Mr. Pladet is a principal Finance Specialist in the Energy Division of the Central and West Asia Department (CWRD) of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), Manila. He joined CWRD as Principal Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Specialist in January 2011, in which position he was responsible for providing transaction advisory to clients by developing, structuring and implementing PPP projects in ADB developing member countries. While Mr. Pladet was instrumental in acquiring, implementing and successfully completing ADB’s transaction advisory mandate for the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) Natural Gas Pipeline Project until April 2016, he was recently requested to assume the ADB team lead role for the processing of potential sovereign financing support for the TAPI project. Since August 2016, he has been project team leader for the Shah Deniz Gas Field Expansion Project in Azerbaijan, obtaining Board approval for a $500 million sovereign-backed partial credit guarantee and achieving financial close in April 2018. Prior to joining CWRD, Mr. Pladet was Senior Guarantees and Syndications Specialist in ADB’s Office of Co-financing Operations (OCO) (May 2008 – December 2010), responsible for mobilizing commercial cofinancing by structuring and negotiating OCO guarantee operations for public and private sector projects. He also managed the institutional relationship and cooperation with Asian Exim Banks. Mr. Pladet worked on 10 ADB projects in the energy, transportation and urban development sectors in Azerbaijan, India, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Sri Lanka and Uzbekistan. Before joining ADB, Mr. Pladet was Chief Underwriting Officer with the African Trade Insurance Agency (ATI), Nairobi (September 2005 – April 2008) responsible for ATI’s business operations, market and product development, and the underwriting team’s management. He had key roles in ATI’s successful restructuring and obtaining S&P’s credit rating (‘A/Stable’) which ATI has maintained since April 2008. Prior to joining ATI, Mr. Pladet was Vice President - Cross Border Structured Finance (CBSF) with ABN AMRO Bank (ABN AMRO), Amsterdam (May 2001 – September 2005). He oversaw the sourcing and negotiation of political and commercial risk mitigation instruments. Mr. Pladet concurrently became ABN AMRO’s CBSF Head for Belgium and Luxembourg and Regional Coordinator for Africa and Middle East (July 2003). His involvement resulted in closing numerous CBSF transactions and his experience in debt collections helped him to lead successful bilateral debt recovery operations and London Club debt restructuring efforts. Before joining ABN AMRO, Mr. Pladet held positions with the World Bank Group’s Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), Washington (October 1994 – April 2001). He was Guarantee Officer - Latin America and Caribbean and was promoted to Regional Manager-Africa & Middle East and Global Sector Manager-Agribusiness, Manufacturing and Services in July 1997 and July 1999, respectively. He underwrote or managed the underwriting of over 50 private investment projects, resulting in the issuance of over USD1 billion in MIGA political risk guarantees and facilitating over USD3 billion in investments. Mr. Pladet’s career started at Atradius, formerly Nederlandsche Credietverzekering Maatschappij (NCM), Amsterdam (April 1989 – October 1994). Holding positions in the medium-term (MT) and short-term (ST) claims departments, as well as in the MT underwriting department, he had success in claims recovery, debt rescheduling and political and credit risk underwriting in infrastructure, shipbuilding, agri-business and services. He participated in multilateral and bilateral Paris Club debt negotiations. He was NCM’s key focal point for ST claims with the International Insurance & Surety Association and participated in annual, technical working group and investment insurance committee meetings of the Berne Union. Mr. Pladet has a MA in Economics from Tilburg University (Aug 1988) and successfully concluded the World Bank Group’s Executive Development Program and International Project Finance Training at Harvard Business School, Cambridge, MA (December 2000). He holds the military rank of Reserve Captain (retired) with the Cavalry of the Royal Netherlands Army.