Thomas Abell is a senior manager at Accenture Development Partnerships. Thomas has more than 20 years of experience in international development and high technology, with expertise in technology strategy and innovation, financial inclusion, organizational strategy, ICT for development and ICT for education. He has led Accenture projects with CGAP, the government of Tanzania, Financial Sector Deepening Trust, Gates Foundation, UNHCR, Government of Ethiopia and the Consultative Group in International Agriculture Research (CGIAR). He has worked in over 30 countries, including in East Africa. Thomas has experience advising governments on a variety of technology-related issues. For example, he led a project with the Central Bank of Tanzania to develop a comprehensive IT strategy, which included developing recommendations for the Tanzania mobile payments regulations. He has also developed a harmonization framework for all of the central banks of the East African Community (EAC) on IT solutions, including interoperability of payment systems. His recommended harmonization framework was formally approved and adopted as official policy by all five EAC central bank governors. He earned his B.S. and M.S. degrees in Mechanical Engineering from MIT and an MBA from MIT’s Sloan School of Management.