The Global Innovation Fund has significantly increased its policy and communications firepower with the appointment of James Mazzarella to the new role of Senior Vice President of Policy and Communications.
In this role, James leads government and policy engagement in the Americas and will also lead on the delivery of corporate, investment and innovation messaging. He joins GIF after serving at the White House’s National Security Council as Senior Director for Global Economics and Development, where he was one of the primary architects of the new U.S. International Development Finance Corporation, and over a decade at the Millennium Challenge Corporation, the American aid agency that focuses on impact evaluation as a core tenet.
Alix Peterson Zwane, GIF CEO, welcomed James to the team: “I am delighted to welcome James to the GIF team. This appointment is about deepening our engagement with our strategic partners in the U.S. and Canadian governments, and of advancing GIF’s role as a global thought leader in development finance and accelerating evidence-based innovation for impact. GIF partners with governments to mobilise aid budgets in grants and investments in innovation with the potential for outsized social impact; James will play the core role in sharing lessons learned with the broader development community and influencing the design and delivery of innovation programs.”
While noting it is never optimal to start a new job while most of the world is sheltering-in-place, James said: “GIF is at the cutting edge of using finance as a tool to create and measure economic growth at what is an very exciting time for development finance globally and particularly in the U.S. Supporting and amplifying the success of the GIF investment team is my number one goal as we work together to reduce poverty.”
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