Mr. Kadono has over 26 years of professional experience in international development including 13 years in ADB. He initially joined ADB in 2006 as a Young Professional in the East Asia Department and held progressive positions focusing on the energy sector in Central and West Asia Department and Southeast Asia Department, including posting in Vietnam from 2012 to 2015.
He joined the World Bank in 2015, operating out of the Singapore Hub for Urban, Infrastructure and PPP. A challenging hydropower PPP project he led in the Solomon Islands with IFC and MIGA received the Regional Vice President Award in 2019, and the prestigious IJ Global Award in 2020.
He returned to ADB in December 2020 as a Principal Planning and Policy Economist where he was responsible for the strategic planning and policy formulation for ADB and served as the lead author for the work program and budget framework which provides a Bank-wide strategic outlook for the 3-year planning horizon. He also undertook the organizational reform of ADB, business process reviews, and contributed to the capital adequacy framework review which today enables ADB to significantly increase its lending volume.
Mr. Kadono assumed his position as the Country Director for the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka in July 2023. He oversaw the preparation of the 5-year Country Partnership Strategy for 2024-2028 setting the strategic direction of ADB’s sovereign and non-sovereign operations in Sri Lanka under challenging socioeconomic conditions. He managed ADB’s operations of around $4 billion and managed new lending and nonlending commitments to support the government of Sri Lanka’s development objectives.
Prior to joining ADB, he spent 7 years as a consultant in the areas of energy, urban, water, and reconstruction projects, roaming the fields of developing Asia and Latin America. Mr. Kadono, a national of Japan, grew up in the Netherlands, Canada, United States, Spain, and France, and holds Master’s and Bachelor’s Degrees in Civil Engineering from University of Tokyo in Japan. He was selected a Fulbright Scholar in 2006 but decided to continue contributing to economic development in the field. He is married with a son in university in Japan and a daughter in high school in Singapore with her mother.
Website: ADB.org