Lisa Mensah

Overview

As President and CEO of Opportunity Finance Network (OFN) the nation s leading networkof Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) Lisa Afua Serwah Mensahexpands sources of capital and provides greater visibility for CDFIs. Under her leadershipOFN helps CDFIs leverage public funding with private investment from mainstream financialinstitutions socially responsible investors and philanthropic partners in distressedcommunities across America. Mensah joined OFN in March 2017 bringing private and publicsector expertise in using financial tools to improve the economic security of the workingpoor.In 2014 Mensah was nominated by President Obama and confirmed by the US Senate forthe position of Under Secretary of Agriculture for Rural Development. In this role shemanaged a loan portfolio of $215 billion directing annual investments of $30 billion incritical infrastructure for rural America. Mensah achieved record levels of productivity anddeveloped new partnerships with private and philanthropic partners to generate $120million in private grants and loan guarantees for persistently poor rural communities.Before her appointment as Under Secretary Mensah was the founding Executive Director ofthe Initiative on Financial Security at The Aspen Institute where she led a national bipartisaneffort with leaders of financial institutions non profit executives and experts topromote savings homeownership and retirement policies and products. Mensah began hercareer in commercial banking at Citibank before joining the Ford Foundation where she wasresponsible for the country's largest philanthropic grant and loan portfolio of investments inrural America.Mensah who divides her time between OFN s Philadelphia headquarters and WashingtonD.C. office holds an M.A. from the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies ofThe Johns Hopkins University and a B.A. from Harvard University. Born in Oregon she is thedaughter of an immigrant from Ghana and a former Iowa farm girl. She resides in Marylandwith her husband and two children.