Courtney Ashley Vaughan is the principal of a 17-year-old boutique strategy-consulting firm providing management consulting and cross-border transaction advisory services for institutional building and infrastructure development. Ms. Vaughan is a multi-sectoral and multi-skilled strategist and an out-of-the-box thinker who advises in the financial, private, and government sectors about financing strategies to support growth. She is an effective coordinator, due diligence expert and negotiator who understands how organizations and markets work. Over the last two decades, Ms. Vaughan led several missions to Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean and the Middle East for the World Bank and private sector stakeholders, serving in various capacities on high-level and complex business cases across 40 countries worldwide. She is a leading advisor in the West African Sub-regional electricity infrastructure advisory space and has engaged the highest level of government in West African States and the United States. She is a member of the Board of Directors of Women in Housing and Finance ‘WHF’ and the Secretary of WHF Executive Board. She is also a member of the Board of Advisors of Emerald Planet International Foundation and a frequent guest on The Emerald Planet TV. Ms. Vaughan is the producer of Farm to Market Magazine™ and recently anchored The Future of Agricultural and Food Security in Africa, a four-part show that was broadcast live on Emerald Planet Television program (Channel 10 Television) on May 6, 2018. She previously served as a member of the Advisory Council for Natural Partners, and on the Board of Directors of the University of the West Indies, Washington DC Alumni Chapter. Ms. Vaughan is a member of The Bretton Woods Committee.

Ms. Vaughan previously served as a Managing Director of a Washington-DC based full-service economic consulting firm, leveraging her Wall Street and international development banking experience to bring multiple resources to support major investments in developing countries. She developed and authored the five-year strategic plan (2011) and accompanying three-year business plan (2006-2009) to institutionalize the West Africa Power Pool (WAPP), under the Public and Private Infrastructure Facility (PPIF) at the World Bank. WAPP is a 14-country electricity power pool, and an independently chartered subsidiary under the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). The WAPP business plan serves as the foundation that supports all subsequent WAPP business plans since the inception of the WAPP institution in 2006 in the Republic of Benin (ecowapp.org). Ms. Vaughan has an acute knowledge of how key Washington institutions (World Bank, Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), and United States Export Import Bank) work and has represented private sector stakeholders to these institutions.

Ms. Vaughan previously served four Wall Street-based financial institutions, including Chase Manhattan Bank and Bank of New York and provided operational-level support for billions of dollars in syndicated loans. She also contributed to the restructuring of sovereign debt for Latin American countries under the Brady Bonds Guidelines. She has served the World Bank as a consultant and developed the baseline for financial sector vulnerability of eight countries in Europe and Central Asia — after Russia defaulted on its domestic debt in 1998 — and a consolidated private and financial sector development note for seven countries in Middle East and North Africa (MENA). She co-anchored MENA Private and Financial Sector Unit during the formation of the Global Development Gateway and participated in the preliminary digital readiness assessment of several MENA countries.

Ms. Vaughan’s speaking engagements include those where she offered perspectives and unbiased recommendations to improve economic conditions in African economies, facilitated discussions with heads of state, including President Obasanjo (Nigeria), and President Obiang (Equatorial Guinea), and engaged Capitol Hill, World Bank, and EXIM in discussions about mobilizing pipe mill companies to support the proposed US$4 billion South Sudan oil pipeline project. She is bullish on FinTech and has moderated a discussion with the Senior Vice President and Deputy General Counsel (Margaret Liu) of the Conference of State Bank Supervisors about Virtual Currency and the Regulatory Fabric.
Ms. Vaughan taught Mathematics at State University of New York, Maritime College, and Finance at George Washington University, holds a BA degree in Economics from Fordham University, a MPA degree in Advanced Policy Analysis Techniques from Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs, and a certificate in Managing Fiscal Risks from World Bank Institute.