Fabrice Houdart

Fabrice Houdart (born 1978) is a French human rights advocate and whistleblower. He worked at the World Bank from 2002 to 2016, where he led the institution's LGBTQ employee group and was demoted after identifying a payment to a senior executive. He later co-authored the United Nations Global LGBTI Standards of Conduct for Business.

Education

Houdart holds a Bachelor of Arts in economics and management from Dauphine University and a Master of Business Administration from American University.

Career

World Bank (2002–2016)

Houdart worked at the World Bank from 2002 to 2016 as a senior country officer for the Middle East and North Africa. From 2010 to 2014, he was president of GLOBE, the Bank's LGBTQ employee resource group, where he pushed leadership to consider the impact of its lending on LGBTQ populations.

In October 2014, during layoffs tied to a $400 million budget cut, Houdart identified a $94,000 (equivalent to $128,000 in 2025) payment to chief financial officer Bertrand Badré, which Badré described as a board-approved "scarce skills premium." The disclosure fueled employee protests, and President Jim Yong Kim held a town hall at which Badré returned the payment.

In early 2015, the Bank investigated Houdart for allegedly leaking a draft safeguards policy. The investigation cleared him of that allegation but found he had shared a separate internal document with the Bank Information Center, a watchdog organization involved in the safeguards process. The Bank demoted him and reduced his salary; a spokesman denied retaliation and said two other employees had been similarly disciplined for unauthorized disclosures.