Melani Schultz

Ms. Melani Schultz has 30 years of experience working with donor-funded programs and other government agencies as both a technical advisor and project manager with expertise in the areas of international trade, economic development and governance. She has worked on projects supporting business environment and trade policy reforms, financial sector reform, agricultural value chain development, competitiveness, SME development, standards, and business and process improvement. Ms. Schultz is currently the Palladium Chief of Party on the USAID $51m Sustainable Agriculture Activity in Colombia. The project takes a Market Systems Development approach and will support over 30,000 families to overcome poverty, leverage $37.5m in investment, implement new technologies and climate-smart agriculture practices in at least 150,000 hectares, reduce emissions by 50% and develop at least 80 private sector alliances focused on market systems transformation in three major corridors in conflict areas in the country. Previously she was the Palladium Chief of Party for the $70m Creating Economic Opportunities (CEO) project in Guatemala. The project brought in over $1 billion in investment in both private and public sector into the country, created more than 70,000 new jobs, stimulated growth in sales of over $650m through support of over 500 SMEs, and facilitated financing for SMEs of $80m.