Clara Veniard

Clara Veniard is an Associate Program Officer in the Financial Services for the Poor initiative at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Clara works with financial institutions to deliver saving services at scale to underserved populations and new initiatives to engage with commercial banks and large microfinance banks to deliver more savings services to the poor. Prior to joining the foundation, Clara worked as a consultant with The Boston Consulting Group in South America where she primarily advised retail and commercial banks across the region. She also worked on an economic growth strategy for the Chilean government, leading an in-depth analysis of the IT and business services outsourcing and offshoring industries. Clara began her career as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Nicaragua where she advised and launched consortia for small and micro entrepreneurs in conjunction with the United Nations Industrial Development Organization. Clara holds a BA in East Asian History from Dartmouth College and an MBA from the Harvard Business School. She speaks Spanish and French and is conversant in Mandarin and Portuguese.