Bob Christen

Bob is the President and the Founding Board Member of Boulder Microfinance. He currently holds the position of Deputy Director General at Compartamos Banco in Mexico.

Bob is the President and the Founding Board Member of Boulder Microfinance. He has worked in more than forty countries as a consultant to governments, banks, and providers of microfinance services. In addition, he has worked as the Director of Financial Services to the Poor at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, a Professor of Practice in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University, and a Senior Advisor for the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP) at the World Bank. Bob has an M.A. in Agricultural Economics and Development Finance from The Ohio State University.  

Posts by Bob Christen

Mobile Banking: Focus on Savings

In this video Bob Christen, Director, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation talks about the strategy of the Foundation in mobilising savings account for people who live on less than 2 dollars a day. Bob explains the various agent models that could support savings services. He says the successful mobilisation of small-scale savings requires dramatic reductions […]

Portfolios of the Poor: Introduction

In this video series-1, Stuart Rutherford co-author of “Portfolios of the Poor” and the founder of SafeSave Bangladesh shares his inspiration behind the research on financial diaries that was the foundation of the book. He discusses the importance of listening to clients and explains the research that went behind the book.