NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Rashmi applies her extensive global nonprofit, donor agency and corporate experience to fostering social entrepreneurship, promoting economic development and alleviating poverty. Her particular areas of expertise include: microfinance and other base of the pyramid (BOP) business activities; impact investing; enterprise development and competitiveness; policy advocacy; and gender issues.

Most recently, Rashmi has been working with a number of U.S.-based social enterprises that are active both domestically and abroad. Her work has encompassed a variety of roles, such as: conducting market research on new products and technologies to serve the underbanked population in the U.S.; organizing educational programs about investment management and impact investing for foundations; analyzing the domestic microenterprise development landscape; developing stakeholder analyses; devising communications and fundraising strategies; and evaluating measures of poverty outreach in microfinance. Rashmi also actively participates in local volunteer and networking groups, including Net Impact’s Service Corps and Women Advancing Microfinance.

Prior to that, Rashmi worked with the International Finance Corporation (IFC) to promote policy reform, trade, investment, entrepreneurship, and sustainable business practices in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. She also spent a year as a USAID Emerging Markets Development Advisers Program (EMDAP) Fellow in Vietnam, where she designed and implemented technical assistance programs to promote competitiveness in the local technology, fruit and tourism industries. Rashmi began her career in the private sector, first in investment banking and capital markets at Merrill Lynch, where she focused on basic industries, emerging markets, and structured products, and subsequently in the technology sector, where she worked with mid-sized companies and small businesses.

Rashmi holds an M.A. in International Relations from The Johns Hopkins University’s Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) and a B.A. in History from Yale University.

She can be contacted at rashmi.pendse@gmail.com and followed on Twitter at @rkpendse.