Charlene McKoin draws on over 20 years of international development and for-profit business experience to facilitate collaboration and market-driven development. Throughout her career, she has developed innovative partnerships aimed at improving market access and driving behaviour change for new technology adoption. Her work emphasizes the identification and support of viable small- and medium-sized businesses, which through appropriate risk management, financing and training, can effectively target underserved rural farming communities.

Prior to joining Rogers MacJohn, Charlene served as a Senior Program Officer at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation where she specialized in integrated value chain development and post-harvest loss measurement and mitigation. Before joining the Gates Foundation in 2012, Charlene spent more than eight years managing a variety of USAID-funded agribusiness, financial, nutrition and HIV/AIDS projects for Abt Associates, Cardno Emerging Markets and AFRICARE.

Prior to her years in international development, Charlene spent 20 years in international structured trade and project finance for Bank of America, JP Morgan and Wells Fargo.  As an international banker, she worked with Fortune 500 companies and managed relationships with Latin American banks and companies such as Petrobras, Vale, PDVSA, Embraer, and Electricidad de Caracas. She has lived and worked in Africa and Latin America focused on Lusophone countries such as Brazil, Mozambique, Angola and Guinea Bissau.

Charlene holds a BA in History and Anthropology from Sarah Lawrence College and an MA in International Affairs, Policy, Economics, and Development from Johns Hopkins University.