Haocong is a lead financial sector specialist and pillar lead of CGAP’s policy and investment team. Prior to joining CGAP, she spent almost 20 years at the World Bank (WB). She was a senior financial sector specialist in the Finance, Competitiveness and Innovation (FCI) team in the Europe and Central Asia Region of the World Bank from 2021 to 2024. She led/co-led the financial sector work programs for Azerbaijan and Georgia, and coordinates FCI’s work programs across the South Caucasus. Before that, she worked in the Middle East and North Africa Region of the WB, led the financial sector work program in Lebanon from 2019 to 2021 including during the onset and early stages of the financial crisis, leading the policy dialogue with the government and Banque du Liban. She also worked on various financial sector issues in several other countries in the region (Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, and West Bank and Gaza). Prior to joining the regional team in 2017, she worked in the global team responsible for financial stability and integrity issues within the FCI Global Practice of the WB. She helped coordinate the WB engagement with the Financial Stability Board on financial regulatory reforms, leveraging WB’s global engagements with various standard-setting bodies. She also worked extensively on financial sector issues in China from 2009 to 2017. She participated in several Financial Sector Assessment Programs, including as WB deputy mission chief for the China FSAP Update 2017 and Kuwait FSAP Update 2018, and as WB mission chief for the Georgia FSAP Update 2021. Her work has covered a range of topics, including financial regulatory reforms, state-owned financial institutions, crisis management, supervisory governance and structure, SME finance, digital financial services, climate and green agenda, and capital market development, etc. During 2005-2008, Haocong worked in the International Finance Team of the WB’s Economic Prospects Group and was a member of the core team on a World Bank flagship publication Global Development Finance.
Haocong received a Bachelor’s Degree in Economics from Peking University (China) and an M.Phil. Degree in Economics from the George Washington University. She is a CFA charterholder.