Heather Kipnis

Entrepreneurship | Inclusive Business Lead
IFC

Heather is the Women’s Entrepreneurship and Inclusive Business Product Lead for IFC's Gender and Economic Inclusion Group. In this role, she is the global technical specialist advising project teams, clients, and partners on how to close gender gaps in access to finance, markets, and non-financial services -- with the goal of unlocking opportunities for increased profit, growth and innovation for both IFC clients and women entrepreneurs in emerging markets. Additionally, she leads global product development, partnerships, and research for new advisory and investment solutions that support women entrepreneurs.

Heather brings over 15 years of experience in international development and financial services across Latin America & the Caribbean, Sub-Saharan Africa, and the Middle East. Prior to IFC, Heather led the programs and educational activities for a network of 75,000 women-led small to medium enterprises and held positions in impact investing and private wealth management. Heather has served as an advisor for the Aspen Institute’s ANDE Gender Inclusion Learning Lab, and the Global Impact Investing Networks (GIIN) gender-lens investing initiative. Heather has an MBA in Global Management from Thunderbird School of Global Management and a Bachelor's of Science in Decision and Information Sciences from University of Florida.