Trustee Biography: Martha Stein-Sochas

Martha Stein-Sochas is currently a Director with the Agence Francaise de Developpement (French Development Agency). AFD is a development finance institution that works on behalf of the French government to finance economic growth, reduce poverty and inequity, and build capacity and competency in over 40 countries worldwide. Ms Stein-Sochas has worked at AFD since 1991 first in the Treasury department, at Proparco (the private sector arm of AFD), as country Director in East Africa and most recently as Director for the local government’s financial and private sector department.

Ms Stein-Sochas has throughout her career contributed to the creation and implementation of innovative financial engineering for public and private sector development projects in Africa, the Middle East and South East Asia. She is also a part- time professor of Development Economics at the Institute d'Etudes Politiques in Paris.

She graduated in 1978 from Lewis and Clark College in Foreign Languages. After serving in the Peace Corps in Gabon (Central Africa), she attended the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, DC where she received a MA in International Relations in 1982.

Ms. Stein-Sochas lives in Paris with her husband, Jacques, and their children.