Uploaded April 2021 | Updated September 2026, 18 hours ago
A discussion with David Lighton and Sandra Ro, introduced and moderated by Jim Henry, with Francis Karugu contributing a view from the African continent.
Sandra Ro is CEO of the Global Blockchain Business Council, where she serves the GBBC and blockchain community to foster education and build bridges across enterprises, governments, and start-ups to help fulfill the potential of blockchain technology to solve real world problems. As a fintech entrepreneur, blockchain / crypto keynote speaker, hackathon judge, crypto trader, angel investor and advisor, Sandra is focused on delivering financial access and products to people and communities using technology to enable next generation market infrastructure and financial products. Sandra was named to the Innovate Finance, Women in Fintech 2016 Power List and holds directorships / founding memberships on several industry boards as well as advises several emerging tech start-ups. Previously, she served as a former Treasurer and founding board director of the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance and founding member of the Post Trade Distributed Ledger Group, founding member of Linux Foundation’s Hyperledger.
David Lighton is an entrepreneur and Founder/ CEO of SendFriend, a FinTech startup using the blockchain to create faster, less expensive, and more inclusive international money transfers for immigrants in the US. The company is backed by leading venture capital investors including Techstars, 2020 Ventures, 8 Decimal Capital, and others. Prior to founding SendFriend, David served as Special Assistant on the Haiti Desk in the World Bank following the devastating earthquake of 2010, where he was a co-author of the Haiti National Financial Inclusion Strategy and an advisor to the Haitian Central Bank on payments and financial regulation. He holds an M.B.A. degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology – Sloan School of Management where he was a MasterCard Foundation Fellow. He also holds M.A. and B.A. degrees with honors from the Johns Hopkins University in International Economics and International Relations.
James S. Henry is a leading economist, attorney, consultant, and investigative journalist, who has written and spoken widely on the problems of tax justice and development finance. James Henry left his position as Chief Economist at McKinsey & Co to begin work as an investigative journalist, for Tax Justice Network among others, writing extensively on the global haven industry. Mr Henry is an honors graduate of Harvard College, Harvard Law School, Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. He is the author of several books, including The Blood Bankers, The Price of Offshore Revisited, and Pirate Bankers. His articles have also appeared in many leading publications, including The Financial Times, Forbes, The New York Times, Newsweek, The Washington Post, and The Wall Street Journal.
Francis Karugu is an international development specialist with a mainstay in political economy analysis, development finance, impact assessment (monitoring and evaluation), market systems, and policy analysis. Francis was part of the core team implementing the Business Innovation Facility, a DFID-funded market systems development programme that had interventions in Africa and Asia where he served as a Technical Advisor. He has also been advising “We Can Fight Climate Change,” a project of the Climate Justice Resilience Fund/New Venture Fund in Kenya and Tanzania. Francis was a strategy and analytics advisor to one of the leading political parties in Kenya’s 2017 General Elections. He has been a contributor to the Standard Newspaper as a columnist writing on Politics, Economics, and Financial Markets in East Africa. Francis also worked for TechnoServe as a Monitoring and Evaluation Manager for the DFID-funded Kenya Markets Assistance Programme. Karugu has been researching and writing on electoral justice and democracy, sustainable development and inclusion, and climate justice.
These presentations and discussions took place at Yale University on 6 April 2021. Opinions and statements expressed by event moderators and participants are their own personal views and do not represent the views of the university.
A discussion with David Lighton and Sandra Ro, introduced and moderated by Jim Henry, with Francis Karugu contributing a view from the African continent.
Sandra Ro is CEO of the Global Blockchain Business Council, where she serves the GBBC and blockchain community to foster education and build bridges across enterprises, governments, and start-ups to help fulfill the potential of blockchain technology to solve real world problems. As a fintech entrepreneur, blockchain / crypto keynote speaker, hackathon judge, crypto trader, angel investor and advisor, Sandra is focused on delivering financial access and products to people and communities using technology to enable next generation market infrastructure and financial products. Sandra was named to the Innovate Finance, Women in Fintech 2016 Power List and holds directorships / founding memberships on several industry boards as well as advises several emerging tech start-ups. Previously, she served as a former Treasurer and founding board director of the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance and founding member of the Post Trade Distributed Ledger Group, founding member of Linux Foundation’s Hyperledger.
David Lighton is an entrepreneur and Founder/ CEO of SendFriend, a FinTech startup using the blockchain to create faster, less expensive, and more inclusive international money transfers for immigrants in the US. The company is backed by leading venture capital investors including Techstars, 2020 Ventures, 8 Decimal Capital, and others. Prior to founding SendFriend, David served as Special Assistant on the Haiti Desk in the World Bank following the devastating earthquake of 2010, where he was a co-author of the Haiti National Financial Inclusion Strategy and an advisor to the Haitian Central Bank on payments and financial regulation. He holds an M.B.A. degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology – Sloan School of Management where he was a MasterCard Foundation Fellow. He also holds M.A. and B.A. degrees with honors from the Johns Hopkins University in International Economics and International Relations.
James S. Henry is a leading economist, attorney, consultant, and investigative journalist, who has written and spoken widely on the problems of tax justice and development finance. James Henry left his position as Chief Economist at McKinsey & Co to begin work as an investigative journalist, for Tax Justice Network among others, writing extensively on the global haven industry. Mr Henry is an honors graduate of Harvard College, Harvard Law School, Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. He is the author of several books, including The Blood Bankers, The Price of Offshore Revisited, and Pirate Bankers. His articles have also appeared in many leading publications, including The Financial Times, Forbes, The New York Times, Newsweek, The Washington Post, and The Wall Street Journal.
Francis Karugu is an international development specialist with a mainstay in political economy analysis, development finance, impact assessment (monitoring and evaluation), market systems, and policy analysis. Francis was part of the core team implementing the Business Innovation Facility, a DFID-funded market systems development programme that had interventions in Africa and Asia where he served as a Technical Advisor. He has also been advising “We Can Fight Climate Change,” a project of the Climate Justice Resilience Fund/New Venture Fund in Kenya and Tanzania. Francis was a strategy and analytics advisor to one of the leading political parties in Kenya’s 2017 General Elections. He has been a contributor to the Standard Newspaper as a columnist writing on Politics, Economics, and Financial Markets in East Africa. Francis also worked for TechnoServe as a Monitoring and Evaluation Manager for the DFID-funded Kenya Markets Assistance Programme. Karugu has been researching and writing on electoral justice and democracy, sustainable development and inclusion, and climate justice.
These presentations and discussions took place at Yale University on 6 April 2021. Opinions and statements expressed by event moderators and participants are their own personal views and do not represent the views of the university.
