Rob Floyd is the Director for innovation and digital policy at the African Center for Economic Transformation (ACET). In this role, he has led the development of a new program supporting Africa’s digital transformation through informed policy for accelerated innovation and technology upgrading. This is the first such practice at a pan-African policy institute, with anchor programs on AI in economic policymaking, digital infrastructure, and technology-enabled green industrialization. ACET has undertaken Africa’s first AI challenges for regional infrastructure and digital skills, while championing frontier issues such as digital industrial hubs and Africa’s digital single market.

Rob previously served as an ACET Director and Senior Advisor from July 2017 to July 2021. In that role, he supported ACET’s efforts to develop strategic partnerships, enhance its profile, and deepen the ACET business model. He led much of ACET’s work on infrastructure and investment, including the G20 Compact with Africa (CwA) and ACET’s program on infrastructure project cycles.  Rob also led ACET’s work on blended finance, industrial innovation, and COVID-19 response.

An economist and journalist by training, Rob joined ACET from the World Bank. He began his World Bank career in the Africa Region, serving as an economist in the office of the Vice President, and then as a public sector specialist for Southern and Eastern Africa. He was Chief of Staff to two World Bank Presidents, James Wolfensohn and Paul Wolfowitz, and later oversaw the Bank’s $2 billion annual lending programs to Pakistan and Bangladesh as Country Coordinator, including serving as interim Country Director in Bangladesh in 2009-2010.

In 2010, Rob joined the World Bank Institute as Operations Manager and later was appointed as Director for Strategy and Operations. His last position at the World Bank was as Director for Operations and Strategy for Finance in the office of the World Bank Managing Director and CFO. Prior to the World Bank, Rob worked for GIC Group, a global consulting firm, and Sandler, Travis and Rosenberg, LLC, a law firm specializing in international trade issues. As a journalist in the early 1990s, he covered international agricultural issues from Switzerland, Thailand, and Australia.