Mia Thom

Director of Insights, Centre for Financial Regulation and Inclusion

Mia is a Technical Director at Cenfri, a think tank dedicated to advancing financial inclusion and sustainable development across the continent. Mia has a particular interest in how markets work to serve people, how to regulate for inclusive sustainable outcomes and how to build business models that encourage financial and economic inclusion in a sustainable way.

Mia leads Cenfri’s sustainability portfolio. Her work has included designing and leading financial inclusion and development diagnostics across Africa to inform insurance sector or financial inclusion country strategies; assessing low-income consumer needs through market research; and supporting financial service providers to unlock opportunities for low-income people by exploring innovative business models. She has led a number of Cenfri’s larger programmes with key development partners such as UNCDF, the World Bank and FCDO, including Cenfri’s multi-year programme with the FSD Africa, funded by the FCDO, to develop insurance markets, remittance markets and to drive inclusive integrity. Mia is also a member of UNEP-PSI, IDF, IDF and the Microinsurance Network where she focusses on disaster risk management and inclusion related innovation. She is currently part of the GRI insurance technical committee working to develop the industry impact reporting standards.

Before joining Cenfri in 2012 Mia was with Deloitte where she gained extensive experience in the legislative and institutional aspects of a range of financial services, asset management, insurance and pensions. Mia has a master’s degree in Development Finance and is also a registered Chartered Account (CA) and has completed level three of the CFA exams.