Mark Pickens

Microfinance Specialist. Mark leads CGAP’s work on customer adoption with new banking technologies and advises mobile, technology and banking industries on reaching the mass market. In the past year he has conducted field work in the largest slum in Nairobi, rural India, and Brazil’s arid northeast to understand how low-income consumers use mobile money. Prior to joining CGAP, Pickens led an award-winning startup crowd-sourcing progressive news in New York City, and founded a health enterprise which doubled child vaccination rates in a rural district of Madagascar. He worked as a microfinance consultant for banks and microlenders in Bosnia, Cambodia, Mali, and Madagascar. His work has been quoted in Wired, The Economist, The Banker, and CNN.com. He holds a master's degree from Columbia University.