Jan. 29, 2026

#24 - Chris Thomas

Show Notes

Chris Thomas remembers well where he came from and how he got to where he is. As a young Peace Corps volunteer in rural Sierra Leone, he quickly understood that the people who had so warmly welcomed him into the village were rapidly teaching him valuable lessons about life and community. It's fair to say that Chris has spent the rest of his life paying those lessons forward and helping to unleash human ingenuity all over the world.

Christopher Thomas is an educator, consultant, and Social Entrepreneur in Residence at Stanford University's Graduate School of Education. He has served as Director of Partnerships for the Yidan Prize Foundation and in a range of corporate strategy and management roles at the World Bank Group, including Lead Strategy Officer, Advisor to the Managing Director, and Manager of human development programs in Asia and Africa. He played a key role in defining the World Bank's contributions to the Sustainable Development Goals, United Nations agreements on Financing for Development, and partnerships with the IMF and multilateral development banks. He holds an M.A. in International Affairs from Johns Hopkins University and a Ph.D. in Education from Stanford University.