The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has appointed Michael Strauss as its new General Counsel.
Mr Strauss, a U.S. citizen, will take up his position at the start of 2020. He succeeds Marie-Anne Birken, who is retiring from the EBRD at the end of this year.
Mr Strauss has extensive commercial and development market experience and joins the EBRD from the Washington law firm Harris, Wiltshire and Grannis LLP, where he was a Partner.
He started his career at the New York law firm Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP in London and Paris in 2001. After five years, he joined the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as Legal Counsel in 2006. From the IMF, he went on to serve at World Bank’s Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency as Senior Counsel.
He became a Senior Advisor to the Assistant Secretary for International Finance at the U.S. Treasury Department in 2011 and subsequently spent five years at the Asian Development Bank in Manila, serving as the U.S. Alternate Executive Director and then as Acting Executive Director.
EBRD President Sir Suma Chakrabarti welcomed Mr Strauss to the Bank. “I’m delighted that we have been able to appoint someone of Mike’s calibre, bringing a wealth of experience on development finance as well as his knowledge and background in the commercial sector.”
Michael Strauss graduated with a Bachelor’s cum laude from Williams College in 1994, a Masters from the Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy in 1999 and a JD from Stanford Law School in 2001.