ADB appoints new vice-president

The Asian Development Bank has appointed Ingrid van Wees as vice-president for finance and risk management to succeed Thierry de Longuemar. 

In her new role, she will be responsible for the overall management of the operations of the office of risk management, the controller’s department and the treasury department, ADB said in a statement. 

Van Wees is currently a senior official at the German Investment and Development Corporation (DEG) where she oversees a portfolio of debt, equity and fund investments in Europe, the Middle East and Asia. She also has treasury experience in development-focused investment banking. 

Before she moved to DEG in 2004, she held managerial roles related to corporate finance and business development in the private sector. 

Following the announcement of his retirement in June, de Longuemar is leaving ADB this month to join the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, a Beijing-led multilateral lender, as chief financial officer. He has been a vice-president at ADB since 2011, after two stints as the bank’s treasurer.

Over the past year, ADB and AIIB have been working together on co-financing projects in Asia. The first collaboration saw the two lenders provide a $100 million loan each to a motorway project in Pakistan, alongside a $34 million grant provided by the UK government's development arm. 

AIIB aims to lend a total of $1.2 billion this year, while Tokyo-headed ADB is looking to increase its lending capacity to $20 billion by 2020.