Consumer Protection · Competition Policy · Open Finance
Two decades of experience shaping financial policy and driving innovation across Africa, Asia, and Latin America. I work at the intersection of regulation, technology, and market design to build fair, competitive, and inclusive financial systems.
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Consumer protection should be the foundation of financial services—but sometimes keeping consumers safe gets lost in the rush to innovate. I love to work with governments and providers to get creative in building consumer protection solutions for our digital lives. My work includes developing new data collection methods, testing solutions to challenges like pricing transparency and fraud prevention, and redesigning product interfaces to make them easier for consumers to understand.
In a digital marketplace, your data is your power to unlock better products and prices. I am passionate about open finance and other models that put power over data in consumers' hands. I first began working on this topic in 2018, and continue to support research and policy development for open finance ecosystems.
Addressing competition challenges in digital economies means understanding how the powers of large platforms impact the lives of consumers and small businesses. In Africa I have worked on market inquiries examining pricing, innovation, and market structure in digital financial services, and developed proposals for continental-wide approaches to regulating competition in the digital economy.
Experience conducting field experiments and translating findings into policy action across the globe, including surveys, randomized impact evaluations, mystery shopping, A/B testing and behavioral research. Founding director of the Consumer Protection Research Initiative at Innovations for Poverty Action, funding 20+ consumer protection projects.
A sought after trainer and facilitator, especially in the intersection of policy design and experimental research. Recent trainings have included open finance, digital platforms and competition policy, and consumer protection in digital finance. Developed a behavioral research training program that was a Top 5 rated class at Boulder Institute of Microfinance.
Have worked in more than 10 countries developing consumer protection regulations in financial services, informed by my skills in data collection and experimental research. Key areas include pricing transparency, complaints handling and redress.
Over two decades, I've worked across three continents helping shape financial policy. Click on any marker to see sample projects.
My journey has not always been linear—carpenter, union organizer, grantwriter—I bounced around a bit early on. But seeing how people I knew were impacted by the 2008 financial crisis, and the deceptive products that sparked the crisis, evangelized me to a career in financial consumer protection, and the nerd in me just loved digging into the details of regulations and of experimental design.
Over the past two decades, I've worked across three continents helping build financial systems that actually work for people. At CGAP and the World Bank, I led consumer protection research and policy development in more than a dozen countries. At Innovations for Poverty Action, I launched a $5.4 million research program that funded experiments and policy projects from Uganda to the Philippines. Now, through Fair Finance Consulting, I work directly with regulators, international organizations, and researchers to tackle the thorniest problems in digital finance.
What drives me is the belief that markets can be fair without being stifling, innovative without being predatory, but they don't always naturally trend that way. So there is a key role for policy to shape what kind of financial market we get.
My approach combines rigorous analysis with practical implementation. I don't just write policy recommendations—I design experiments, analyze administrative data, facilitate multi-stakeholder workshops, and work alongside regulators as they implement reforms. I believe the best policy work happens at the intersection of evidence, local context, and political feasibility.
When I'm not thinking about responsible pricing models or competition in platform markets, you'll find me in Durham, North Carolina, working with neighbors on issues like housing affordability, or dreaming of my next trip someplace new.
Do you think I could be a fit for your needs? Me and my company, Fair Finance Consulting, work with regulators, development organizations, researchers, and financial institutions to design and implement policy and products that makes financial markets work better for everyone. I love being a part of teams that bring together different technical backgrounds to collaborate on a shared problem. I also have a network of talented collaborators in research, policy analysis, and capacity building, if you need a diverse set of skills for your project.