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Raj Kumar is a Washington, D.C.-based social impact leader, journalist, and author specialized in global development. He is the President & Editor-in-Chief of Devex, a prolific onstage speaker and interviewer, and the author of The Business of Changing the World, an influential book about the future of global aid and philanthropy.
Raj leads a global team of over 100 Devexers and serves a community of one million global development professionals. His experience in 60+ countries, including a childhood partly spent in India, informs his work.
Breaking down global development's biggest ideas
Raj has been a media leader at the World Economic Forum for over a decade, moderating dozens of sessions in Davos while facilitating timely conversations at the Milken Global Summit, Munich Security Conference, and United Nations high-level convenings.
Recent media highlights
Raj speaking with Samantha Vinograd and Major Garrett on CBS. Watch the recording.
Raj speaking with Anna Bjerde and Mutoni Karasanyi on the World Bank's The Development Podcast. Catch the episode.
Raj joining Robin Pomeroy with Carla Haddad Mardini and Julienne Oyler for a joint Radio Davos and This Week in Global Development episode. Listen In.
Raj sits down with Hari Sreenivasan on PBS’ Amanpour and Company. Catch the recording.
Raj shares insights with The Economist on navigating the evolving aid landscape. Read more.
Raj weighs in with The New York Times on the impacts of USAID funding shifts. Read the piece.
The ‘go to primer’ on the people, ideas, and tech disrupting the aid industry.
Named World Economic Forum Book of the Month and featured by Bloomberg BusinessWeek, PBS, NPR, and Vox, The Business of Changing the World has become a catalyst for overdue conversations about aid effectiveness. Raj makes the case for market-driven and technology-enabled solutions at a time when they are needed most.
Dive into Raj's BookAs seen in...
Why we started Devex
Hi, I'm Raj, the founding president & editor-in-chief of Devex, the platform for insider journalism on global development. My teammates and I get up every day committed to ensuring that global development efforts do more good for more people. Together, we're building the world's most influential community driving global progress.
What you might not know about me is that I developed a lifelong interest in global development as a kid spending time in Kerala, India. My aunt and uncle were development scholars studying the dairy cooperative movement in India, nurses in the Philippines, and farm workers in Indonesia. I learned a lot from them. Since then, I've traveled to 60+ countries and had the honor of getting to know countless aid workers, social entrepreneurs, and leaders doing incredible work to improve lives and preserve our planet.
Before Devex, I began my career in political campaigns – first as a member of the national advance team for President Bill Clinton, then as political director for the leading Democratic polling firm Penn and Schoen. I conducted exit polling on presidential campaigns around the world and was on the ground during the Orange Revolution in Ukraine and the referendum to recall Hugo Chavez in Venezuela.
Then came 2000. I was a graduate student at the Harvard Kennedy School, finally ready to work in global development – but I had no idea where to start. I was surprised to find there was no independent source of basic information. For a $200 billion industry, that seemed like an obvious problem. Some close friends and I created Devex to solve it. On the advice of the dean (seriously!), I dropped out and moved to Washington, D.C. Today, Devex has over 100 staff around the world and serves more than 1 million development professionals. Beyond Devex, I serve on the board of Simprints and Save the Children, am a media leader for the World Economic Forum, and a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations. I live in Washington, DC but visit Colombia often, where my wife Maria Teresa Kumar (the voting rights leader and political commentator) was born. I share my latest thinking and insights regularly online – don’t hesitate to reach out and follow my latest updates on LinkedIn.