Michèle Laird

A senior international development executive, Michèle Laird has more than 25 years of experience in all facets of global development. She came to Pact from Abt Associates where she served as Regional Vice President for Europe, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, managing USAID and multilateral development bank projects and overseeing a composite portfolio of more than $250 million in contracts and cooperative agreements across sectors. Her technical expertise ranges from promoting inclusive, transparent enabling environments for small and medium enterprises to mobilizing private and public finance to advance the SDGs, including investment for climate change adaptation and mitigation. Michèle is a skilled manager and innovative thinker whose strengths include leading teams to achieve exemplary results and long-term impact, aligning business development and project implementation to corporate strategic and financial goals, fostering the development of teams, managing during crises, and building and managing internal and external client relationships. She is also adept at leveraging resources to deepen and scale up the impact of program investments. Prior to joining Abt Associates, Michèle directed the American Chamber of Commerce/Mexico’s Economic Services Department and worked on Wall Street in mergers and acquisitions and corporate finance. She speaks English, Spanish and French.