With an extensive career operating in the fields of banking, finance, and strategic philanthropy, Kimberly Gire brings an impressive skill-set to the role of Board Member and Co-Chair for the Centre of Disaster Protection (the Centre). As part of the World Financial Review’s Power Influencer Series, Kimberly shares some valuable insights into how she carved out her impressive career and why she was inspired to join the Centre’s Board.
Kimberly Gire, Board Member and Co-Chair of the Centre for Disaster Protection, brings together a blend of experience in structured finance, risk management, and philanthropy. It’s not often you find someone with such diverse expertise, but Kimberly’s unique skill set has enabled her to contribute to developing financing solutions for global public goods on a significant scale.
From early on, Kimberly’s profession was centred within the global financing and banking sector, where she worked in the international capital markets with Citi, before holding several senior executive roles, including CFO for the retail, business and private banking divisions of Westpac Banking Corporation.
Kimberly’s true passion, however, lies in philanthropy, and in 2000, while on sabbatical in Hong Kong, she found herself available to seek out opportunities for undertaking charity work – the start of a journey that would not only enable her the space and opportunity to do something with more of a sense of purpose and community impact, but would enable her to choose her own path. Guided by her own experience in philanthropy in her youth, and as a mother, Kimberly explored opportunities with children’s charities, a route which led her into the education sector, and, more specifically, helping to raise corporate funding for charities supporting children at risk.
“Having worked in banking, structured finance, treasury, and risk management, I understood the tools of the trade, and importantly, the potential of corporate philanthropy; however, this particular not-for-profit children’s charity in Australia had few connections in this space,” Kimberly explained. “The key to success – as with many things in life – is about knowing the right people, and I knew the right people who were willing to connect with this children’s education charity. I was able to put my contacts and relationships to good use, to be that bridge between the different sectors. I was in a position where I could instigate what I call the “triangle of ask”, which is where you find that one person who you can trust, not only to become involved, guide and assist, but to sit alongside your organisation as a neutral actor. It was an empowering experience that yielded great results for children at risk.”
Working with the children’s charity as a pro bono volunteer partner was not only a rewarding experience for Kimberly, but it opened up new opportunities to her within the humanitarian space – including a journey supporting the Australian Red Cross. Here, Kimberly founded and ran a highly impactful women’s giving circle, and as part of that journey she was able to explore women’s philanthropy with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) based in Geneva; a move which led her to discover more about the financial instruments the funding team were developing, and the subsequent lack of pro bono, impartial expertise that was available to guide them through a complex, first-time transaction.
“Having access to impartial expertise does not have to sit inside every humanitarian organisation – and nor should it; but when deciding on whether a certain tool is the right fit for an organisation, having someone impartially deliver that analysis and review of design is critical,” Kimberly explained. “Making sure that a tool can provide an effective solution is paramount.”
With her financial background and expertise, Kimberly leveraged her skills and connections to assist the International Committee of the Red Cross to complete the world’s first humanitarian impact bond.
“It wasn’t long after the funding and close of the humanitarian impact bond that I was introduced to Colin Bruce, now my Co-Chair at the Centre,” Kimberly said. “Together we began exploring how we could help call for a ‘trusted space’ of financial and risk expertise for humanitarian and development organisations. Before long, I met Daniel Clarke at a convening at Harvard University, and I became involved with the strategy for the Centre. Over the last 5 years, I have worked closely with Daniel and the Centre team, and it was a proud moment when I was invited to join their board in 2021.
A centre of trust
Combining her philanthropic and development-humanitarian experience with philanthropy, risk management, finance and banking know – how, means Kimberly understands financial systems and what effective product and systems design looks like. Her skills complement her fellow Board members, who each bring different skills to the table, such as lived experience in countries the Centre advises and supports. As Kimberly highlighted, such diversity of skills and experience is crucial for ensuring greater expertise, and importantly, lived perspective.
“It is all about building strong, complementary, partnerships between the Board members and the Co-chairs,” Kimberly said. “We are here to help drive growth, to broaden the expertise, the perspective. With our Board working closely with the Centre leadership,, and with the expertise of its team, the Centre is now at this stage.
“The team here are highly motivated professionals, they are experts in their fields, and I love working with them,” Kimberly continued. “But what is important is that they are trusted; they know what they are talking about. Their deepest knowledge can be used to leverage decision-making, to bring management and country leadership along, to bring people together; they can get people on-board with the understanding of the potential of disaster risk finance as an effective and efficient means to help the most vulnerable people and communities around the world.”
As Kimberly pointed out, encouraging buy-in to tools and instruments around crisis and pre-arranged finance is no easy task; there is sometimes an initial wariness of working with the private sector, and perhaps an unawareness of the potential of alternative risk and financial instruments outside of insurance, risks leaving the sector shrouded in an “us versus them” mentality.
“Times, however, are changing,” Kimberly said. “The readiness to buy into this concept is growing, and there have been several successful, innovative transactions in recent times, but we all need to work together to accelerate change. Disasters are increasing in both frequency and impact, and the architecture of the current system is too fragmented and complex to deal with the impending consequences.
“This is where the Centre comes in,” Kimberly stated. “They have the right team of purpose-led experts, which combines both the technical and personal skills required to explain what can be complex concepts and advise organisations on new tools and instruments. The team is unique in that it has grown up from need; because of this they are able to hold the mirror up to the financial world and challenge the process, they can challenge the architecture of the current system, they can see what can be done, and what is possible. They can see what needs to be changed and have the heart and expertise to work with all stakeholders to make it happen..
“The Centre is poised to generate a real leverage effect,” Kimberly continued. “They have the right model in place, they are working from best practice, and they have learnt from past experience. It is a combination of all these different elements which means their expertise and advice can be trusted. That is why I am proud to dedicate my time to co-chair the Centre Board.”
About the Author
Kimberly Gire – as a strategic philanthropist, Kimberly donates her professional skills and experience in capital markets, treasury, structured finance and philanthropy to support humanitarian, development and environmental organisations. She contributes to developing financing solutions for ‘global public goods’ at scale by collaborating with the leadership of humanitarian, development and environmental actors, multilaterals, philanthropists, and the private sector.
As well as being Co-Chair of the Centre for Disaster Protection, she is the Founder of Global Women Leaders Strategic Philanthropy, the Chair of the Centre for Global Equality at Cambridge, the C0-Chair of the Advisory Board for the Global Schools Forum, and a member of the Editorial Board for the Women’s Forum for the Economy & Society Global Meeting.
Her pro bono work has led her to taking on multiple humanitarian and development advisory roles, including Special Advisor to the EJS Presidential Centre for Women and Development, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Swiss Cross Foundation, and as a member of the High-Level Steering Group for the Education Outcomes Fund hosted by UNICEF. She was also an Advisor to The World Bank’s collaborative Famine Action Mechanism, and a member of the B20 Saudi Arabia Advocacy Caucus.
To round off her impressive list of accolades, Kimberly is also a Member of the Australian Institute for Company Directors, has a Graduate Diploma in Japanese from Macquarie University in Sydney, and a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology, with a specialisation in Business Administration from the University of California,Los Angeles (UCLA).
