Speaker details

Biography

Motoko Aizawa is an author and researcher on the sustainability challenges of mega-infrastructure development, investment and finance. Ms. Aizawa spent more than two decades at the World Bank Group in various capacities, including as Sustainability Advisor to the World Bank’s Sustainable Development Network. She is the principal author of the original IFC Performance Standards; she also led the creation and implementation of the Equator Principles. In both cases, she helped these standards incorporate the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. Ms. Aizawa began her career as a business lawyer, specializing in due diligence in mergers and acquisitions at Baker & McKenzie, and project financing of infrastructure projects at IFC’s Legal Department. After she left the World Bank, she served as Managing Director USA of the Institute for Human Rights in Business between 2014 and 2016. She currently serves as the Chair of the District of Columbia’s Commission on Human Rights.