Biography

Jelena Madir is Gavi’s Chief Legal Officer and General Counsel, responsible for all legal aspects of Gavi’s operations. Prior to joining Gavi in 2019, she spent nearly 11 years at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) in London, where she worked as a transactional lawyer; headed the Financial Law Unit – a unit focused on regulatory reforms in the areas of corporate governance, fintech, insolvency and access to finance; and was also seconded to EBRD’s compliance department and to the Bank of England. Previously, Jelena worked as a finance lawyer for several US law firms in Washington, DC, Frankfurt and Zagreb.

Under Jelena’s leadership, Gavi’s Legal team won the Financial Times Innovative Lawyers Europe Award for innovation in strategic and risk advice; and the Legal Business Most Transformative In-House Team of the Year. In 2021, Jelena was named the Attorney of the Year by The American Lawyer; and in 2022, she was awarded Innovative Leader – In House by Law.com for her legal leadership.

Jelena is the author and editor of several books on fintech, healthtech and sanctions. She serves on the Sanctions Panels of the Nordic Investment Bank and Nordic Environment Finance Corporation, and teaches several courses on corporate governance and compliance, project finance and fintech at the Graduate Institute of Geneva and University of London.