Speaker Bio

Sona Panajyan is a Senior External Affairs Officer in the External Affairs Division of the World Bank covering the Europe and Central Asia region. She monitors and analyzes reputational and political risks across countries spanning the Western Balkans, Ukraine, and Central Asia. Ms. Panajyan is a public affairs and policy advisor with more than 20 years of experience in strategy development, stakeholder engagement, political risk analysis, and media relations, with a focus on international finance and multilateral institutions. An Armenian national, she is a term member of the International Institute for Strategic Studies. She holds a Master of International Policy and Practice from the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University and a Master of Science in Journalism from the Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University.