I’m a Principal at Omidyar Network, on the Corporations and Capital Markets team. My job at Omidyar Network is primarily concerned with building a system of enterprise that benefits the many, instead of the few.
I’m also a writer interested in how Americans navigate an uncertain economy. My work has appeared in The Nation, Forbes, Slate, American Banker and other outlets.
I worked in the credit card industry until 2018 — you can read my reflections about that in this New Republic essay: “I Worked at Capital One for Five Years. This Is How We Justified Piling Debt on Poor Customers.” I was drawn to lending out of a recognition that people sometimes need to borrow money, that choice and autonomy can be good things, and that helping someone at a price may be better than a person having no help at all. I left once I understood that my employer was by-and-large indifferent to whether its loans were helping or hurting its borrowers, and once I internalized how public markets impose real constraints on the ability of firms to do business ethically.
My biggest project to date has been focused on the question: What would a financial sector look like that worked in the best interest of its consumers? I’ve been interviewing Americans about their experiences with credit cards, payday loans and personal loans to better understand the consequences of these products on consumers’ lives: when are people glad they had access to credit? And when do people conclude these products did them more harm than good? I did a cross-country road trip in mid-2019 to hear from people all over the country. Those stories became a part of my book Delinquent: Inside America’s Debt Machine, published by University of California Press.
I went to Duke University, where I majored in math and economics, and I now live in Washington, D.C.