About

James currently serves as the Impact Investing Director of Investing in 
Women, an initiative of the Australian Government in Southeast Asia. Working with 
impact investors, he develops blended finance instruments to move capital with a genderlens to the region in support of women-owned and women-led SMEs. 

Prior to joining Investing in Women, James held economic roles with USAID, as a 
Foreign Service Officer (Private Enterprise), where he received a number of awards and 
distinctions through tours in the Philippines and West Africa. Spanning the public and 
private sectors, he has over 15 years of international experience in economics, trade, 
and investments. James honed his analytical skills as a quantitative analyst on Wall 
Street (at Credit Suisse and Moody?s Investors Service). But his passion for 
humanitarian causes has taken him from the Peace Corps (as a mathematics teacher), 
into the field of microfinance, and many stops in between (non-profit work, impact 
investing, and development consultancy).

A Lao-American, James holds a Ph.D. in Political Economy from Cornell University in 
Ithaca, New York. He is fluent in English and French and conversant in Thai and Lao.