Leesa Shrader is Deputy Director for Women’s Livelihoods Development at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, under the Women’s Economic Empowerment is a senior expert in digital inclusion, agriculture, financial services and technology innovation. From 2015 to 2021, Leesa was the Director of the Mercy Corps AgriFin programs based in Kenya, covering eight countries in Africa and India. AgriFin represents over $60 million of innovation funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates, MasterCard Walmart and Bayer Foundations, as well as other funders. Agrifin aims to harness the power of digital innovation for smallholder farmers, building incomes, productivity, and resilience, with a strong gender lens and has now reached over 17 million farmers with digital services across 170 partners.

Ms. Shrader joined AgriFin from CGAP, where she served as the Senior Branchless Banking Lead in Southeast Asia, covering Bangladesh, China, Indonesia, and other countries in the region. She is currently consulting on initiatives linked to rural women’s economic advancement, drawing on 30 years’ experience in 40+ countries across Africa, the Middle East, Latin America, and Asia. She has developed and worked with leading banks and MFIs, mobile network operators, tech start ups and development institutions, including the World Bank, Women’s World Banking, KfW and GIZ. Ms. Shrader holds a master’s degree in Public Policy from Georgetown University and an undergraduate degree in International Relations and Russian from Reed College in Portland, Oregon.