Afsaneh was a banker for 25 years, the majority of which were spent at Citibank in the EMEA region, managing SME and multinational businesses, credit, trade finance, and cash management products. In the UAE, she headed the corporate bank of a local bank.

Post 2008, Afsaneh headed the restructuring unit for a local FI and represented Islamic banks on several Creditors’ Committees. She was a Senior Consultant for banks in the Middle East before joining IFC as a Senior Investment Officer in mid-2020, where she has been working on their Upstream initiatives in Emerging Markets, mostly focused on gender, SME & trade issues. Afsaneh holds a BSBA in Finance and an LLM in Financial Crimes and Money Laundering. She speaks English, Arabic, Farsi, and conversational Spanish and French.