As a senior consultant at Kinaura Partners, Mak brings strong expertise in food systems, strategy, data analytics, and public–private partnerships. He draws on 12 years of experience across technology and financial services to design evidence‑driven approaches, coordinate multi‑stakeholder initiatives, and translate complex insights into practical solutions for agricultural development.
Mak supports the Adaptive & Equitable Food Systems team at the Gates Foundation, helping advance agricultural development initiatives through strategic insight, partnership coordination, and applied analytics. Most recently, he served as vice president of partnerships at Mastercard, where he led the Community Pass initiative – a social enterprise digitalizing smallholder farmer value chains across Africa and India –building on his leadership of global strategic initiatives for Mastercard’s $2 billion services business. Earlier, he managed analytics consulting practices in Japan and Southeast Asia for Applied Predictive Technologies (acquired by Mastercard in 2015), delivering data‑driven insights to major retailers and restaurants across the United States and Asia.
Mak holds an MS in food policy from City, University of London and a BA in biochemistry from the University of Pennsylvania. Raised in the United States, he has lived in Tokyo, Singapore, London, and multiple U.S. cities, and has worked across Southeast Asia and Sub‑Saharan Africa. He currently resides in Massachusetts.
Outside of work, Mak enjoys cooking and eating across cultures and languages – and attempting to answer the curious questions of his two sons.
