AGRA

Rodger Voorhies

Chair, Audit & Risk Committee

Rodger Voorhies is the President – Global Growth & Opportunity Division at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. . In this role, Rodger leads the foundation’s efforts to alleviate hunger and poverty for millions of farming families in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia by increasing agricultural productivity in a sustainable way; make high quality digital financial services widely accessible to people living in the poorest parts of the world; promote sustainable approaches to gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls; and bring groundbreaking innovations in sanitation technology and new ways to deliver sanitation products and services to people in the developing world.

Rodger lived for nearly 20 years in emerging markets. He worked extensively in Africa and Eastern Europe to establish and grow successful and sustainable microfinance organizations with client-driven organizational cultures that delivered innovative financial services to poor households and communities. He served most recently as the CEO of Opportunity Bank of Serbia where he managed the bank through a successful turnaround, using data to reach small holder farmers. He also founded Opportunity Bank of Malawi, the first commercial microfinance bank in Malawi and grew it to become one of the largest providers of financial services in the country using alternative delivery channels (e.g., biometric smart cards, mobile banking). Today, nearly one out of every five Malawi families has a relationship with the bank.