Frannie Léautier


Frannie Léautier is a Tanzanian civil engineer, academic, and international finance and development consultant. She leads and helps organizations in the private, public, and not-for-profit spheres thrive in advanced and emerging economies. Dr. Léautier is known for her skills in operational management, transformational leadership, resource mobilization, and working with complex boards and multi-constituency governance structures, as well as representing and engaging with government and international organizations at the highest levels.

Early life

She was born in the northern Tanzanian town of Moshi, in the Kilimanjaro Region. She has three sisters and three brothers. At age three, her family relocated to Lushoto, a town in the Usambara Mountains. Growing up there, she was influenced by her grandfather, who inspired her to study physics and engineering. She was admitted to the University of Dar es Salaam, graduating in 1984 with a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering. She continued her studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she earned a Master of Science in Transportation, graduating in 1986. She followed that up with a Doctor of Philosophy in Civil Engineering, from 1987 to graduation in 1990.

Career

She engaged with the World Bank in 1992 on the strategy for infrastructure in the 1990s. She joined them full-time in 1994, working in Washington, DC, for the next 15 years. She worked in various roles, including as Director of Infrastructure for a year in 2000. For the next 12 months, in 2001, she served as the Chief of Staff to the President of the World Bank Group, at that time James Wolfensohn. For the last six years of her tenure at the World Bank from 2001 to 2007, she was in charge of the World Bank Institute.
After she left the World Bank, she co-founded the Fezembat Group, a consultancy partnership based in Castelnau de Montmiral, France, where she worked as the Managing Partner from 2007 until 2009.
From July 2009 until November 2013, she relocated to Harare, Zimbabwe, and worked as the Executive Secretary of the African Capacity Building Foundation, a non-profit organization. She concurrently served as a Distinguished Professor at Sciences Po, Paris, from 2007 until December 2013.
In December 2013, she returned to Tanzania and served as the co-founder, partner, and chair of Mkoba Private Equity Fund, which invested in emerging opportunities in the African continent, working there for two-and-a-half years until June 2016.
Léautier left Mkoba to rejoin the Fezembat Group, where she continued as a strategic advisor. She served as vice-chair of the Board, the first independent board director and special advisor to the President, before eventually becoming TDB's Chief Operating Officer on September 1, 2018.
She took a stint at the African Development Bank, serving as its Senior Vice President.
She joined TDB as its Chief Operating Officer in July 2018. In 2019, she became Executive Director for the Asset Management side of the Bank's business.
Léautier joined the UN Foundation in 2019 and began serving on the Board of African Risk Capacity Ltd in 2018.
In May 2020, The SouthBridge Group https://www.southbgroup.com/ announced the appointment of Dr. Frannie Léautier as a Senior Partner - https://www.southbgroup.com/dr-frannie-leautier-joins-southbridge-senior-partner/. Prior to the announcement, she had successfully served as a non-executive Board member and Chairperson of the Group’s Board Risk & Audit Committee. As a Senior Partner, Dr. Léautier will be responsible for new business development and will pursue the Group’s ambitious strategy of growth in markets with demand for advisory services as well as taking on responsibility for investment activities.

Other leadership positions

Dr. Léautier served/serves as a board member on several regional and international organizations, including:
In 2019, Léautier received an Honorary Doctorate in Law from Lancaster University in the United Kingdom, in acknowledgement of her work globally in infrastructure. In recognition for her contributions to Africa, she holds an Honorary Degree in Humane Letters from North Central College in Illinois, US.
In addition to winning various awards, including “Best Manager” and awards for excellence at the World Bank Group, she was repeatedly featured in the New African Magazine list of 100 most influential people in Africa. She earned the title of ‘Nkosuohemaa’, meaning ‘queen of development’ in the Ahanta language, which was given to her by the Agona people for her work in Ghana. She was recently recognized in the first volume of a book on African Women of Worth.

Publications and academia

Léautier is a well-recognized author and academic, having published books, articles, and papers in international development, leadership, regional issues like integration and trade, and the role of Africa in the world. She taught Masters-level courses and advised thesis students, and gave keynote lectures at Sciences Po, MIT, the Kennedy School at Harvard University, the New England Complex Systems Institute, Duke University and the University of Tokyo, among other institutions.

Selected publications

She is fluent in French and English, with competency in Spanish and some knowledge of Arabic.