EIB President Werner Hoyer has appointed Wilhelm Molterer as the Managing Director and Iliyana Tsanova as the Deputy Managing Director of the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI). In parallel, the EFSI Steering Board has selected eight finance experts who will form the EFSI Investment Committee as stipulated by EU law and who will take up their duty in January 2016. These measures complete the creation of the governance structures of the joint initiative which was conceived by the EIB Group and the European Commission to help overcome the current investment gap in the EU.

As Managing Director Wilhelm Molterer is responsible for EFSI’s day-to-day management and for the preparation and chairing of meetings of the Investment Committee. As Deputy Managing Director Iliyana Tsanova will assist him in his tasks and replace him in his absence. Both managers have been chosen on the basis of their competences and suitability for the posts. Their three years fixed term appointment follows public hearings and the endorsement of the European Parliament.

Wilhelm Molterer is a former Vice-President of the EIB (2011-2015), where he was responsible, among other things, for cohesion and for advisory services. Before joining the EIB, Wilhelm Molterer was a Member of the Austrian Parliament. He also served as Vice Chancellor and Finance Minister of Austria.

Iliyana Tsanova has more than twelve years of development banking experience with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), where she currently holds the position of Director responsible for EU co-financing and Financial Engineering. In 2013 and 2014, Iliyana Tsanova was appointed Deputy Prime Minister in two separate caretaker governments of Bulgaria, with special responsibility for European structural and investment funds.

The role of the Investment Committee will be to approve the use of the EU budget guarantee for projects brought to the EIB. The Committee consists of independent experts from seven countries. All of them have a high level of market experience in project structuring and project financing, as well as micro- and macro-economic expertise in one or more of the key fields covered by EFSI, amongst them research and innovation; transport; renewable energy; education or health. Following an open and transparent selection procedure, the committee members appointed are:

  • Ms Gillian Day (United Kingdom)
  • Mr Thierry Deau (France)
  • Ms Vicky D Kefalas (Greece)
  • Ms Dalia Dubovske (Lithuania)
  • Mr Fabio Pammolli (Italy)
  • Mr Noel Gregor Paterson-Jones (United Kingdom)
  • Ms Nieves Rodriguez Varela (Spain)
  • Mr Dominik Radziwill (Poland)

“With EFSI being the most important initiative the EIB will be pursuing in the months and years to come, I am delighted that we now have its governance structures entirely in place.” said Werner Hoyer, European Investment Bank Group President. “I am convinced that we have chosen excellent candidates, who, through their wide range of expertise, do understand and master the key priorities EFSI has promised to deliver on. The mix of personal backgrounds and careers represented in the governance bodies of EFSI will without any doubt help to make the initiative a success.”