Creating a Safety Net for Micro and Small Enterprises: A Call to Action to Close Consumer Protection Gaps

As Vice President of Consumer Protection and Strategic Industry Engagement, Jayshree leads CFI’s consumer protection research agenda and partnership strategy, contributing to a diverse global portfolio. Her work focuses on emerging risks at the intersection of technology and financial services, with a particular emphasis on human–technology interactions and their implications for consumer protection.

In her role, Jayshree oversees two flagship convenings: Financial Inclusion Week (FIW) and the Responsible Finance Forum (RFF). FIW is the sector’s largest virtual event, which drew more than 3,500 participants from over 140 countries in 2025. RFF is a global platform advancing responsible finance and addressing consumer protection challenges, held annually alongside the G20 Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion (GPFI) meetings.

With over two decades of experience spanning structured finance, innovative business models, consumer research, and policy engagement, Jayshree is deeply committed to advancing financial inclusion and economic development worldwide. Prior to joining CFI, she spent nearly a decade as an independent consultant, advising leading global institutions including CGAP, the World Bank, JICA, and ITAD on customer-centric approaches and barriers faced by low-income populations in accessing and using formal financial services. Earlier in her career, Jayshree was part of the founding team at IFMR (now Dvara Trust) in India, where she led the country’s first mezzanine fund for microfinance, which later evolved into an alternative investment fund. She began her professional journey at ICICI Bank, building a strong foundation in finance.

In addition to her work at CFI, Jayshree is a Senior Policy Fellow at the Leir Institute at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, where she focuses on financial inclusion challenges affecting vulnerable populations, including migrants and refugees. She has also served as adjunct faculty at the Fletcher School, teaching decision analysis for business. Jayshree is a recipient of the Chevening Fellowship for Leadership from the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office, completed at King’s College, London.

She earned an MA in International Relations from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, an MBA from the Management Development Institute in Gurgaon, and an undergraduate degree in Mathematics from Mumbai University.

Colin presently serves as CFI’s Research Manager. He has a background in project design, monitoring and evaluation, and social performance management. He supports research projects as well as the implementation of data collection, management, review, and presentation; drafting blog posts and reports; planning events and workshops, among other things.

Colin previously worked as the social performance manager at Small Enterprise Foundation, the largest MFI in South Africa, where he led a team responsible for gathering and analyzing insights on client progress, satisfaction, and challenges. He also reviewed and developed the organization’s social performance practices, in addition to working on the design, monitoring, and evaluation of financial education and savings projects.

Prior to that, Colin spent time developing M&E tools for BancoSol in Bolivia, consulted with nonprofits and family philanthropic foundations in the DC area to strengthen internal operations, and was an intern on the Bankers without Borders team at Grameen Foundation.

Colin has a master’s degree in social enterprise from American University: School of International Service and a bachelor’s degree in anthropology from Sewanee.