Amar Kakirde is an MPP student interested in development finance, climate change, regulations and the interplay between the three. He is a passionate member of the Environmental Startup Funding team. Most recently, Amar worked in Kenya, helping to develop policy to enable climate positive growth, with a focus on carbon markets. Before coming to Yale, Amar was a treasury product enablement strategy manager, supporting cash management and operational strategy for new payment products. Prior to that, he was an associate in the Onyx blockchain payments team at JP Morgan. While there, helped launch products focused on FX payment rules and drafted parts of the platform’s governance policy.

Amar graduated magna cum laude from the College of William and Mary in 2018 with a BA in international relations and finance. He was part of a student research group, MANOS, which focused on community solutions to public health issues in partnership with a Nicaraguan village. Under the aegis of this project, he conducted a senior research project focused on examining and establishing banking in the community.