Defne Gencer is a Senior Energy Specialist leading the Energy Subsidy Reform Facility at ESMAP. Prior to joining ESMAP, she worked as a Senior Energy Specialist in the Bank’s Energy and Extractives Global Practice in the South Asia Region, focusing on energy sector reform, policy and regulation, energy efficiency, sustainable cooling, and agriculture-water energy nexus topics in India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. Before that, she worked in the East Asia and Pacific Region, focusing on energy efficiency, renewable energy, rural electrification, regional power trade, and energy sector policy and reform engagements in Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Philippines, and Vietnam.
Before joining the World Bank, she worked for an energy regulatory agency, a private international energy major, and an international policy think tank in Washington DC. Defne has an MA from Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), with a concentration in energy and international finance.