Nicholas Colloff

Nicholas' career has focused on developing enterprise related solutions to poverty. He was the founder of Opportunity International UK part of the global financial inclusion network, Opportunity International of which he was one of the architects. With Opportunity, he helped start two MSME banks in Eastern Europe and an investment fund for financial inclusion for Eastern Europe.

Leaving Opportunity, he helped establish Basic Needs, focused on mental health in developing country contexts, where he helped develop a model for community mental health care that included pathways to enhance employment and income generation for people with mental illness.

He then joined Oxfam GB first as Country Director for Russia and subsequently Director for Strategy and Innovation globally and focused on emergent areas of concern - urban poverty, impact investing, micro-insurance - and helped launch the Small Enterprise Impact Investing Fund.

With Argidius, the focus has been on developing small and growing business support ecosystems and especially on identifying what are the characteristics of an effective business development intervention; and, how improve businesses access to knowledge, talent and finance.