SAHBA SOBHANI

Director, UNDP Istanbul International Center for Private Sector in Development (IICPSD)

Sahba Sobhani is the Director of UNDP IICPSD. Mr. Sobhani brings 19 years of experience in the private sector in Silicon Valley, Singapore and at UNDP as Programme Advisor, Team Leader and Programme Manager including as the technical lead for the recently endorsed UNDP private sector strategy. He has significant partnership development and advocacy experience with the private sector working with over 100 companies and business organizations and a track record of operational leadership, innovation and management of six global UNDP-led strategic multi-stakeholder partnerships and initiatives in the area of business and development including the Business Call to Action Initiative, the Connecting Business Initiative and the G20 Global Platform on Inclusive Business and has been the principal author and content manager of all 5 major UNDP-led reports in the area of private sector in development.

Previously, he managed two key UNDP private sector initiatives in the executive office of the former Administrator of UNDP, Mark Malloch Brown, including the Commission on the Private Sector and Development, and the African Financial Markets Initiative. He co-authored Unleashing Entrepreneurship: Making Business Work for the Poor, the seminal report of the Private Sector Commission produced at the request of former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. Mr. Sobhani was the managing editor of the African Stock Markets Handbook. He is a graduate of Yale University and the Fletcher School of Diplomacy (USA).