Nancy Lee is a senior policy fellow at the Center for Global Development. Previously, she was deputy chief executive officer of the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), an innovative, independent U.S. aid agency that fights poverty through country compacts that support inclusive growth. Key MCC attributes are rigorous country selection, country ownership of compacts, data-driven resource allocation, results accountability, and transparency. Prior to joining MCC, Dr. Lee was general manager of the Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF) at the Inter-American Development Bank, the bank’s laboratory for private-sector-led development and a key impact investor in the region. Under her leadership, MIF launched initiatives in lending to women-owned small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs); a public-private partnership to scale youth job training programs; a program to introduce social impact bonds; innovative climate finance models; and a crowdsourcing platform for development solutions. Previously, Dr. Lee served at the U.S. Treasury Department, where she was deputy assistant secretary for the Western Hemisphere and for Europe and Eurasia. She led the Treasury Department’s work to put financial inclusion, SME finance, and women’s access to finance on the G20 agenda. She cochaired the G20 SME Finance Group and led the development of the G20 SME Finance Challenge and the SME Finance Innovation Fund. She was a Treasury Department negotiator in the Uruguay Round of trade negotiations. Dr. Lee is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and holds a Ph.D. and an M.A. in economics from Tufts University and a B.A. in economics from Wellesley College.
