NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Dan Zook is a project manager in Dalberg’s New York office. He leads cross-functional teams in projects around the world with major donor agencies, financial institutions, and corporations in areas of strategy, operational effectiveness and social impact. His areas of expertise include financial services, agriculture, natural resources, and corporate engagement. He has lived and worked in Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Sub-Saharan Africa. Recently, Dan led a Citi Foundation and Skoll Foundation supported market assessment of the smallholder agricultural financing landscape. The assessment included an upstream (smallholder farmers) and downstream (commodity buyers) analysis. His team delivered a public report identifying the highest potential crop and country markets globally for agriculture investors, including financing models to address the demand in those markets.

Prior to joining Dalberg, Dan was a lead associate at Booz & Company (formerly Booz Allen Hamilton) in the financial services practice based in Dubai where he specialized in strategy and organizational transformation for commercial banks. He worked with major financial institutions to redesign operating models to improve governance, efficiency and effectiveness. Dan has also worked as a planning manager for Standard Chartered Bank in the UAE and a microfinance program officer for Plan International in Vietnam. Dan holds an MBA with honors from Cornell’s Johnson Business School and a BA from Princeton University in neuroscience. He has a working knowledge of French.

Sara Wallace is a communications coordinator at Dalberg Global Development Advisors supporting the Initiative for Smallholder Finance, a multi-donor effort designed to demonstrate how specific products and services can expand the reach of financing for smallholder farmers.