Astrid Couzian is Chief Operations Officer at the United Nations Capital Development Fund. A French national, she brings over two decades of experience in operational leadership, risk management, and audit. Astrid holds an MBA from the University of Missouri, and is fluent in English and French, and conversant in Russian. Astrid is a Certified Internal Auditor (CIA) and a Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE).

Astrid joined UNCDF in 2025 and leads the Operations and Oversight Division, ensuring operational efficiency, quality assurance, and adherence to fiduciary standards across programmes and projects. Her role includes overseeing programme management, impact and results verification, and operational assurance in areas such as procurement and human resources. Before joining UNCDF, Astrid held senior roles across various international organizations. She began her career at Ernst & Young in Paris and later served as Director at the French National Audit Office, coordinating audits for multiple UN entities, including the UN Secretariat and UNESCO. Astrid transitioned to the United Nations Office at Geneva, where she held key positions in executive operations, before taking on the role of Chief of Audit and Investigations at the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO). In 2018, she joined UNDP’s Office of Audit and Investigations, where she first led the Regional Audit Centre for North, West, and Central Africa and later became Chief of the Headquarters Audit Section in New York.