Frannie Léautier is the Executive Secretary of the African Capacity Building Foundation. She has had a rich a career in the private sector and in international development, having served as Vice President of the World Bank and Head of the World Bank Institute from December 2001 to March 2007. She also served as Chief of Staff to the former President of the World Bank from 2000 to 2001. From 2007 to 2009 she was Managing Partner of The Fezembat Group, a company she founded that focuses on risk management and leadership development.  

Dr. Léautier has been widely published and sits on several boards including as an Advisory Board Member for MIT OpenCourseWare, a member of the MIT Corporation Visiting Committee for Civil and Environmental Engineering, a Founding Board Member for the Nelson Mandela Institute for Science and Technology in Africa, a Founding Board Member for the Africa Institute for Governing with Integrity, a member of the Board of UONGOZI, a Leadership Institute in Tanzania,  and a member of the WISE Haiti Task Force established by Qatar Foundation. 

Dr. Léautier is the Vice Chair for the World Economic Forum Africa and Global Agenda Council on Youth Development and a member of the Knowledge Advisory Commission of the World Bank. In 2011, she was named among the top 100 most influential people in Africa. In March 2013 she was granted the title of Nkosuohemaa - Queen of Development – for the Agona Traditional Area in Ghana.  

Dr. Léautier holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Dar es Salaam; a Master of Science degree in Transportation from MIT; and a Ph.D. in Infrastructure Systems from MIT. She is also a graduate of the Harvard University Executive Development Program. Since 2007 she has been teaching a course on Leadership at Sciences Po in Paris.