 2007 to June 2008. She was the Vice President Executive Development (Passenger Transportation) for Deutsche Bahn AG, Frankfurt and Berlin, Germany from 2003-2006. She worked at the International Finance Corporation, Washington DC, as Human Resources Account Manager from 2000-2003.

According to African Development Bank President, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, Frauke brings a robust set of skills and competencies to our Corporate Services and Human Resources Vice-Presidency. She will be a tremendous asset to the leadership team as we continue working toward making the African Development Bank a global institution of choice.

Frauke Harnischfeger holds a Master’s degree in Social Sciences from the University of Tubingen, Germany in 1991, and a Diploma in Latin, Greek and Hebrew from the Theological College, Ehingen, Germany, 1986.