Frannie Leautier

Dr. Frannie Léautier is Senior Partner at SouthBridge Group and Chief Executive Officer of SouthBridge Investments, where she leads the firm’s investment activities. She also serves as Senior Advisor to the President of the African Development Bank Group. Her expertise spans development finance, asset management, infrastructure, risk management, and mobilizing capital for sustainable growth across Africa and emerging markets.

Frannie previously served as Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of the African Development Bank, Vice President and Chief of Staff to the President at the World Bank Group, and the first Group Chief Operating Officer of the Trade and Development Bank. She chaired the G20’s independent expert panel reviewing multilateral development banks’ capital adequacy frameworks. She also founded the Fezembat Group and co-founded a Private Equity firm, established to provide growth capital to African small and medium-sized enterprises.

Frannie chairs the boards of FSD Africa and FSD Africa Investments. Her other board appointments include the United Nations Foundation, World Resources Institute, Momentum Group, CFAO, Onafriq, and Orca Energy Group. Her previous governance roles include AZA Finance and African Risk Capacity Ltd.

She holds a PhD in Engineering, with a focus on infrastructure systems, and an MSc in Transportation both from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a BSc in Civil Engineering from the University of Dar es Salaam. She has received honorary doctorates in Law from Lancaster University and Humane Letters from North Central College.