Rosita Najmi

Activist, Business leader, Change agent, Concerned citizen, Connector, Environmentalist, Finance professional, Global soul, Idea generator, Philanthropist, Social entrepreneur

Rosita Najmi is a development finance leader and driver of global social, environmental, and economic development innovations and outcomes since 2001 and across 30 countries. Rosita began her career as a social entrepreneur and co-founded a public health international NGO in West Africa. She has gone on to be a digitally fluent global executive and intrapreneur in the corporate world (Micron, PayPal and UPS), philanthropy (Gates Foundation and Omidyar Network), international development (World Bank), and civil society (Mercy Corps, Accion, and America's Promise). She brings topical expertise in digital financial inclusion and economic empowerment, gender equality, and climate adaptation and resilience. Her track record includes leading strategy, impact measurement, grantmaking, data and tech for good, impact investing, ESG, humanitarian response, CSR, market-based approaches, policy advocacy, learning, knowledge management, and field building. She has advised and led multi-stakeholder collaborations with governments, the private sector, civil society, and multilateral organizations, including the G7 and G20. She is a champion of collective action and has co-founded and led several ground-breaking global partnerships, coalitions, networks, and alliances, including FinEquity, Climate Innovation for Adaptation and Resilience Alliance (CIFAR), Data2X Women's Financial Inclusion Data Partnership, among others. Rosita has funded, helped design, and executed pioneering operational programs in regtech for regulators, privacy by design, and access to finance for people with disabilities. She created the DIGITAX Program at the International Center for Tax and Development (ICTD), which has explored how tax policy can impact usage of digital financial services and how digital financial services and digital ID can increase efficiency and equity of tax administration. Her early field research and publications have explored female participation in microfinance and commercialization of financial services to the poor. Rosita earned an MBA from Harvard Business School and BA in Economics, French, and Politics from Wake Forest University. Her TED talk on multilingual leadership has been translated in 13 languages. She is a Life Member of the Council on Foreign Relations and is based in Washington, D.C.

My husband and two children and reaching the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

"So powerful is the light of unity that it can illuminate the whole earth." - Baha'u'llah, Founder of the Baha'i Faith

Climate Equity, CSR, Data for Good, Economic Equity, Economics, ESG, Financial Inclusion, FinTech, Gender Equality, Global Development, Impact Investing, International Development, Microfinance, Philanthropy, Shared Value, Stakeholder Capitalism, Women's Economic Empowerment

2023 TedWomen Speaker, "What's Your Leadership Language?" https://www.ted.com/talks/rosita_najmi_what_s_your_leadership_language?subtitle=en