Sasha Kapadia

Sasha is Director of Global Advisory at ODI, leading the organisation’s newly established consulting arm. ODI Global Advisory provides advisory, convening, policy and research products and services to clients interested in tackling the world’s most pressing challenges.

Previously, she spent nearly a decade at Mastercard working with humanitarian and development organisations to develop programmes that advance social impact while remaining commercially sustainable. Notably, she conceptualised and led the Smart Communities Coalition, a public-private effort co-chaired by USAID that seeks to transform the delivery of essential services to the forcibly displaced and their host communities.

Sasha was instrumental in helping to launch new products designed to better serve underserved populations around the world: Mastercard Aid Network, an award-winning digital voucher platform designed to work offline and used in countries as diverse as Yemen, Nigeria, and Nepal; Digital Agents, a last-mile distribution platform empowering local entrepreneurs; and Mastercard Cross-Border Services technology disbursing funds directly to people affected by crisis.

Understanding the power of narrative, she worked closely on the company’s thought leadership centered on social impact and alongside senior executives on high-profile events such as the Global Refugee Forum, World Humanitarian Summit and World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos.

Prior to Mastercard, Sasha held positions at the U.S. Department of State in the Office of Afghanistan Affairs and the German Marshall Fund of the United States. She is a graduate of the Fletcher School, where she focused on fragile and failed state development, and New York University.