Emmanuel Pondard is Head of Evaluation at the European Investment Bank (EIB), the European Union’s financing institution. He leads a multidisciplinary team delivering independent, rigorous and influential evaluations to support learning and better decision-making. An evaluator by training, Emmanuel has nearly 25 years of experience in this domain. Throughout his career at the EIB, he has led, advised and reviewed evaluations spanning institutional strategies, financial instruments and development interventions, often in contexts marked by complexity and competing information needs. He contributes to international conferences and evaluation capacity development, and promotes evaluation as a public good. At Asian Evaluation Week 2026, Emmanuel brings the perspective of the European Union’s public bank and of an independent evaluation function operating at the intersection of policy, finance and development impact.