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Christopher Stephens is Senior Vice President and General Counsel of the World Bank Group. He oversees the World Bank’s Legal Vice Presidency (LEG) consisting of approximately 200 professionals located around the world. He is responsible for overall coordination and management of legal aspects of the Operational Activities of the World Bank, including lending, advisory services, engagements with member countries, operational policies, development finance, trust funds and partnerships, and sanctions and anti-corruption. He is also responsible for legal aspects of the corporate finance functions related to financial risk, financial reporting, treasury functions, capital markets issuances, and asset management, and provides legal advice on human resources, procurement, information technology, ethics and external affairs, and is responsible for litigation and corporate governance. As a Group Officer, he also coordinates legal issues and risks across five institutions of the World Bank Group.

Christopher is the principal advisor to the Board of Governors, the Board of Executive Directors, the World Bank Group President, and other members of the Senior Management Team on matters of law, risk and policy.

Prior to his appointment, Christopher was Vice President and General Counsel of International Finance Corporation, the private sector arm of the World Bank Group, 2019-2022. Prior to that, he was General Counsel of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and Managing Partner for Asia and a member of the Management Committee of U.S. law firm Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe.

As Group General Counsel, he focuses on ensuring efficient and effective support and ideas to deliver on the World Bank Group’s mission, with an emphasis on results-oriented innovations for impact, delivered with a sense of urgency.