Matteo Marinelli is a senior leader in sustainable finance with more than twenty years of international experience across sustainability, financial inclusion, impact investing, and ESG strategy. His career began at Grameen Bank in Bangladesh under the mentorship of Nobel Laureate Prof. Muhammad Yunus, grounding his lifelong commitment to using finance as a catalyst for social and environmental impact.
He has since held leadership roles across Europe, Africa, and Asia with organizations such as MEDA, Banyan Global, WHO, and FAO. Matteo later expanded BlueOrchard Finance’s presence across South and Southeast Asia, China, and Mongolia, and at Fullerton Financial Holdings he launched Cambodia Post Bank and established Fullerton’s operations in Myanmar. As CEO of Maha Agriculture Microfinance, he led the institution through a period of significant growth and operational expansion. Between 2021 and 2024, he built a new financial institution in Ethiopia and supported FAO’s FISH4ACP programme.
Matteo now serves as the Asia Pacific Lead for Sustainable Finance at WWF International, based in Singapore, where he oversees work across 30 WWF offices to mobilize capital for nature‑positive and climate‑resilient development.