Team
Walid Abdelwahab, Ph.D.
Director, IsDB Group Regional Hub, Türkiye
Dr. Walid Abdelwahab is an international development expert with over 30 years of experience in international development, sustainable finance, Islamic finance, blended finance, infrastructure and PPP finance and advisory. He spent the last 23 years of his career in various senior positions with the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) providing leadership in country strategy formulation, policy dialogue, financing, and advisory services.
He has managed a US$ 25 billion portfolio of the Bank’s development projects in all major sectors (infrastructure, human development, agriculture) in the Bank’s 57 member countries in Asia, Africa, MENA, Europe, and Latin America. In 2006, Dr. Abdelwahab led the introduction of PPP finance in the Bank which, during six years, has grown to[DK1] US$ 3 billion. He has also led the Bank’s relationship with international donors and philanthropic organizations while taking the lead in the introduction of blended finance in the Bank’s operations to serve underprivileged populations in low-income and fragile countries in addition to countries hosting large numbers of refugees.
Currently, he is the Director of the Islamic Development Bank Group Regional Hub in Türkiye, covering Afghanistan, Albania, Azerbaijan, Iran, Pakistan and Türkiye.
Prior to joining IsDB, Dr. Abdelwahab worked for the Ministry of Transport and Highways of British Columbia, Canada, as a Senior Safety Research Engineer. He led the Ministry’s cooperative research program with the University of British Columbia (UBC) where he concurrently held the position of Adjunct Professor. Dr. Abdelwahab has also headed the Civil Engineering Department at Al Isra Private University in Jordan where he taught Transportation Engineering and Economics for several years. He has published numerous articles in academic journals in the field of transport engineering, planning and economics and holds a B.Sc. in Civil Engineering from Jordan, an M.Sc. and a Ph.D. in the same field from Canada.