Ethiopis Tafara

Ethiopis Tafara (born 4 April 1964), a US national of Ethiopian descent, is a lawyer, regulator and banker. He has spent his career in finance, law, government and international organizations, spanning over 30 years. He is currently vice president and chief risk, legal and sustainability officer for the World Bank Group’s Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency. From 2013 to 2019, he served as the vice president and general counsel responsible for the legal, compliance and ESG departments at the International Finance Corporation, and as director for international affairs at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission from 2003 to 2013. Prior to his directorship at the US SEC, he worked at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission|US Commodity Futures Trading Commission as well as the law firm of Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton, Gottlieb, Steen and Hamilton.
== Early life ==
Tafara was born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, the son of Tafara Wondimagegnehu from Debre Elias in Gojjam and Andromeda Tafara (née Uston). He lived in Rome, Italy where his father was stationed as a diplomat for the Government of Ethiopia from the age of 6 until 11 years old. The family later returned to Ethiopia in 1976 before leaving for the United States in 1979. Tafara attended St Francis International School of Rome, the American Overseas School of Rome and the Good Shepherd and International Community School of Addis Ababa. He graduated Alexandria City High School in Alexandria, Virginia.
Tafara received a Bachelor of Arts from Princeton University in 1985, a Certificate of attendance from the The Hague Academy of International Law in 1998, and a Juris Doctor degree from Georgetown University Law Center in 1989.
== Career ==
Tafara began his career in between his undergraduate and graduate studies at Sovran Bank (now Bank of America) as a Management Associate. Following graduation from law school, he worked at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton, Gottlieb, Steen and Hamilton. In 1995, he joined the Commodity Futures Trading Commission Futures Trading Commission and over time served as international counsel, senior international counsel, advisor to the Chairperson and Acting Chief Counsel for Enforcement. He advised on the investigation of the copper market manipulation by Sumitomo Group|Sumitomo and supported Chairperson Brooksley Born in her efforts in the late 1990s to introduce greater transparency to the US Derivatives market|derivatives markets.
From 1999 to 2013, Tafara was, first, assistant director then director of the Office of International Affairs at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission|US Securities and Exchange Commission. He served under Chairs Arthur Levitt, Harvey Pitt, William H. Donaldson|William Donaldson, Christopher Cox, Mary Schapiro and Elisse B. Walter|Elisse Walter. At the US SEC, he dedicated his time to solving issues involving the domestic enforcement of laws and regulations against international actors and regulation of cross-border financial services. As part of this effort, he co-authored in the Harvard International Law Journal the seminal piece entitled, A Blueprint for Cross-Border Access to US Investors and together with Pierre Delsaux of the European Commission and Tom Seidenstein of the IFRS Foundation was the architect of the IFRS Monitoring Board. The influence of the ideas on cross-border regulation set forth in the HILJ article are reflected in the regulatory approaches taken by the SEC and European Commission following the Financial crisis of 2007–2008|2008 Financial Crisis and the passage of the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act|Dodd-Frank Act and the EU equivalent laws. For its part, the IFRS Monitoring Board, comprised of national regulators, made it acceptable for accounting standards used at a national level to be set by an international body.
Over his years at the US SEC, he served as Vice Chairman of the Board of International Organization of Securities Commissions (2012–2013), Chairman of the Public Interest Oversight Board Monitoring Group (2012-2013), SEC Deputy to the Financial Stability Board (2009-2013), SEC Deputy to the IFRS Monitoring Board (2009-2013). While sitting on the International Organization of Securities Commissions|IOSCO Board (previously known as the Technical Committee) he also chaired the Task Force on Credit Rating Agencies that developed principles which came to underpin CRA regulation around the world and the Task Force on Audit Services.
In 2013, Tafara joined the International Finance Corporation as Vice President and General Counsel and over the course of 8 years was responsible for the Legal, ESG, Compliance, IT and HR departments. In 2016, Tafara served as the Interim CEO. For a period of time, he was co-Head of financial and non-financial risk together with James Scriven (today CEO of Inter-American Development Bank|IDB Invest), advancing an approach to extract synergies and efficiencies by tackling risk in an integrated fashion. While at IFC, in the absence of applicable regulation, he built a compliance department to modernize the organization’s ability to manage reputational risks. He also spearheaded a data privacy policy for the World Bank institutions and promoted a Code of Ethics applicable to the financing of disruptive technologies.
Tafara joined the WBG’s Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency|Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency in 2019 as Vice President and Chief Risk, Legal and Sustainability Officer in connection with an effort to grow the organization and advance guarantees against political risk as a means of mobilizing more private capital toward development challenges. In this capacity, in addition to overseeing the integrated risk management function, he heads MIGA’s work on partnerships.
In 2020, in addition to his role at MIGA, he served as the Acting World Bank Group Vice President for Integrity supervising investigations and sanctions related to allegations of fraud and corruption in projects financed by the institutions of the World Bank Group.
== Other ==
From 2015 until 2021, Tafara was Vice Chairman of the International Valuations Standards Counciland is currently Public Governor on the Board of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority.
He was an Adjunct Professor for International Securities Markets Regulation at Georgetown University Law Center from 2008 to 2013.
== Honors ==
* Financial Times Global GC 25
* US SEC Chairman’s Award for Excellence
== Personal life ==
Tafara is married to Michelle Keane and has two sons.
He is a supporter of FC Barcelona in Spain, Arsenal F.C.|Arsenal FC in England, AFC Ajax|Ajax FC in the Netherlands and A.C. Milan|AC Milan in Italy.
Category:1964 births
Category:Ethiopian lawyers