Heather Kipnis

Heather Kipnis

Entrepreneurship Lead, IFC Gender Secretariat

Joining the IFC Gender Secretariat as Entrepreneurship Lead, Heather has 11 years of experience in international development and financial services across Europe, Latin America & the Caribbean, Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, and the Middle East. Of those years, eight have been dedicated to women’s entrepreneurship and SME development. Heather has worked with both the private and public sectors in program strategy, design, implementation, and evaluation for women’s business training programs and access to finance initiatives. Previously, she worked with the IFC Banking on Women Program, advising financial institutions globally on how to build their institutional capacity to reach women-led enterprises. Before that, she led the operations of an international brokerage team at Lehman Brothers. Heather has an MBA in Global Development and Entrepreneurship from Thunderbird School of Global Management.