Jessica Villanueva
Sr. Director, Technical Areas of Practice
Jessica Villanueva is MEDA’s Senior Director of Technical Areas of Practice with more than 20 years of management experience, focusing on agri-food market systems, financial inclusion, impact investment, and gender and climate lens investment projects in Latin America, Africa, and Asia. Her extensive work experience includes designing and structuring innovative finance transactions using different asset classes and technical assistance approaches to achieve inclusive development outcomes. Her other areas of expertise include providing management, financing, and capacity strengthening to financial institutions, and projects with an emphasis on microfinance, rural finance, and agribusiness.
Before her current role with MEDA, Jessica worked for WWF Peru as Conservation Finance Director, where she supported the provision of green finance in the Amazon region. Before joining WWF, she worked in responsAbility, an impact investment firm that structured investment opportunities in agribusiness to achieve positive social and environmental impacts. Her experience also includes working in the Inter-American Development Bank, where she led and supported project teams that designed loan and technical cooperation projects to finance rural businesses in Latin America.
Jessica is an economist with a master’s degree in finance. She is also a native Spanish speaker and is fluent in English.
