Rodlene Paul

I am Rodlene Paul, founder of Elbara, a Florida-based federal contractor and former USAID Technical Advisor with more than 20 years of experience developing locally led solutions for USAID-funded projects. I led a team on an $87 million USAID Feed the Future initiative, collaborated with the World Bank on access to finance, and helped launch mobile-money and electronic-voucher initiatives. I also spoke at the World Cocoa Foundation on behalf of a USAID mission. My expertise spans public-private partnerships, due diligence, gender inclusion, agricultural market development and financial inclusion. I have worked to connect farmers to markets in cocoa, coffee and mango value chains, linking local production with commercial opportunity. My background includes work with IBM, Applied Materials, BASF and DSM, state agencies and the City of Lauderhill. As a financial advisor at Prudential, I held Series 7 and 63 registrations SEC licenses. I previously held a Secret security clearance, now inactive. I hold a bachelor's degree in French Business from the University of Illinois Chicago and a master's degree in Marketing from Webster University. My cross-sector expertise aligns with 10 Sustainable Development Goals: SDG 1, No Poverty; SDG 2, Zero Hunger; SDG 3, Good Health and Well-being; SDG 4, Quality Education; SDG 5, Gender Equality; SDG 8, Decent Work and Economic Growth; SDG 9, Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure; SDG 10, Reduced Inequalities; SDG 12, Responsible Consumption and Production; and SDG 17, Partnerships for the Goals. At Elbara, I am applying this experience to build a closed-loop digital voucher platform connecting 15M immigrant families' purchasing power with 250,000 local merchants. Our focus is choice, control and proof: helping families fund essential purchases while enabling merchants to participate in verified digital commerce increasing revenues 6x by 2031 and add 100,000 jobs by 2031.