EXPERTISE: public sector management; legislative reforms; networking
Franz is a German lawyer by training. He spent almost his entire professional career at the World Bank – 1970 – 2007 – where he worked between 1972 and 1997 in different operational functions and regions: Central America, Yugoslavia, Egypt, Senegal (as World Bank Resident Representative), different West African countries. From 1997-2004 he represented the World Bank in a High Level Steering Group, headed by the European Commission, on EU enlargement. Parallel to this function, he served as Senior Partnership Advisor of the World Bank Vice President for Europe and Central Asia (ECA). This function also included chairing the ECA NGO Working Group, an innovative World Bank NGO outreach effort. Between 2000 and 2004 Franz performed this function out of the World Bank Budapest/Hungary office. From 2004-2007 he served as World Bank Special Representative for Southeast Europe in a Joint Office with the European Commission in Brussels.
During his operational functions, Franz was in charge of designing and negotiating with partner countries the respective country assistance strategies and to lead the respective World Bank teams in negotiating with partner countries respective World Bank loan and credit agreements. Many of these operations included co-financing or partner agreements with other international and national development agencies.
After his retirement in May 2007, Franz worked for a few years as a World Bank consultant. Since 2010, Franz serves as the Speaker of the so-called German speaking World Bank alumni association, which includes World Bank alumni living in Austria, Germany, Switzerland and some other countries.
Franz became a Partnership for Transparency (PTF) advisor in 2010 and serves since October 2013 as Chairman of the Partnership for Transparency e.V. (PTF e.V.), the European affiliate of the Washington DC based PTF: www.ptfund.org
Areas of Expertise
In-depth knowledge of the overall development agenda as well as the European Union enlargement/Eastern Partnership Agenda. Close contacts and excellent network connections with key players in different EU and German institutions/think tanks involved in the overall good governance agenda.
Country Experience
Central America, different West African countries, some Middle East countries, Western, Central and Southeast Europe
Languages
German
English
French
Spanish
