Daryl Collins

Dr. Daryl Collins is the founder and CEO of Decodis, a social research firm that creates tech-led, customized data capture and analysis to elevate the voices of vulnerable populations. She is the co-author of the acclaimed "Portfolios of the Poor: How the World’s Poor Live on $2 a Day" and a pioneer working at the intersection of finance and human vulnerability.

Over the past 25 years, Dr. Collins has built a broad portfolio of work with foundations, bilateral donors, governments, NGOs and private service providers. Her work is grounded in a deep understanding of the lives of vulnerable communities across the globe, leveraging the experience of executing Financial Diaries studies in over 10 countries.

Before founding Decodis, Dr. Collins spent 10 years as Managing Director and subsequently CEO of BFA Global, a niche financial inclusion consulting practice. She began her career as an emerging market economist at a New York investment bank before moving to South Africa in the late 1990s. She ultimately joined the finance faculty of the University of Cape Town, where she lectured on emerging financial markets to Honors and MBA students and leveraged a successful career in portfolio management into research on the financial behavior of the poor. She has published extensively on financial market behavior in developing countries.

Dr. Collins holds both a bachelor’s and master’s degree in economics from the London School of Economics and a PhD from New York University.