Marcelo Castellanos, a Bolivian national, brings to the role over two decades of experience, across Latin America and the Caribbean and Europe regions, in international investments and private sector development.
Mr. Castellanos joins this position from the International Finance Corporation (IFC), where he served as Senior Regional Manager for Southeastern Europe. In that capacity, he led IFC’s strategy and business operations across Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Romania, and Serbia, while managing key client relationships across the region. Based in Bucharest, he oversaw IFC’s efforts to accelerate private sector growth and mobilize private investment in infrastructure, financial inclusion, added-value manufacturing value chains, and climate resilience.
In his new role, Mr. Castellanos serves as the single point of contact for the full range of World Bank Group products, instruments, and services in Romania, strengthening the institution’s ability to deliver development solutions with speed, efficiency, and impact. He will work in close partnership with the Government, the private sector, and civil society to deepen the World Bank Group’s commitment to Romania’s development agenda – creating quality jobs, enhancing economic competitiveness and resilience, attracting investment, and ensuring that growth reaches every region and every citizen.
Prior to joining IFC, Mr. Castellanos spent more than ten years in the financial sector across the Latin America and Caribbean region, with C-level responsibilities in financial institutions. Mr. Castellanos holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a degree in Industrial Engineering from the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina.