World Bank
José‐Manuel Bassat manages the World Bank Institute’s communications team, where his task is to build support within the World Bank and the development community of WBI’s approach to development and its programs on governance, knowledge and innovation. Prior to this assignment, he worked for 12 years in the External Affairs vice‐presidency of the World Bank advising clients in Latin America, Eastern and Central Europe, and Africa on how to use communication programs to build consensus for institutional and economic reforms. He has extensive experience in communications for legal and judicial reform, particularly in designing civic education programs to foster the rule of law.
Before joining the Bank, he worked on communications for economic and legal reform in Kazakhstan. He holds a bachelor's degree in Russian Studies from the University of London and a master's degree in International Relations and Economics from SAIS‐Johns Hopkins University. A native of Spain, he speaks Spanish, Catalan, English, Italian, French and Russian. In his free time he enjoys cycling, watching obscure European movies and searching for Washington’s best Vietnamese beef noodle soup with his wife and three sons.