Starla Griffin

Background

About Starla Griffin

Starla Griffin, Special Advisor, Climate & Development FInance at CIFF, was, for the past decade, Managing Director at Slaney Advisors Limited, a London-based Emerging Markets consultancy specialising in international arbitration, arbitration awards sales, and sovereign debt recoveries. She is particularly interested in the intersection of sovereign debt and sovereign arbitration debt, and seeking sustainable solutions for debt restructurings and repayments. Her article in GAR, “Time for more transparency in sovereign debt” (May 2020) highlights the lack of transparency of sovereign arbitration liabilities and the potential impact of this on growing debt distress in emerging and developing markets. A founding member of the ad hoc working group on sovereign GDP-linked bonds (later the “GDP bond ‘enthusiasts’” and then the sustainable bond group) Starla was also a participant on the UN-sponsored Expert Committee on Sovereign Debt Restructurings for several years. Starla was previously a Managing Director at EMTA (the Emerging Markets Trade Association), focusing first on EM currency derivatives, then sovereign debt crises and restructurings, and capital markets development in Sub-Saharan Africa. A New York-qualified lawyer, Starla began her legal career as an associate in the International Financial group of Shearman & Sterling in New York and Paris. Starla is also an author of an award-winning non-fiction book for teen girls called, “Girl, 13: Global Snapshot of Generation e” published in 2004 by Hylas publishing. Girl, 13 celebrates the lives of girls coming of age post-Cold War in the midst of globalisation and the dawn of social media. Starla also writes a blog called Journey to the Future (Journeytothefuture.wordpress.com) that examines the impact of technology on our lives and futures. Originally from the U.S, Starla attended Emory University in Atlanta, GA, and majored in International Studies. She then received her law degree at Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, D.C, after also studying law at the University of Bologna in Bologna, Italy on a Rotary Scholarship. Starla spent a year living and working in Japan, and nearly 10 years living and working in France. She is fluent in French and Italian.