Mary Lystad

Mary Lystad is Global Sector Lead for Forestry and Wood Products at the International Finance Corporation (IFC). She has over 20 years of experience in private sector development in emerging markets, and currently oversees a global investment portfolio of US$3 billion across the forest products value chain. Mary has worked across sectors and regions to deliver on IFC’s development mandate. She is a structural engineer by training, has a Master’s degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and studied development economics at Johns Hopkins University. IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, is the largest global development institution focused on sustainable economic growth through mobilizing private sector solutions to achieve a world free of poverty on a livable planet. It provides financing (long-term debt and equity) and advisory services to private sector projects that contribute to poverty reduction, job creation, economic development, circularity and climate mitigation. In fiscal year 2023, the IFC delivered US$43.7 billion in total investment commitments in developing countries.