Motoko Aizawa
President, Observatory for Sustainable Infrastructure
Motoko Aizawa is President of the Observatory for Sustainable Infrastructure, a research organisation that aims to bridge the sustainability gap of mega-infrastructure development, investment and finance through data collection and policy research. Previously, she spent more than two decades at the World Bank Group in various capacities, including as Sustainability Advisor to the World Bank’s Sustainable Development Network. She is the principal author of the original IFC Performance Standards and led the creation and implementation of the Equator Principles. In both cases, she helped these standards incorporate the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. Aizawa began her career as a business lawyer, specialising in due diligence in mergers and acquisitions at Baker & McKenzie, and project financing of infrastructure projects at IFC’s Legal Department. After she left the World Bank, she served as Managing Director USA of the Institute for Human Rights in Business between 2014 and 2016. She currently serves as the Chair of the District of Columbia’s Commission on Human Rights.
