Page Content
Leon Rajaobelina has been managing Conservation International’s (CI) Madagascar and Southwest Indian Ocean Islands Program since 1996. Leon Rajaobelina's long and distinguished career includes work in both the public sector and in the financial sector, in Madagascar as well as internationally.
He has served as Alternate Executive Director of the International Monetary Fund (1966-1972), Governor of the Central Bank of Madagascar (1973-1983), Ambassador to the United States (1983-1989), Minister of Finance (1989- 1991), and CEO of SONAPAR (1991-1994), a public investment company. He served as a member of Conservation International's Board of Directors from 1989 to 1995.
Leon Rajaobelina played a leading role in the creation in February 2005 of the Madagascar Foundation for Protected Areas and Biodiversity of which he was Chairman until March 2011. He is now the Vice Chair of the Foundation Board.
He serves on the Board of Trustees of the African World Heritage Fund, headquartered in Johannesburg (RSA), whose mission is to support World Heritage Sites in Africa (natural and cultural). He is the co-chair of the Steering Committee of the Wealth Accounting and Valuation of Ecosystem Services Initiative (WAVES) in Madagascar. Leon Rajaobelina holds a degree in Public Finance from the Institut d'Etudes Politiques in Paris, France.