Linda Sean McGinnis, World Bank, World Links Co-founder

Linda McGinnis co-founded World Links with Sam Carlson in 1999, and they co-managed the program during its first two years.  She has spent over 20 years in the field of international development and has lived in or worked on nearly every continent. Starting with a stint in the Peace Corps in Upper Volta (now Burkina Faso), she also worked for the US State Department, the US Agency for International Development, and for the past 15 years, the World Bank.  Her current position is as Lead Economist for Children and Youth at the World Bank, where she is the author of the global strategy for investing in young people:  "Children and Youth: A Framework for Action", a key advisor on the World Development Report 2007: Development and the Next Generation, and has worked with governments and practitioners in a range of developing countries on policies and investments to improve the lives and prospects of young people, especially the most disadvantaged. She has her BA from Stanford University, Masters from both Princeton University and l'Institut des Sciences Politiques in Paris, and a mid-career Executive MBA from Harvard Business School.