Mr. Crawford is the Co-founder, Board Chair & Investment Committee Chair of MicroVest, one of the U.S.’ first asset managers specializing in allocating private debt capital to responsible microfinance and small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) finance institutions serving un- and underbanked borrowers in emerging markets. Mr. Crawford has been involved in all phases of MicroVest’s growth since its founding in 2003, including the launch of the first North American-based private investment vehicle focused on microfinance.
Prior to founding MicroVest, Mr. Crawford worked in the Latin American Financial Markets Division at the International Finance Corporation (IFC), and prior to that, he founded the Seed Capital Development Fund, a US-based non‐profit that developed funds to capitalize microfinance institutions. Prior to founding SCDF, he worked for the Africa Venture Capital Project and Chase Manhattan Bank. Early in his career, Mr. Crawford spent time overseas with the Red Cross in Chad and the State Department in Guinea.
Mr. Crawford currently serves on the Board of the Tunisian American Enterprise Fund. Previous Board positions include the American Capital Senior Floating, a NASDAQ-listed investment management company; AfricInvest Private Credit (APC) Finance, a lender to African small and medium enterprises (SMEs); and Lumni, Inc. He also served as a member of the Steering Committee for the Agriculture Finance Support Facility, a joint initiative between the World Bank and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; as Treasurer of Joseph’s House, a Washington, DC-base AIDS hospice; and as a board member at DC Central Kitchen.
Mr. Crawford received an M.A. from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and a B.A. from Bates College. He returned to SAIS to co-teach a finance course on impact investing for three years. Mr. Crawford is fluent in English and conversant in French, Spanish and Swedish.