Digital Technologies and Financial Inclusion: Enablers for Gender Equality

Lisette Cipriano is passionate about digital financial services and its positive impact on poverty alleviation. Her expertise is in payments, card acquiring and issuing, and alternative payment methods, having worked across continents and with M-Pesa, a mobile phone-based money transfer service at Vodafone Group. She focuses on ADB projects that involve new technologies for financial inclusion such as digital ID, cloud technology, and central bank digital currencies. She recently piloted a digital bank ID in the remote areas of Papua New Guinea.

Melle Tiel Groenestege works on policies and advocacy campaigns that address barriers to mobile internet adoption, expand mobile broadband coverage in rural areas, and bridge the digital gender divide. Prior to joining the GSM Association, Mr. Groenestege was responsible for government relations and digital public policy issues at VEON, a telecommunications provider for emerging markets. He also worked at the International Telecommunications Union on corporate strategy, focusing on the role of digital technologies in advancing the UN Sustainable Development Agenda.

Pebbles Sy is responsible for technology, customer experience management, and operations at GCash, a Philippine mobile wallet, mobile payments, and branchless banking service. Ms. Sy has more than 20 years of experience in the information and telecommunications industry, with a deep background in product and platform management, program management, and product development. Prior to her current role, she was the chief information officer at Globe Telecom in the Philippines, where she led its IT transformation and delivered a re-energized IT strategy and landscape that enabled Globe to quickly adapt to the fast-changing digital economy.

Wendy Teleki is head of the Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative (We-Fi) Secretariat, which is housed in the World Bank Group. The Secretariat is responsible for supporting the We-Fi Governing Committee in the allocation and supervision of We-Fi funding as well as communications, advocacy, and learning focused on strengthening opportunities for women entrepreneurs. Prior to her current role, Ms. Teleki worked with the International Finance Corporation, leading numerous activities and initiatives focused on small and medium enterprise development in emerging markets around the world.