Boulder Institute of Microfinance

Robert Peck Christen

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