Susan M. Davis
President & CEO, BRAC USA
Susan Davis is an author, speaker, and thought leader in international development and civil society innovation. In 2006, she founded BRAC USA, an organization created to advance the global mission of BRAC, the world's largest nonprofit organization. She is currently president and CEO of BRAC USA, which mobilizes resources for, provides strategic and programs services to, and educates the public about BRAC's pioneering work to alleviate poverty and create opportunity for the poor.
In 2010, she co-authored the book Social Entrepreneurship: What Everyone Needs to Know with David Bornstein of The New York Times. Susan has appeared on CNN and ABC News discussing global poverty and health issues, and her work on microfinance and entrepreneurship creation in developing countries has appeared in Innovations, Harvard Business Review, and other publications.
Susan first became acquainted with microcredit - and specifically with the holistic anti-poverty approach of BRAC and its founder, Sir Fazle Hasan Abed - from her years with the Ford Foundation in Bangladesh and with Women's World Banking. She is a founding (and current) board member and past chair of the Grameen Foundation.
She remains involved with Ashoka, a nonprofit organization supporting the field of social entrepreneurship, serving on its international board committee that selects Ashoka Fellows. Previously, Susan led Ashoka's Global Academy for Social Entrepreneurship, co-founded its University Network for Social Entrepreneurship, and oversaw the organization's expansion to the Middle East, North Africa, and Central Asia. She also serves as senior advisor to New York University's Reynolds Program on Social Entrepreneurship, and on several boards, including Sirleaf Market Women's Fund and African Women's Development Fund USA. She serves on the advisory boards of FEM Inc. and the United Nations Fund for International Partnership and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Previously, she served as a senior advisor to the director-general of the International Labor Organization and was the executive director of Women's Environment & Development Organization, a global advocacy group. Susan was educated at Georgetown (BSFS 1978), Harvard (MPA 1982), and Oxford (MPhil candidate 1980-81) Universities.