Kate Schweigart

Senior Vice President - Rare

As Senior Vice President, Kate leads Rare’s Global Innovative Finance Program, designing breakthrough finance strategies to scale community-led conservation across underserved coastal areas. She is the architect behind the world’s first Small-Scale Fisheries Impact Bond and a weather-based parametric insurance product for fishers, two pioneering financial models that bring climate resilience and sustainability to the blue economy. Her work blends philanthropic, public, and private capital to unlock investment in nature-based solutions and locally led development. Kate also partners with governments and multilateral institutions to align funding with climate, biodiversity, and equity goals across the Sustainable Development Goals.

Prior to joining Rare, Kate served as Director of Political and Sovereign Risk at OPIC, where she underwrote over $300 million in projects and helped pioneer capital markets insurance products for emerging economies.