Former Microsoft Executive Joins Opportunity International As Chief Technology Officer
By Godson Umejiego, Bureau Chief, The Americas
Opportunity International has announced that Greg Nelson has joined the organization as its next Chief Technology Officer.
“Greg’s addition to our ranks at Opportunity marks an important next step in our strategy to end extreme poverty,” said Opportunity’s CEO Atul Tandon. “The vast majority of people living on less than $2.15 a day have subsistence level livelihoods with little to no access to resources, skills and even the time to help build sustainable incomes. Greg’s expertise and leadership will build technology solutions that can break down these barriers and provide our clients with what they need to build incomes and beat back poverty.”
Prior to joining Opportunity, Greg spent 26 years at Microsoft and was based in Seattle, London and Paris. His final role was Vice President of Partner Ecosystem for Business Applications, helping Microsoft’s developer community use tools and platforms to grow their businesses. His other roles at the company spanned engineering, partner and business development, marketing and sales.
Greg will oversee Opportunity’s Digital Innovation Group (DIG) which combines Opportunity’s Digital Financial Services team and Product Innovation team to build solutions that enable Opportunity clients to improve their livelihoods and break the cycle of generational poverty.
“I’ve been a fan of Opportunity’s work since the mid-1990s, and have really enjoyed my service as a board member over the past two years,” said Nelson. “Now I am excited to work more closely alongside some of the most effective experts in international development, finding ways to bring technology-based solutions to help our clients build their futures.”
Greg has served on Opportunity’s board of directors as an active member of the Stewardship & Impact Committee, where he has led an envisioning process using human-centered design to deeply understand the needs and motivations of Opportunity’s clients to inform technology decisions and programme investment areas. He holds an MBA from Harvard, as well as degrees from the University of Cape Town and Seattle Pacific University.
