Sameh Wahba MUP '97, PhD '02

Sameh Wahba, together with Nina Chase, is the co-chair of the GSD Alumni Council. He is also a member of the Dean’s Council. He is a co-creator of Design Impact and has contributed substantively to several DI, including “Following the Sun: Design Futures at the Intersection of Health, Equity and Climate Change.” He contributed actively to the Ambassadorship Committee and was co-chair of the Governance Committee, committed to strengthening the international dimension of the Alumni Council.

Sameh Wahba is the Regional Practice Director for the Planet Department at the World Bank’s Europe and Central Asia region, where he oversees all World Bank lending, technical assistance, partnerships, and policy advisory work in sustainable development, including agriculture and food, climate change, environment, natural resources and the blue economy, social inclusion and sustainability, and water. He oversees a $10bn portfolio and a team of 200 staff. Between 2016-2022, he worked as Global Director for Urban, Disaster Risk Management, Resilience and Land Global Practice where he oversaw a team of 450 staff and a $30bn portfolio. He holds a Ph.D. and Master’s in Urban Planning from Harvard University, and a Master’s and Bachelor’s in architectural engineering from Cairo University. He has 25 years’ experience in urban development, disaster risk management, infrastructure, and sustainable development. His publications on cities, housing, land, infrastructure, and finance include books, chapters and articles in peer-reviewed journals. He is a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Cities Council and the advisory board for the WRI Ross Center for Cities, and a Commissioner in the Global Commission for Urban SDGs Finance.

Sameh’s training in architectural engineering, urban design, and urban planning, in addition to finance and economics, makes him well-positioned to serve as a bridge between the different design disciplines in the GSD.

Follow Sameh on LinkedIn.