Smriti Lyer

Smriti Iyer is a development economist with 12 years of experience designing, scaling, and evaluating programmes across agriculture, livelihoods, education, skills, health, and climate resilience in South Asia, Africa, and the United States. She has worked across government, philanthropy, multilaterals, and the private sector, including with the World Bank, Tata Sons, and IMAGO Global Grassroots, bringing a systems-oriented and cross-sectoral lens to complex development challenges.

She is the co-founder of two mission-driven organisations: one focused on strengthening state capacity and public problem-solving in partnership with governments, and another dedicated to advancing climate adaptation and resilience in growth markets. Grounded in adaptive leadership, her work supports institutions and leaders to navigate uncertainty, manage trade-offs, and deliver durable, system-level change. In collaboration with Hugh O’Doherty, she co-designed a Train-the-Trainer programme on Adaptive Leadership for the Foundry Fellows at the MIT Kuo Sharper Center.

Smriti holds a MSc in Environmental and Resource Economics from the TERI School of Advanced Studies, and an MPA/ ID from Harvard Kennedy School.