Lauren Murphy

Global Director, ICRW Advisors

Lauren is the Global Director of ICRW Advisors, the International Center for Research on Women’s consulting team. She is an international development and gender equity specialist with experience in the public and private sectors promoting women’s entrepreneurship and women’s employment. During her career she has engaged in strategy design, philanthropy, corporate social responsibility programs, operations management, applied research and impact evaluation with a range of partners, including multilaterals, investors, banks, global and national corporations, social enterprises, NGOs and nonprofits.

Lauren came to ICRW from Walmart.org, the philanthropic hub of Walmart and the Walmart Foundation, where she served as the Director, Dignity of Women. In this role she was responsible for designing women-targeted philanthropic and business interventions supporting ESG strategy, human rights, and environmental and social sustainability.

Prior to joining Walmart, Lauren spent nearly a decade at the Inter-American Development Bank Group in Washington, D.C. Through her work, she focused on gender lens investing, creating financial inclusion programs for low-income women, value added services for women entrepreneurs, corporate gender equality leadership initiatives, and overseeing project evaluations measuring development impact. Lauren has lived or worked in nearly all countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, with extended experience in Costa Rica, Ecuador and Paraguay.