Heike Harmgart

Heike Harmgart is EBRD Managing Director for Sub-Saharan Africa. She took on this role in September 2024.

Dr Harmgart was responsible for the formulation and delivery of the EBRD’s strategy and business plan for the southern and eastern Mediterranean (SEMED) region, spanning Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Tunisia, Lebanon and the West Bank and Gaza. Based in Cairo, she managed a team of 150 staff with an annual business volume of over €2 billion.

A German national, Dr Harmgart joined the EBRD in 2006 as an economist. In 2013, she became the EBRD’s first Head of Office in Jordan, based in Amman. She was appointed Director for the Eastern Mediterranean after the Bank expanded under her local leadership into Lebanon and the West Bank and Gaza in 2017.

Dr Harmgart serves as a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on the New Agenda for Fragility and Resilience.

in 2020 and 2021, she was selected by Forbes Middle East as one of the 10 most powerful women in business in the Middle East.

Prior to joining the EBRD, she worked for the Economist Intelligence Unit and the Institute for Fiscal Studies. She holds a PhD in Economics from University College London.