Robert
Christen is the Director of Financial Services for
the Poor at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Mr. Christen has over 25 years of experience in
leading the development of the microfinance sector
the aim of which is to increase the access of the
poor to financial services. He is recognized internationally
for his leadership in advancing the microfinance
sector as a global industry in a number of areas:
commercial innovations in microfinance operations,
microfinance industry performance benchmarking,
international professional training programs and
policies in regulation and supervision. Mr. Christen
has worked in over 40 countries advising governments,
banks, and microfinance service providers. He has
held a variety of management positions including
Senior Advisor to the Consultative Group to Assist
the Poorest (CGAP ) at the World Bank from 1998-2004;
and has founded a number of important initiatives
that serve the industry including: the MicroBanking
Bulletin and subsequently the MicroFinance Information
Exchange, the Microfinance Management Institute,
the Boulder Institute of Microfinance. Mr. Christen
holds a Masters Degree in Agricultural Economics
and Development Finance from Ohio University which
granted him the Distinguished Alumni Award in 2005.
He received his B.A. in Political Science from Beloit
College. Mr. Christen is the author of a large number
of publications in microfinance: Banking Services
for the Poor: Managing for Financial Success, ACCION
International, 1996, “Managing Risks and Designing
products for Agricultural Microfinance: Features
of an Emerging Model,” with Doug Pearce, CGAP
Occasional Paper No. 11, 2005; “The Rush to
Regulate, Legal Frameworks for Microfinance”
with Richard Rosenberg, CGAP Occasional Paper No.
4, 2000 later condensed versions were published
in Journal of small Enterprise Development, Vol.
11, No. 4 December 2000 (condensed version by Claire
Tawney); Financial Institutions with a “Double
Bottom Line: implications for the future of microfinance,”
with Richard Rosenberg and Veena Jayadeva, CGAP
Occasional Paper No. 8, 2004
Robert Peck Christen, Bill & Melinda
Gates Foundation