Who We Are

Tamara Hasan Abed is the Managing Director of BRAC Enterprises, heading BRAC’s portfolio of eleven social enterprises in craft retail, dairy, seed, fisheries, healthcare, and others. Tamara is Chair of the Board of Trustees of BRAC University and sits on multiple boards of various BRAC investments.

Ms. Abed brings with her extensive experience in investment banking, entrepreneurship, and social enterprise, with a career spanning three decades. She is passionate about driving value-based business models, operating at the intersection of social good, sustainable business, and inclusive growth.

Under her leadership, Aarong – Bangladesh’s iconic fashion and lifestyle retail brand – has experienced unprecedented growth, becoming a symbol of cultural heritage, ethical sourcing, and fair trade. Ms. Abed has empowered thousands of artisans, particularly women, by preserving traditional crafts and creating sustainable economic opportunities.

Ms. Abed began her career in investment banking in 1995, at Peregrine Capital Ltd, and later worked for Goldman Sachs in Mergers and Strategic Advisory. She has been with BRAC since 2002.

Ms. Abed was honored by the World Economic Forum as a Young Global Leader in 2010. She received the Outstanding Women Leadership Award from the World Women Leadership Congress in 2014. Ms. Abed also received the award for CEO/MD of the Year, Social Business, at the first ever Bangladesh C-Suite Awards 2022.

She has an MBA in Finance from Columbia Business School and a BSc (Honors) in Economics from the London School of Economics and Political Science. Ms. Abed also did an executive course on Transformational Leadership at Oxford University’s Said Business School.

Through her passionate commitment to ethical innovation, inclusive growth, and cultural preservation, Ms. Abed remains an influential role model in social entrepreneurship and development.

Azucena Arbeleche is an economist and corporate director with more than 25 years of experience in public finance, sovereign debt management, capital markets, and economic policy. She currently serves as Director of Banco Itaú Uruguay and Banco Itaú Chile. From 2020 to 2025, she was Minister of Economy and Finance of Uruguay.

As Minister, she led Uruguay’s economic strategy through the pandemic and the most severe drought in a century, preserving macroeconomic stability while advancing structural reforms. During her tenure, Uruguay implemented a new fiscal rule framework, strengthened its monetary policy regime to anchor inflation expectations, enacted a comprehensive social security reform, and promoted infrastructure investment and deeper trade integration, including the political agreement between Mercosur and the European Union.

She is internationally recognized for integrating climate and environmental objectives into sovereign financing. Under her leadership, Uruguay issued an innovative sustainability-linked sovereign bond tied to climate and nature targets and secured a World Bank loan with interest rate incentives linked to methane emission reductions.

Recognizing that artificial intelligence offers developing countries a historic opportunity to accelerate productivity and leapfrog stages of development, the Ministry of Economy and Finance, under her mandate and in coordination with other public agencies, created the Uruguay Innovation Hub. This public-private initiative promotes technology-based entrepreneurship through startup acceleration, biotechnology-focused company-building programs, and co-investment alongside venture capital and angel investors.

Previously, she served as Director of Uruguay’s Debt Management Unit, playing a central role in regaining investment grade status and strengthening domestic capital markets. She has also advised the International Monetary Fund and World Bank on debt management and local market development across Latin America, Africa, and Europe. She holds a Master’s degree in Applied Macroeconomics from the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile.

Dr. Shenglin Ben is a leader, an entrepreneur, and scholar, with a rare combination of rich professional experiences spanning from senior leadership roles (in top global companies), advisor and board members (of leading private companies and public institutions), rigorous research and teaching credentials, as well as successful entrepreneurship (founder and leader of various top universities and academic-industry associations).

Dr. Ben is Founder and Dean of Zhejiang University International Business School (ZIBS) and Academy of Internet Finance (AIF). He has been a full professor at the School of Management, Zhejiang University and served other leadership roles in the school such as Chair of Finance & Accounting Department and Director of EMBA Center. Prior to his joining Zhejiang University in May 2014, he spent 20 years in China and abroad with ABN AMRO Bank, HSBC, and lastly JP Morgan Chase, where he served as China CEO, JP Morgan Chase Bank.

Dr. Ben is Co-founder and Director of the International Monetary Institute, Renmin University of China. A well-trusted advisor to both public and private institutions, Dr. Ben is Founder and Chairman of Zhejiang Association of FinTech, the industry association of global fintech hub – Zhejiang Province. Among his various public advisory roles, Dr. Ben serves as the Executive Vice President of the Zhejiang Western Returned Scholars Association (ZWRSA), a Counselor to Zhejiang Provincial Government, a Standing Committee member of the Zhejiang Provincial Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC Zhejiang), and Vice Chairman of its Economic Commission. He has also been a board director of leading companies such as China Industrial Bank, China International Capital Corporation (CICC), and Tsingtao Brewery.

Dr. Ben has a Bachelor’s degree in Engineering from Tsinghua University, a Master’s degree in Management from Renmin University of China, and a PhD in Economics from Purdue University, USA. His research interests include: global financial system, global banking, management of financial institutions, internet finance (FinTech), entrepreneurial finance, and international business.

Abigail Kajumba is a social-impact executive with more than 20 years of experience advancing cross-sector collaboration, governance, and sustainable development across more than 20 African countries and in global contexts. She serves as Executive Director of Emerging Public Leaders, a pan-African organization co-founded by Nobel Laureate and former President of Liberia, H.E. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, which supports over 700 public servants strengthening governance and public service delivery across Africa.

Throughout her career, Abigail has built alliances among governments, philanthropy, multilateral institutions, and the private sector, working at the intersection of policy and institutional strengthening. She advises boards and senior leaders, facilitates high-level dialogue, and contributes to global platforms through panel discussions and public speaking engagements, including at the United Nations, the G20, and the World Bank.

She previously led the Nnabagereka Development Foundation on behalf of the Queen of Buganda and served as Executive Director of Raising Voices, advancing evidence-based approaches to preventing violence against women and children across more than 40 countries. Her work reflects a commitment to African-led solutions within global development systems.

Abigail is Co-founder of TriTrees, an agroforestry initiative promoting food security, economic resilience, and environmental sustainability in East Africa. Alongside her nonprofit leadership, she has founded business ventures in education, construction, and leisure.

She serves on the People First Steering Committee, the Groundbreaker Advisory Board, and is a member of the Navigate AI Collaborative. She holds an MSc from SOAS, University of London, and an Executive Certificate from Harvard Kennedy School.

Joaquim Levy is a former Minister of Finance of Brazil, Managing Director and CFO of the World Bank Group, and Vice President for Finance of the Inter-American Development Bank. He also headed the Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES) and the second largest private asset manager in Brazil, BRAM-Bradesco, with $130 billion of assets under management, and is currently part of Safra Bank management team.

A naval architect by training, Joaquim Levy holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Chicago. A board member of the World Resources Institute (2017-2026) and a contributor in setting the Brazilian 2015 NDCs, he has been chairperson of Brazil’s GFANZ Advisory Board, the Brazilian Climate Finance Hub, and the Federation of Industries of the State of São Paulo’s (FIESP) Sustainable Development Council (2024-2025). He is also a member of the Advisory Council of the Bretton Woods Committee, and participated at the Independent High-Level Expert Group (IHLEG) on Climate Finance.

Shankar Maruwada is a social entrepreneur and CEO of the EkStep Foundation, which he co-founded with Nandan Nilekani and Rohini Nilekani in 2015. His work focuses on how to catalyze equitable, people-centered transformation at a scale that can impact billions of lives.

Featured in MIT Sloan Management Review India’s ‘Policy 50’, a definitive list of the 50 leaders who are steering and shaping India’s digital economy, Shankar has three decades of experience across corporate, entrepreneurial, government, and development sectors. This allows him to bring the best of thinking from different perspectives to shape EkStep’s strategic choices for achieving population-scale impact.

Shankar is passionate about a ‘People Plus’ approach to innovations that leverage technology for large-scale societal transformation and keep the citizen at the center. A passion and a commitment that is reflected in all the work and programs run and orchestrated by the Foundation. EkStep works at the intersection of cutting-edge techno-social ideas like digital public infrastructure, open digital networks, and artificial intelligence, creating solutions in collaboration with governments, for-profits, non-profits, academia, and other philanthropies.

Shankar was part of the founding team of Aadhaar (India’s Digital Identity program reaching 1.4 billion individuals) in 2009. In fact, he was responsible for naming it as the Head of Demand Generation and Communication.

He serves/has served on multiple government committees and advisory bodies on digital transformation, across education, capacity building, urban transformation, agriculture, digital public infrastructure, and artificial intelligence.

He is also the Co-Chair of the Centre of Open Societal Systems (COSS) at IIITB, serves on the board for the Centre for Exponential Change, and serves on advisory boards for India Leadership for Social Sector (ILSS) and Udhyam Learning Foundation.

Shankar is also a successful entrepreneur who co-founded one of India’s first data analytics startups, Marketics. His entrepreneurial story is chronicled in Rashmi Bansal’s 2008 bestseller ‘Stay hungry, stay foolish’. He currently mentors startups, social entrepreneurs, and not-for-profits.

He is an alumnus of IIT Kharagpur, whose motto, ‘Dedicated to the service of the nation’, is a lifelong endeavor for him. Shankar is also an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad.

Rania A. Al-Mashat enjoys more than 25 years of international experience in macroeconomic policy, economic and sustainable development, international cooperation, climate finance, central banking, and monetary policy frameworks. She is a co-founder and member of several advisory boards, international alliances, and associations. She served for eight consecutive years (2018-2026) as Minister in the Egyptian Cabinet across three key portfolios: Tourism, International Cooperation, and Planning, Economic Development & International Cooperation. Her previous roles include Advisor to the Chief Economist of the International Monetary Fund, and Sub-Governor for Monetary Policy at the Central Bank of Egypt.

Al-Mashat pushes forward partnerships and multilateralism as key enablers to accelerate macroeconomic stability, economic, sustainable, and inclusive development, and climate action. She designed a novel approach to foster international cooperation through creating a country-led multi-stakeholder engagement framework for Egypt that strengthened partnerships with numerous bilateral and multilateral development institutions and developed Egypt’s Country Platform for the Nexus of Water, Food, and Energy «NWFE»- نوفي to leverage international partnerships and mobilize climate finance to the private sector, accelerating the green transition.

She received the 2025 African Renaissance Leadership Award; 2025 Global Leadership Award from the Choiseul Institute; 2025 Africa Political Outlook Prize for Leadership, Governance, and Impact; 2022 Most Visionary and Outstanding Minister of International Cooperation in Africa by the Elliott School of International Affairs George Washington University and the GE7 Initiative; selected among the top 50 most influential women in the Egyptian economy in 2015 and 2020; among other awards.

Al-Mashat received her PhD and MA in Economics from the University of Maryland, College Park, USA, and her BA in Economics from the American University in Cairo. She completed Executive Education in Leadership and Public Policy from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and Transformational Leadership from Saïd Business School at Oxford University. She has engaged in evidence-based research to advance transparent monetary policy frameworks, characterize economic growth and development through institutional reforms and partnerships, and has several publications in these subjects.

David Miliband is the President and CEO of the International Rescue Committee (IRC). He oversees the agency’s operations in over 40 crisis-affected countries and its refugee resettlement and assistance programs throughout Europe and the Americas. The IRC’s mission is to help the world’s most vulnerable people, whose lives and livelihoods have been shattered by conflict and disaster, including the climate crisis, to survive, recover, and regain control of their futures. In 2024, the IRC served more than 36.5M people in countries affected by crisis.

Prior to joining IRC, David had a distinguished political career in the United Kingdom. From 2007 to 2010, he served as the 74^th Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, representing the United Kingdom throughout the world. His accomplishments have earned him a reputation, in former President Bill Clinton’s words, as “one of the ablest, most creative public servants of our time.” In 2016 David was named one of the World’s Greatest Leaders by Fortune Magazine and in 2018 he was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2016, he was one of the Guest Readers in the Grammy Award-winning recording of Presidential Suite: Eight Variations on Freedom by the Ted Nash Big Band.

David is also the author of the book, Rescue: Refugees and the Political Crisis of Our Time. As the son of refugees, David brings a personal commitment to the IRC’s work and to the premise of the book: that we can rescue the dignity and hopes of refugees and displaced people, and if we help them, in the process we will rescue our own values.

Jasandra Nyker is a globally recognized investment executive, climate finance leader, and board director with over two decades of experience at the intersection of sustainable development, energy transition, and international capital mobilization. She is the Founder and Managing Partner of Saja Climate Partners, a London-based investment and advisory platform focused on scaling climate and energy solutions across emerging markets. She also currently serves in an operating leadership capacity supporting the restructuring and optimization of a European renewable energy platform.

Jasandra has built and led platforms that deploy capital into complex and underserved markets, with a strong emphasis on aligning commercial returns with development outcomes. As former CEO of Nala Renewables, a global energy transition platform backed by Trafigura and IFM Investors, she led the deployment of approximately $500 million into renewable energy and storage assets across multiple geographies, building a 3.4GW pipeline spanning Europe, Asia, and the Americas.

Over more than a decade working within the Denham Capital ecosystem, Jasandra played a central role in originating, building, and scaling clean energy platforms across emerging markets. Her experience spans investment, platform development, capital structuring, and exits, with a particular focus on making projects bankable in traditionally underserved markets. This includes leading the transformation and ultimate exit of a pan-African renewable energy platform, which grew to over 500MW of projects and delivered strong returns, while pioneering innovative financing structures that enabled local community participation and broader development impact.

Her earlier career includes senior investment roles at PCG Asset Management and advisory work at Booz Allen Hamilton, where she focused on clean energy investment strategies, capital structuring, and private equity in emerging markets. Across her career, she has mobilized over $1 billion in capital and worked extensively with development finance institutions, governments, and private investors to unlock investment into climate and infrastructure sectors. Jasandra currently serves on multiple international boards, including as a Non-Executive Director of the Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet (GEAPP), Investec Plc, and Emira Property Fund.

She serves on multiple investment committees and advises global initiatives, including the World Economic Forum’s energy platforms. Her work sits at the intersection of public and private capital, with a strong focus on designing scalable, replicable models that deliver measurable development impact. She is particularly committed to advancing more effective approaches to development cooperation—mobilizing private capital at scale, strengthening local ownership, and driving sustainable, system-level outcomes across the Global South.

Jasandra is a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader and holds an MBA from London Business School, alongside executive education from Harvard Kennedy School and MIT.

Daouda Sembene is the CEO of AfriCatalyst, a global development advisory firm headquartered in Dakar. He also serves as a Distinguished Non-Resident Fellow at the Washington-based Center for Global Development (CGD) and the African Center for Economic Transformation (ACET). Daouda was a member of the G20 Africa Expert Panel appointed by the South African G20 Presidency. He was also a member of the Jubilee Commission of Experts chaired by Professor Stiglitz and commissioned by Pope Francis to address debt and development crises.

His extensive career includes leadership roles at the International Monetary Fund (IMF), representing 23 African countries on the Executive Board. Notably, he chaired committees aimed at enhancing collaboration between the IMF and global institutions such as the World Bank, the United Nations, and the World Trade Organization. He also served as an Economic Advisor to the President of Senegal and was appointed Special Advisor on food security to the Chair of the African Union. Daouda’s expertise is sought globally, providing testimony to US Congress and consulting for major international organizations.

Daouda holds a PhD in Development Economics from American University and has authored numerous publications focusing on macroeconomic policies and low income countries’ developmental challenges.

Before joining the Secretariat, Brin completed her Masters in Global Human Development from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service, specializing in program design and evaluation and with a certificate in social innovation and global development.

Prior to Georgetown, Brin spent five years at the Center for Global Development (CGD), where she led work to strengthen the organization’s approach to defining, measuring, and communicating its impact, conducted research on global health policy and financing, and executed public and private events to convene key policy stakeholders around innovative research and policy recommendations.

While pursuing her master’s, Brin worked with Instiglio — a non-profit dedicated to transforming global development effectiveness through results-based approaches — as a summer associate based in Mauritius and a graduate student intern. At Instiglio, Brin helped establish a central impact team and developed impact measurement and management strategies and frameworks to capture and inform the organization’s work with governments and development partners.

Brin received her Bachelor of Arts in Sociology and Educational Studies from Colgate University. While pursuing her bachelor’s degree, Brin held positions as a legislative affairs intern in the Bureau for Legislative and Public Affairs at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and as an intern at Save the Children helping to advance their Maternal Newborn and Child Survival and Early Childhood Education campaigns.

Amy has over 20 years experience working in the international development and climate space as a researcher, policy expert and advocate.

She has previously worked with NGOs and think tanks leading political strategy and policy development across a broad range of finance issues, with an emphasis on global engagement and processes. Most recently, she developed policy and a programme of engagement on reform of the multilateral development banks and convened partners to support a successful World Bank IDA21 replenishment.

Amy graduated from the University of Sydney and has written on issues relating to geopolitics, development and climate finance, and international financial architecture reform.

Mma Amara Ekeruche is a senior economist with 8 years’ experience in conducting research in think tanks and international financial institutions. Her research interests are public finance and debt management, domestic resource mobilization, and macroeconomic management.

Consequently, her research experience cuts across key issues in development including public debt, South-South Cooperation, and the impact of Chinese investment in Africa. You can find her work on the Think20, Brookings Institution, the International Centre for Tax and Development, the United Nations Office on South-South Cooperation, and Southern Voice. She was also awarded the IMF Youth Fellowship in 2020. She holds a Master’s in Economic Policy from University College London (UCL), United Kingdom and a Bachelor’s Degree in Economics from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Ghana.

John Norris has served in several senior roles in government, international institutions, and nonprofits. He is a Senior Adviser at the Starling Institute, a non-profit focused on promoting multilateral cooperation.

He previously served as a Policy Adviser at the Gates Foundation. John also served as a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress and the Executive Director of the Enough Project, a human rights organization focused on preventing war crimes.

In 2014, John was appointed by President Barack Obama to the President’s Global Development Council, a body charged with advising the administration on effective development practices.

John also was the Chief of Political Affairs for the United Nations Mission in Nepal, assisting the peace process that helped end that country’s decade-long civil war. John served as Special Adviser to the president of the International Crisis Group, and as the director of communications for U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott. He also worked as a speechwriter and field disaster expert at the U.S. Agency for International Development.

John is the author of four books, including Mary McGrory: The First Queen of Journalism which was a finalist for the LA Times Book Award. He also wrote a well-regarded history of the U.S. Agency for International Development, and has authored opinion pieces and features appearing in a broad array of publications including Foreign Policy, The Atlantic, Washington Post, LA Times, Politico, The New Republic, Chicago Tribune, The Guardian, and International Herald Tribune.

Radha Rajkotia is an entrepreneurial leader known for her commitment to driving innovation, impact, evidence, and positive change in international and economic development.

Most recently, as the Chief Executive Officer of Building Markets, Radha championed market-based solutions for small businesses in economically vulnerable communities, facilitating their entry into sustainable and profitable supply chain opportunities. In her previous role as Chief Research and Policy Officer at Innovations for Poverty Action, she spearheaded the execution of IPA’s strategy across 22 countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, translating evidence into impactful practice and policy. Radha spent eleven years leading the economic unit at the International Rescue Committee, applying her creative thinking to deliver aid and test groundbreaking ideas on the ground, from cash-based relief to job creation in conflict settings.

Radha actively contributes to shaping the social impact landscape through her voluntary service, including past and current board positions at Building Markets, where she is chair of the board of directors, and Birdseed Foundation, which provides down payment grants to low-income, first-generation home buyers in DC and Philadelphia. Previously, she served on the board of directors of the Cash Learning Partnership (CALP – a global organization promoting the use of cash grants to support people affected by crisis), the Center for Economic Opportunity (a US-based community development financial institution, providing flexible and low-cost loans to refugees and migrants), and Asphaleia (a UK-based charity dedicated to education and employment programming for young migrants).

Radha holds a Ph.D. in Refugee Studies (Geography), an MA in Migration Studies, and an MSc in Social Research Methods from the University of Sussex. She is a Senior Policy Fellow at the Henry Leir Institute for Human Security at Tufts University and an Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University.

Jeanette Thomas is a communications leader with over three decades of experience at the intersection of journalism, storytelling, global politics, and international development.

She combines newsroom instincts and narrative expertise with strategic vision, having led global teams and designed communications strategies that advance growth, inclusion, and impact in international development.

In 2013, Jeanette founded Developing Stories, a video production company dedicated to telling stories about emerging and developing economies. As CEO, she has produced, directed, and written videos in more than 70 countries—in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Eastern Europe and Latin America—bringing complex development and economic issues to life through authentic, visually compelling storytelling.

Before that, Jeanette spent 10 years at the World Bank, first in the Middle East and North Africa region and later as Director of Communications at CGAP, a global partnership for financial inclusion. There she built a world-class multimedia platform and led a global communications team responsible for digital strategy, branding, and outreach across the development community.

Jeanette began her career in London at the BBC, where she produced award-winning documentaries, news, and current affairs programs including Newsnight, In Our Time, and Start the Week. She spent more than five years as a News producer in the BBC’s Washington Bureau where she covered major political, economic, and cultural issues throughout The Americas—from two U.S. presidential elections and the 9/11 attacks to catastrophic earthquakes in El Salvador and Argentina’s economic crash and subsequent elections.

She holds a D.Phil. (Ph.D.) and M.Phil. from Oxford University and a First-Class B.A. with Honors from Manchester University. She is a recipient of the Arwid Johansson Prize, the Shakespeare Prize, and a British Academy Fellowship. She has also been part of teams recognized with a Royal Television Society Award and multiple Sony nominations and awards.

Nicole Vernot-Jonas is the Program Assistant on the Future of Development Cooperation Coalition Secretariat. Prior to joining the Secretariat, she conducted implementation research during a semester at the University of Health and Allied Sciences in Ho, Ghana as part of her Master’s in Global Health with Georgetown University.

Nicole has held internships with Albright Stonebridge Group’s Health and Life Sciences Practice and Project HOPE’s Global Health Technical Unit. Most recently she supported the planning and execution of an interdisciplinary global health case challenge hosted by Georgetown’s Global Health Institute.

Nicole is a strong advocate for youth engagement in health diplomacy, having represented the Global Climate and Health Alliance as a youth member at the 2025 World Health Summit in Berlin and attended the 2023 World Health Assembly in Geneva as a student delegate.

A long-time resident of Washington, DC, Nicole is fluent in French and Spanish and has sung professionally with the National Cathedral Choir. She holds an MSc in Global Health and a Graduate Certificate in Refugees, Migration, and Humanitarian Emergencies, as well as a BSc with Departmental Honors in Global Health from Georgetown University.