Cassilde Brenière is an agronomical and rural engineering graduate specializing in water and forestry, with over 25 years of experience driving development models that deliver concrete results for end beneficiaries. After 15 years in the private and non-profit sectors — serving as a technical assistant in Colombia, Burkina Faso, the Philippines, and Romania, and then heading an operational water and sanitation services unit serving 600,000 residents in the Paris suburbs — she joined the Agence Française de Développement (AFD) in 2009 as a project manager, before becoming head of the division overseeing all AFD-financed water and sanitation projects worldwide. In 2016, she relocated to Morocco as Deputy Director of the AFD office in Rabat, a position she held for four years. There she led the teams of one of AFD's largest country offices and developed new activities advancing gender equality — a commitment that has been central to both her professional and personal journey. She was subsequently appointed Deputy Director of AFD's Executive Directorate of Operations in Paris in 2020, and then Deputy Director General in charge of Operations at Expertise France in 2023. Since joining AFD, Cassilde has been deeply committed to contributing to the international debate on water and natural resources, climate change — particularly adaptation — gender, and their financing, as well as to evolving AFD's approaches to institutional strengthening, accountability, and the organization's broader posture as a development financier.