Jean-Pierre MARCELLI

Jean-Pierre Marcelli, AFD's Executive Director of Operations, is responsible for implementing AFD's operational strategy and objectives.

In its 2018-2022 Strategic Plan, AFD Group defined the priorities and objectives for its activities. It is Jean-Pierre Marcelli's mission to ensure that these lines of action are implemented, and also to identify and anticipate new operational challenges. This initiative, involving all the Operations teams in mainland France, French overseas departments and foreign countries, as well as other AFD Group stakeholders, aims to promote new public policies for development and for social, economic and ecological transitions alongside our clients and partners. 

This approach is based on demand from the field, the involvement of our partners and results-based management. Jean-Pierre Marcelli has seen these concepts in action during his 30-year career at AFD, with 15 years spent working in the field.

An agricultural engineer, he joined AFD in 1988 as an international volunteer at the Port Louis office (Mauritius), and then as Head of Mission for Rural Development in Abidjan (Côte d’Ivoire). In 1993, he was tasked with developing and promoting the Group's activities in Ethiopia and Eritrea, which led him to set up the Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) office in 1997. In 1999, he was responsible for opening a new office in East Jerusalem (Palestine), which he transformed into a fully-fledged agency the following year. From 2003 to 2006, Jean-Pierre Marcelli worked at headquarters in the Strategy department and then as deputy director for Central, Eastern and Southern Africa. 

Next, he managed two AFD offices successively in Africa: one in Nairobi (Kenya), where he designed and set up a network of offices in East Africa (Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi), and then one in Cairo (Egypt). He returned to headquarters in 2014 to manage the Africa department. In 2018, he was appointed Executive Director of Operations.