Bob Fries
Executive Vice President, Technical Learning and Application, ACDI/VOCA

​Sessions: Panel [Reimagining Development] (Day 2 Afternoon)

​Bob Fries is the executive vice president overseeing our technical teams as they develop programmatic approaches to our work and share best practices and technical products with projects overseas. Bob is also president of AV Ventures, ACDI/VOCA’s for-profit subsidiary dedicated to blended finance and impact investment. He has engaged in the design and governance of 10 financial institutions affiliated with ACDI/VOCA, including AV Ventures. Prior to joining ACDI/VOCA in 1989, Bob served as a volunteer and high school teacher in Belize and researcher of seasonal labor migration in Guatemala. He holds a BA in political science from Boston College and an MPIA in economic and social development from the University of Pittsburgh. Bob is fluent  proficient in Spanish and has contributed to Value Chains and Their Significance for Addressing the Rural Finance Challenge and Nature-Centered Tourism in Ecuador, published by USAID, Basic Guidelines for Effective Rural Finance Projects, published by the World Bank, and Making Rural Financial Institutions Sustainable, published by the United States Department of Agriculture.

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