Xavier Faz
Lead, Finance for Inclusive Growth, CGAP
Mr. Faz leads CGAP’s research on last mile financial access, increasing depth of financial sector, and increasing income generation through inclusive finance. This involves global research, pilots and work with private and public sector institutions to develop frontier knowledge on Open Finance, Gender equality, MSME Finance, Digital Transformation of Microfinance Institutions, and Agricultural Finance. Previously, Mr. Faz led research on technology and business model innovation for branchless banking, involving significant work in Africa, South Asia and Latin America.
He is currently based in Nairobi and leads CGAP’s Africa Office.
Prior to joining CGAP, Mr. Faz was VP of Strategic Planning for a development bank in Mexico, where he helped launch a line of services offering low-cost banking infrastructure and payments to microfinance and nonbank financial institutions. He also worked with McKinsey & Company in Mexico and Central America, supporting large organizations in banking, retail and consumer goods, leveraging emerging technologies to launch new base-of-the-pyramid businesses. Before that, Mr. Faz was a Systems Engineer at several startups in Mexico and Silicon Valley, as well as Field Engineer for Schlumberger in North Africa.
Mr. Faz has a Master’s degree in Computer Science from Stanford University and an Engineering degree in Electronic Systems from the Instituto Tecnológico de Monterrey, México.
