She will replace Alain Godard, who has been appointed president of the European Tech Champion Initiative, which aims to provide funding for European high-tech companies in their advanced development phase.

The EIF's main mission is to support European micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises by helping them access finance. It designs specific venture and development capital, guarantee and microfinance instruments.

A career at the EIB

The future director has been the EIB’s secretary general since 2018. She was deputy between 2015 and 2018. Prior to that, she was deputy director of the EIF between 2013 and 2015.

Falkstedt, a Finnish national, started her career at Dresdner Bank before joining the European Commission's Directorate-General for Economic and Financial Affairs in 1996. She held various positions in the field of SME and infrastructure financing until 2013. She was also advisor to the European Commission's representatives on the EIF's Board of Directors between 2001 and 2007.

In her new role, she will be responsible for coordinating the EIF's contribution to the EIB's support programme for the REPowerEU plan, in the form of equity investments in clean energy companies and innovative green funds.

This story was first published in French on . It has been translated and edited for Delano.