Neil Patel is an international development professional with experience in the design, management, and implementation of water security, sanitation, and hygiene programs. He specializes in investment mobilization, utility financial management, service delivery planning, and digital transformation. He has technical skills in financial modeling, statistical analysis, GIS, and machine learning.

Prior to joining DAI, Neil led global data analytics for the Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene Finance activity funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development in Ghana, India, Rwanda, and Kenya to mobilize financing for climate-resilient water and sanitation services. In 2021, Neil was nominated to represent North America on the global steering committee of UNESCO’s Groundwater Youth Network, where he leads and implements research, career development, and capacity-building programs for more than 1,400 young water professionals from 114 countries and has advocated for youth inclusion in the Sustainable Development Goals at the United Nations’ General Assembly and the High-Level Political Forum for Sustainable Development. He additionally was a research affiliate with the MIT Senseable City Lab and MIT D-Lab, working on projects ranging from designing a sensor system to monitor vermifilter wastewater treatment systems in rural Colombia to developing deep learning models trained to detect and geo-reference water points using street-level imagery.

Neil speaks Spanish, Swahili, Hindi, and Gujarati and has worked in Cambodia, Ghana, India, Jordan, Kenya, Mozambique, Nepal, the Philippines, Senegal, South Africa, Uganda, and Zambia. Outside of work, you can find him leading canoe river tours for a Chicago nonprofit focused on educating community members on river ecosystem conservation.

• M.Sc., data, economics, and development policy, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• B.A., Plan II honors; B.B.A. business honors, The University of Texas at Austin