Shankar Man Shrestha

Chairman, Centre for Self-help Development (CSD)
Nepal

Mr. Shrestha is a veteran of Nepal’s rural finance sector, with over 57 years of experience advocating for pro-poor, clean microfinance. A founder and former Executive Director of CSD, he also chaired the Centre for Rural Technology (CRT) Nepal and held leadership roles across numerous institutions. He was CEO of the Rural Microfinance Development Center (1999–2014), Nepal’s first wholesale lender, and served on the board of Nepal Banking Institute since its inception.

Earlier, he worked at Agricultural Development Bank Ltd. (1967–1992) in key roles including Deputy General Manager and Director of the Agricultural Credit Training Institute. In 2025, he was appointed to the Board of Trustees of Madan Bhandari University of Science and Technology. He was also a member of the Evaluation Team for the AGFUND International Prize 2018.

Mr. Shrestha holds an MA in Economics from Tribhuvan University and studied at Texas A&M and Harvard Business School. He has consulted for ADB, IDRC, and JICA.