Rosita Najmi has worked at the intersection of global social, environmental, and economic development for more than twenty years. As Vice President, Rosita leads strategy, innovation, grantmaking, and measurement, evaluation, and learning (MEL) at The UPS Foundation. Before joining UPS, she led PayPal’s Global Social Innovation Team, which helped put the company’s operations, employees, and products to work for social, economic, and sustainable development. She particularly focused on improving the financial inclusion of marginalized and underserved communities and populations, strengthening economic equity and empowerment for women, girls, and people of color, and advancing climate equity, adaptation, and resilience through local grantmaking and rapid response, employee volunteering and giving, and customer engagement.
Prior to PayPal, Rosita was at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, where she focused on increasing access to financial services for the 700 million people around the world living in extreme poverty. She led a range of fintech-related investments, including on women’s financial inclusion and economic empowerment, regtech, as well as at the intersections of digital financial services and taxation policy and administration. Rosita has also worked at the Omidyar Network, The World Bank, and at leading nonprofits, such as Accion, Mercy Corps, and America’s Promise, for which she led operational and advocacy programs, impact investing, and research across Africa, East Asia and the Pacific, and Central Europe. She has advised and led multi-stakeholder collaborations with governments, the private sector, civil society, and multilateral organizations, including the G7 and G20. Rosita began her development career as co-founder and executive director of an international NGO in Benin.
Rosita came to the US a refugee, grew up in Tennessee, and lives in Washington, DC. She earned an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BA (with honors) in Economics, French, and Politics from Wake Forest University.