Who We Are
Photo Credit: Alexandre Bonneau-Afroto/ALIMA
Board of Directors and Allocation Committee
Andrew Weiss
Andrew is President of the Weiss Asset Management Foundation also serves as a member of the Foundation’s Board of Directors and Allocation Committee. He is the founder and CEO of Weiss Asset Management and has played a vital role in the Foundation’s efforts since its inception. He also serves as a director of CRI Foundation, which established the Weiss Fund for Research in Development Economics at the University of Chicago.
Andrew is Professor Emeritus at Boston University and a fellow of the Econometric Society, to which he was elected in 1989. He ranks in the top 1% of published economists by citations. His co-authored paper “Credit Rationing in Markets with Imperfect Information” with Joseph Stiglitz was prominently featured in the Nobel Prize Committee Statement for Stiglitz’s 2001 Nobel Prize Award.
Andrew also serves on the Advisory Boards of the University of California Center for Effective Global Action, Last Mile Health, the University of Global Health Equity (Rwanda), and the UBS Optimus Foundation. He is a senior fellow at the Niskanen Center and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Michael Kremer
Michael is Chair of the Weiss Asset Management Foundation Allocation Committee. He is the joint winner of Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel (Economics Nobel Prize) 2019, for the “experimental approach to alleviating global poverty.” Michael directs the Development Innovation Lab at the University of Chicago, where he is a University Professor. His work focuses on innovation, including in education, health, water, finance, and agriculture. He has also worked extensively on how to design institutions to accelerate innovation, including through Advance Market Commitments (AMC) and social innovation funds. He was a co-founder and Scientific Director of USAID's Development Innovation Ventures (DIV), an open, tiered, evidence-based fund that supports innovation for development.
Amrita Ahuja
Amrita is a member of the Weiss Asset Management Foundation Allocation Committee. She leads the Douglas B. Marshall, Jr. Family Foundation, an innovative funder of international education, and is also a Senior Adviser to CRI Foundation, which funds healthcare programs in Africa as well as research in development economics and public health. She is a co-founder and current board member of Evidence Action.
An accidental social-entrepreneur, she led the start-up of Dispensers for Safe Water and chaired the board of Deworm the World as it grew to reach its first 30 million children. She brings this experience to her service on the boards of several evidence-driven non-profit organizations such as Maisha Meds, Precision Development, Youth Impact and the Center for Global Development. Amrita has worked as a Management Consultant for the Monitor Group where she led commercial projects in pharmaceuticals and other industries and evaluated market-based approaches to delivering products and services to the poor. She holds a Ph.D. in Business Economics from Harvard University, and an A.B. (Mathematics and Chemistry) from Williams College.
Ben Kornfeld
Ben is a member of the Board of Directors of the Weiss Asset Management Foundation and also serves on the Foundation’s Allocation Committee. Originally from New Zealand, Ben led the Foundation’s early research efforts and remains actively involved in the Foundation’s research and operations. Ben joined the Foundation because of a long-time interest in leveraging evidence to guide policy and structures to improve outcomes for the most vulnerable. Ben has been at Weiss Asset Management for almost 10 years, where he has focused on investments in the energy space, particularly in opportunities created by the shift to renewables.
Kara Weiss
Kara is a member of the Weiss Asset Management Foundation Allocation Committee and brings insight and expertise from an array of philanthropic roles. Kara is also the Executive Director of CRI Foundation, a strategic philanthropic foundation focused on cost-effective, high-impact interventions geared to those living in poverty in low- and middle-income countries. Kara oversees CRI’s Health and Research programs and works with the Directors to establish CRI’s strategy.
Kara has also served as an expert for the Aspen Ideas Incubator and as a Director or Trustee on the boards of Gardens for Health International, Spark MicroGrants, Seed Global Health, the Center for Development Economics at Williams College, and AMP Health.
Matt Rinaldi
Matt is a member of the Board of Directors of the Weiss Asset Management Foundation. He has been at Weiss Asset Management since 2006 and is currently serving as Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of the firm. Matt also serves on the Board of Directors for We Care Solar, a non-profit organization that reduces maternal mortality by providing health workers with reliable lighting, mobile communication, and medical devices using solar electricity.
Our Team
Leigh Fraiser
Leigh is Managing Director of the Weiss Asset Management Foundation. She joined the Foundation in 2025 from the U.S. Agency for International Development, where she was senior counsel to the Development Innovation Ventures (DIV) program and the Office of the Chief Economist. She also led the DIV team during her tenure and was involved in scaling cost-effective interventions in Africa, South Asia, and South America. Previously, she was counsel with the Sidley Austin law firm, where she had an active pro bono practice advising low- and middle-income country governments and nonprofit organizations in the international development sector.
Harlan Downs-Tepper
Harlan is Program Director at the Weiss Asset Management Foundation. Prior to joining the Foundation, Harlan was Chief of Staff at IDinsight, based in India and Zambia, where he advised foundations, governments, NGOs, and social businesses on the social impact of their engagements. He has authored several articles on global health and development. Harlan received his Ph.D. in Public Policy and Political Science at Duke University and his bachelor’s degree from Harvard University.
Becky Scurlock
Becky Scurlock is Program Associate at the Weiss Asset Management Foundation. She joined the Foundation in 2025 from the Harvard Center for International Development and the UChicago Development Innovation Lab, where she was a research associate. She graduated from the University of Chicago in 2022 with a BA in economics and a MS/BS in statistics.