Seth has 20+ years of leadership and program management experience designing innovative solutions to build the capacity of MSMEs and women entrepreneurs in 40+ developing countries.
He works with the private sector, NGOs, and government entities to increase developmental impact through research studies, advisory services, program implementation, digital innovation, and skills development initiatives that boost firm performance and build the knowledge, skills, and attitudinal changes that MSMEs and women entrepreneurs need to access finance and markets, and grow their businesses.
Seth has led multiple studies in emerging markets to research the obstacles that women entrepreneurs and MSMEs face in various sectors—including tourism, financial services, agribusiness, manufacturing, etc.—in order to develop more effective capacity-building solutions, especially non-financial services (NFS) offerings for banks and other financial institutions.
Seth recently worked with the World Bank on 3 studies that utilized market segmentation to develop actionable solutions to help integrate women, youth, and low-income men into sustainable jobs in tourism-sector value chains at key heritage sites in India and to provide greater opportunities for MSMEs in the local tourism sector more broadly.
He is currently leading Emerging360’s engagements with the Ministry of National Economy, Government of Kazakhstan, to design and implement a nationwide skills-upgrading program for women entrepreneurs and SMEs.
And he recently collaborated with the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women to replicate Emerging360’s groundbreaking learning solution—Road to Women’s Business Growth—around the developing world, and to deploy Emerging360’s newest solution for women-owned businesses—HerVenture—in Vietnam, Indonesia, Nigeria, Mexico, and elsewhere.
The founding consultant behind the International Finance Corporation’s (IFC’s) SME Toolkit, Seth served as the program’s chief product development, business development, technical project management, and content strategy consultant for 13+ years. His leadership enabled the World Bank Group and dozens of corporate partners, educational institutions, and governments in emerging markets to reach and build the capacity of 30 million+ MSMEs in 18 languages. He has delivered trainings for hundreds of trainers, master trainers, women entrepreneurs, and MSMEs in 20+ countries around the developing world.
A trained Travelife Auditor, he conducts environmental and social diagnostics for the tourism sector globally.
Seth did
Ph.D. work and 2 Masters degrees at Harvard, a Fulbright Fellowship in Sri Lanka, and B.A. at Swarthmore College with coursework in economics, statistics & computer science.
