Derek George

Deputy Head of Section - Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation SDC

Derek George works as a Policy Advisor for Financial Inclusion and Private Sector Engagement at the SDC’s Economy and Education section, from where he advises Swiss embassies and SDC units and manages a range of partnerships in financial inclusion, impact investing and blended finance. He joined the SDC in 2013 and has specialized in economic development in various capacities both in Headquarters and SDC Field Offices in Developing and Transition countries. Prior to joining the Economy and Education section, he worked as Deputy Head of Swiss Cooperation in Dhaka, Bangladesh and in Belgrade, Serbia, where he headed the Economic Development teams and incubated a number of large-scale SDC programs in the field of Market Systems Development, Financial Inclusion and Impact-linked Finance, Private Sector Engagement and Vocational Education and Training. He holds a master’s degree in international relations and political economy from the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies Geneva, and a Master of Advances Studies in Development Cooperation from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich. He speaks French, German and English.