V.S. (Krish) Krishnakumar has over 40 years of very rich and extensive experience in operational and public procurement, contracting and supply chain management, in private and public sector organizations, and in the World Bank. 

After working in Africa for over 18 years, Krish joined the World Bank in 1997. After having served for over 12 years as the World Bank’s Regional Procurement Manager for over 600 projects in 45 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, he worked as a Special Advisor to the Operations Policy and Country Services Department, actively contributing to the World Bank‘s Procurement Reform, which has been under implementation for the past 7 years. He recently retired from the World Bank as the Practice Manager for Solutions and Innovations in Procurement for the Europe and Central Asia region. Soon after retirement from the World Bank, he worked with the Independent Evaluation Department of the Asian Development Bank as the Lead Procurement Consultant, providing technical (procurement) expertise to support the design and implementation of the evaluation of ADB's 2017 Procurement Framework.  

Recently, Krish successfully completed (i) nine 3-day procurement training workshops for the project implementing agencies in the Caribbean countries, Sri Lanka, Moldova and Romania; and (ii) business outreach workshops which provided valuable information and opportunities in the Ukraine emergency assistance and reconstruction program to the business community in Ukraine and beyond. The workshop's goal was to provide information on the World Bank and Ukraine Reconstruction Trust Fund (URTF) program and governing procurement procedures and business opportunities for the private sector.

Prior to joining the World Bank, Krish worked as the Chief Executive of a UK based procurement and export agency/consulting firm operating from South Africa. For about 15 years, before moving to the Republic of South Africa, Krish worked in Zambia as Head of Procurement for one of the world's largest copper mining and production industries. While in Zambia, one of his responsibilities included management, supervision and implementation of all procurement activities for large $200 million investment projects funded by the World Bank, African Development Bank and the EU.

Krish is a firm believer that development business is not a simple, linear process that lends itself to technical fixes – in other words, despite some of the world’s most sophisticated operational knowledge and technical tools at their disposal, when political and interpersonal complexities hinder development, technical expertise alone is powerless to get projects back on track. Some of the answers to negative procurement outcomes can be found in behavioral science which should form a part of public procurement curriculum and culture.