Speaker details

Biography

After concluding her five-year term as the first Head of the Dispute Resolution Service and Accountability Mechanism Secretary at the World Bank, Orsolya Székely now advises clients independently on high-stakes investment disputes. She built and led the Bank's first-ever Dispute Resolution Service and Accountability Mechanism, addressing environmental and social harm that delays investments in development financing. A lawyer with in-depth expertise in environmental and social standards and international financial institutions, including chairing the IAM Network of 23 IFI's accountability mechanisms for two years, she helps stakeholders of large investments and development projects anticipate, prevent, and resolve conflict before it escalates. Her earlier career spans 25 years across the public and private sector, with senior roles at the OSCE and the Council of Europe, including as Special Representative of the Secretary General in Kosovo, and as case lawyer at the European Court of Human Rights. She holds a law degree/masters in international law and a post-graduate Global Business Diploma from the Saïd Business School, University of Oxford. She is a CEDR-accredited mediator and a Harvard PON-trained negotiator.