Michael Higgins is a global banking and finance specialist with more than 40 years of international banking experience, primarily devoted to financial institutions analysis, risk management, strategic planning, and corporate governance.

Michael began his career in the Business and Economic Research Department of The First National Bank of Chicago before joining The Chase Manhattan Bank, where he specialized in credit and energy lending in London, prior to becoming a Managing Director in the Bank’s Financial Institutions Group in New York.

In 1991, Michael became the first Director of Strategic Planning for the newly formed Federal Housing Finance Board and subsequently launched and managed the first private sector commercial bank training program in the former Soviet Union.

In 1998, he joined IFC as Principal Banking Specialist for the former Soviet Union and East Asia, leading due diligence teams to evaluate 75 financial institutions in more than 40 countries. He later moved to Bangkok to serve as IFC’s Country Manager for Thailand and then to Cairo and Dubai to design and oversee IFC’s Financial Markets Advisory Services in the Middle East and North Africa.

Michael holds a B.A. in Economics from the College of the Holy Cross, an M.B.A. in International Business from the University of Chicago, an M.Sc. (ECON) in Accounting and Finance from The London School of Economics, and a J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law.