Leadership

Karthik Krishnan is a CEO with experience building startups and accelerating enterprise value of large public and private companies in EdTech, HealthTech, and Media. He is the former Global CEO of Britannica Group, Venture Chair at Redesign Health, and SVP & General Manager at RELX (Fortune 500) where he led four global businesses: Media, eCommerce, Pharma and Clinical Decision Support. Since 2010, he has been an adjunct professor at NYU Stern School of Business.

Karthik has actively shaped several transformative initiatives including UNICEF’s Youth Skills Development, Revitalizing Harlem (NYC), and transforming NYC public housing residents’ lives through a jobs-plus model for parents and a college pathway model for youth. He also secured regulatory approval to launch a credit union to serve low-income communities. He was recognized by former President Clinton for his leadership in launching the Urban Enterprise Initiative.

Karthik is NACD Directorship CertifiedTM and was recognized for his board work by Financial Times/Agenda in Diversity 100 public company board-ready leaders. On the World Economic Forum Expert Network, he has published articles several topics from ESG to Augmented Intelligence.

Karthik has an MBA from NYU Stern School of Business and a bachelor’s in engineering from Coimbatore Institute of Technology.

Pedro provides finance and strategic advisory support to IFFEd on finance and MDB issues. He has been engaged in IFFEd since 2018, including several rounds of negotiations with donors and MDBs.

Previously, Pedro was the Vice President Budget, Performance Review, and Strategic Planning of the World Bank where he oversaw the Bank’s $3.8bn budget as well as strategic planning and reported directly to the Group CFO. He was also a member of senior management committees of the World Bank including the Senior Management Team and the finance and risk committee (that advised the CFO on all financial decisions).

Prior to this, Pedro also served in a variety of World Bank positions including as Country Director in the Russian Federation, in the Southern Cone of Latin America, and in several fragile states in Africa.

Pedro is currently CEO and Founding Partner of BlueOrange Consulting, which provides services to multilateral development institutions and banks and civil society organizations in the areas of innovative development finance, setting up new development facilities, and budget reform.

Nina brings over 15 years of strategy, finance, and delivery experience in emerging markets spanning both the private and public sectors. She started her adventure with IFFEd as the Head of Innovative Finance at the Education Commission. Her prior experience includes investing in health and education across Africa as an Investment Officer for the International Finance Corporation (IFC), driving public sector delivery as the Country Head and Deputy Country Head for the Tony Blair Africa Governance Initiative in Malawi and Rwanda respectively, and working as an Advisor to the Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs of Palestine. She has also got her hands dirty with several start-ups, including as an advisor to a leading blended-learning Higher Education non-profit in Africa.

Nina has lived and worked in India, Kenya, Rwanda, Malawi, and Palestine, and loves to explore unfamiliar corners of the globe.

Nina earned her BA in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from the University of Oxford and holds a Master in Public Administration in International Development (MPAID/ID) from Harvard University.

Nick leads on IFFEd’s financial design, credit rating, Treasury function, and risk management. He is a macroeconomist with over 30 years’ experience including 15 years in the UK Finance Ministry (HMT) where he was a senior civil servant as Deputy Director for the Economics Group providing economic and financial advice across the Department.

At HMT working with Gordon Brown as Finance Minister, Nick originated and developed the International Finance Facility (IFF) in two years to a preliminary AAA credit rating in 2003. He led technical discussions for the UK with Goldman Sachs, the World Bank, S&P, Eurostat, and French and German Finance Ministries – and the IFF went on to become IFFIm, the International Finance Facility for Immunisation.

After HMT he served as Chief Economist and Director of National Accounts and Economic Statistics for the UK, and then as Chief Economic Adviser for Jersey where he provided advice on all economic and financial policy issues, along with macroeconomic and fiscal forecasting.

Tom Duvall is a graduate of the University of Virginia School of Law, where he was Managing Editor of the Virginia Law Review. Following graduation, he became an associate at a major international law firm. He joined the Legal Department of the World Bank in 1987, where he became a Chief Counsel, responsible for providing legal support for several innovative financing programs involving governmental agencies and the private sector. Following retirement from the World Bank in 2009, he has worked with the World Bank and other multilateral development banks in establishing new financial programs. Since 2018, he has provided legal support for the establishment of IFFEd.

Dan Lavender was a partner in a major law firm in London for 20 years. He led the firm’s practices in investigations and financial services litigation and served as a member of the firm’s management committee for many years. He has a long record of advising boards and senior individuals on business critical issues. He will be working with IFFEd as a board advisor to the Board Chair and CEO.