Interpeace has today announced the appointment of Rosy Khanna as the inaugural Executive Director of its Finance for Peace initiative. Rosy joins Finance for Peace with an impressive background in development finance, including three decades at the International Finance Corporation, the private sector arm of the World Bank. 

Finance for Peace’s new Executive Director Rosy Khanna said: “Leading Finance for Peace at a time when the number of conflicts continues to increase globally, and funding for fragile and conflict-affected states has been steadily declining, appeals to me greatly. I was particularly drawn to the role of Executive Director at Finance for Peace since it provides the platform to influence the conversation on an issue that is very close to my heart: inclusive economic development and resilience building of fragile and conflict-affected states in the context of the poly-crises that they face, such as conflict, climate change, food insecurity, changing demographics, and gender-based issues.  

“I look forward to working with the development finance community, my colleagues at Interpeace and Finance for Peace and other stakeholders and partners in this endeavour and I am confident we can achieve success in Finance for Peace’s mission.” 

Interpeace’s President Itonde Kakoma said: “Interpeace is delighted to have Rosy Khanna join our Finance for Peace initiative as its new Executive Director. Rosy’s remarkable experience in and understanding of development finance and impact investing will be an unrivalled asset for Finance for Peace as it widens its reach and solidifies its work to set the standards and create the market for Peace Finance globally.  

“The systemic change needed to provide sufficient finance for peace and for investment to more meaningfully contribute to peace and social cohesion requires the best minds and a deep underlying commitment to human values, and in Rosy we have both.” 

Rosy Khanna joins Finance for Peace with three decades of multi-sectoral development finance and impact investing experience in emerging markets in Asia, Africa, Latin America and Europe. Her sectoral focus areas include financial institutions, manufacturing and services companies, fintech companies, and private equity and venture capital funds. Thematically, during her career she has focused on sustainability and climate financing, financial inclusion and gender financing, and innovation with a digital and technology lens. 

Rosy has an established track record in managing large, geographically dispersed teams, and programs and projects focused on inclusive finance, climate finance, gender finance and innovative finance. A visionary and strategic leader, Rosy Khanna has received 26 awards for outstanding business contributions. She is skilful at developing and managing stakeholder relationships resulting in transformative and first-of-a-kind investment, advisory and upstream projects and programs. Rosy has executed impactful programs of approx. USD 10 billion in aggregate new financing and USD 110 million in client advisory engagements. She is proficient in managing high-performing portfolios with assets under management of over USD 12 billion in aggregate. 

Particularly relevant to her new role at Finance for Peace, Rosy has served as board member for a micro-finance holding company and made strategic contributions in governance, policies and procedures to convert the company from NGO to a holding company. She also served as an investment committee member to evaluate private equity funds and credit committee member evaluating financing projects at IFC. She is currently on the Investment Committee of ILX Fund, an SDG-focused USD1 billion emerging market credit fund that provides institutional investors access to development finance opportunities in clean energy, sustainable production, food security and inclusive finance. 

Rosy is currently based in Washington D.C., and she will relocate to Interpeace’s headquarters in Geneva for this role.  

The Finance for Peace initiative of Interpeace works with partners to create the norms, standards, research and knowledge to promote investment approaches aimed at fostering peace in fragile and conflict-affected countries. This includes the development of Peace Bond and Equity Standards, impact frameworks, market intelligence and partnerships. Finance for Peace is financially supported by the German Federal Foreign Office and builds on feasibility research supported by the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Development Office.