Alison Eskesen

Alison Eskesen is Vice President of the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth, joining in 2017 to open the Center in Asia Pacific. Alison leads the company’s regional philanthropic initiatives. Alison brings significant sector and global international development experience, having worked at the intersection of development and finance for over 20 years. Prior to Mastercard, Alison was part of the inaugural team that launched Grow Asia, a multi-stakeholder agriculture partnership catalyzed by the World Economic Forum and the ASEAN Secretariat. Alison has also worked in impact investing and spent the majority of her career at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), where she mobilized $2.8 billion in domestic private capital for local development projects. Alison is an Advisory Board member for the Aspen Development Network Enterprises (ANDE) Southeast Asia chapter and on the Advisory Committee for the ANDE Gender Equality Action Lab. She also is a member of Business for Social Responsibility’s Catalyst, an apparel and manufacturing industry steering committee for HERfinance. Alison holds a MA from Columbia University and a BA from Colgate University. She was also a Fulbright Scholar in Paraguay.