Max Nichols is a humanitarian, entrepreneur, and activist building community economic power. His work focuses on building alternative financial services that help communities build wealth. Max believes that financial services like a guaranteed income, digital payments and consumer credit are a public good and everyone should have access to them so that they can build the future they want for themselves and their communities.
Max has helped lead GiveDirectly’s work delivering cash transfers to the poorest people in the world and those recovering from humanitarian crises. Cash as a model for aid allows choice and dignity in a way traditional aid often lacks. Most recently, Max led GiveDirectly’s work in Yemen providing cash to those impacted by the war and economic crisis.
In New York City, Max teaches the Economics of Community, a course that introduces students to different communities in New York to learn how those communities are building economic models that provide for their needs. He works closely with the Yemeni community to understand their unique entrepreneurial success in New York, and how the city can create more opportunity for traditionally marignailzied groups.
Max lived in Jordan for many years and worked with regional governments, financial regulators and financial service providers like banks and fintechs in Iraq, Lebanon, Palestine, Yemen and Jordan to develop financial products that met the needs of the poor. He led Jordan’s first mobile money cash transfer program, for Syrian refugee women and small business owners. He was invited to the Central Bank of Jordan’s Digital Financial Services Council to represent the needs of poor customers and small businesses.
Prior to working in international economic development, Max founded a technology company that helped locally-owned businesses in the United States attract new customers. Max studied International Relations and Arabic at Connecticut College. He speaks Arabic, Spanish, English and Italian.
My inspiration for working to make global financial services more equal is my vision for an economy where communities can survive and thrive with whatever resources they have. So much of modern finance is facilitating the extraction of wealth from communities, particularly poor communities and communities in the Global South. I am inspired to build financial systems that preserve wealth in these communities.Max Nichols