Prior joining to Africa Region Finance and Private Sector Development Department, Ms. Soheyla Mahmoudi was working as Senior Operations Officer for the African Diaspora Program (ADP) in the Office of the Africa Regional Vice President at the World Bank. She was the Task Team Leader for Strengthening Diaspora engagement projects in several countries - such as Ethiopia, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Malawi, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda, as well as IDF Grants to the African Union Commission (AUC). Soheyla was also managing the European Commission (EC) Bank-Executed Trust Fund, African Institute for Remittances (AIR) project, which involved very challenging external partnership relations with the AUC, European commission (EC), African Development Bank (AfDB), and the International Organization for Migration (IOM); and internal partnerships with AFTFP, the Payments System Development Group, and DEC. In Africa Region Finance and Private Sector Development Department, Soheyla will focus in Remittances agenda and contribution to social and economic development. Soheyla was part of the many country teams and was responsible for contributing the ADP voice in Country Assistance Strategy (CAS) development and implementation; and provided substantive comments during the investment/DPL review processes for operations in various sectors such as SDN, HD, and post conflict/fragile state operations. She joined the Bank as Finance Analyst and has worked in different assignments such as working in the Africa Region Capacity Development and Partnership unit and Africa Region Operation Quality and Knowledge. She has extensive experience in all stages of operations from project design to completion of the project. She has also worked in Bank operation in South Asia and East Asia regions. Soheyla's special experience is in areas of post conflict and conflict countries. She worked and lived in Afghanistan right after the fall of the Taliban in 2001, as well as worked extensively with governments of Ethiopia, Eritrea, South Sudan (Juba) and Uganda in 1990. Soheyla is from Iran and migrated to the United States after Iran's revolution. Soheyla holds an MBA from Johns Hopkins University in Maryland and completed her Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration at Catholic University of American in Washington D.C.