David Vannier is Founding Partner of Georgetown Advisory LLC, a Washington, D.C.-based firm specializing in sovereign advisory, governance, energy, debt restructuring, and geopolitical analysis. His clients include financial institutions, international organizations, and current and former Heads of State.
Mr. Vannier spent fourteen years at the International Monetary Fund working directly for Managing Directors Dominique Strauss-Kahn, Christine Lagarde, and Kristalina Georgieva, latterly as one of four members of the Managing Director's cabinet. In these roles he briefed the Managing Director, negotiated with governments, European and international institutions, central banks, and chief executives, and oversaw engagement with Heads of State.
From 2022 to 2024 he was Chief Government Affairs Officer and an Executive Committee member at newcleo, a nuclear energy company, where he built and led a multi-continent government affairs team. His earlier career includes the World Bank Group, where he worked on Cambodia's nascent capital markets from the Phnom Penh country office, the Louis Berger Group, Credit Lyonnais in New York, and the Office of the Prime Minister of France.
Mr. Vannier has taught graduate courses on international organizations and international relations at HEC Paris and Peking University, with particular attention to the international system and multilateral governance. He writes a weekly column on governance and institutional power, read by senior officials, executives, and academics, and has written for BusinessWeek and the Financial Times. His work on governance examines how institutions actually function: the gap between formal architecture and the informal practices, relationships, and judgments that determine outcomes.
He serves on the board of the New Cities Foundation, which focuses on urbanization and the future of cities. He holds an M.A. in International Relations from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) and a B.A. from Vassar College. He is trilingual in English, French, and Italian.
