Our Team

DR. GARRETT MENNING

Black Pearl’s President, Dr. Garrett Menning, has over two decades of wide-ranging academic and applied experience in the fields of international development, project management and US Government contracting. He has published on a wide range of subjects related to globalization, economic development and contingency contracting, and has extensive experience in the areas of program design, civilian-military cooperation and interagency liaison in high threat environments. Dr. Menning has extensive worldwide experience with the U.S. Agency for International Development, the U.S. State Department, the Asian Development Bank and other organizations. He has lived and worked in India, Egypt, Cambodia, and Afghanistan and has engaged in short-term assignments across Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. He earned his Ph.D. in Economic Anthropology from the University of California at Santa Barbara in 1996.

MR. JAMES YAGLEY

Mr. James Yagley has over 20 years of experience in financial inclusion and capital access, in both the private and public sectors. At the FDIC, he worked to increase small business access to bank loans and launched the Money Smart for Small Business training program. At the US Department of the Treasury CDFI Fund, he facilitated over $590 million to meet the needs of underserved consumers and markets and developed the national Capacity Building Initiative to bolster the CDFI industry. He is currently using innovations in data science and financial technology (Fintech) to bring underserved consumers into the financial mainstream. Mr. Yagley earned an M.A. in Cultural Anthropology from SUNY Binghamton.

MR. JAMES YAGLEY

MS. JAMIE BOWMAN

Ms. Jamie Bowman specializes in the development of modern financial and credit systems, bank regulation and supervision, access to finance for SMEs, women and other vulnerable groups, and has advised Central Banks, Ministries of Finance, the private sector, industry associations, and advocacy groups. Ms. Bowman has consulted for USAID, the World Bank Group, and many other organizations, working in over a dozen countries across Africa, Eurasia, Central Asia, the Middle East, South Asia, and Southeast Asia, including post-conflict and emerging market economies. She holds a J.D. from McGeorge School of Law at the University of Pacific.

MS. ANKUR GARG

Ms. Ankur Garg brings over 20 years of medical device, pharmaceutical and global health experience across the private, non-profit and public sectors. She has successfully led a wide array of life-saving technologies from concept to commercialization in the cardiac, oncology, urology, neonatal and neurology fields. She holds an M.S. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, an M.S. in Biological Sciences from the University of Minnesota, and a B.S. from Case Western Reserve University. She is also an alumna of the AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellowship in Washington DC, the Embassy Science Fellowship at the U.S. CDC in Thailand, and the Policy Fellows program at University of Minnesota’s Humphrey School of Public Affairs.

MS. ANKUR GARG

MR. RICHARD DRISCOLL

Mr. Richard Driscoll l has over 30 years’ experience in public service as an attorney in international law and as a U.S. diplomat, promoting international economic, environmental, human rights, and public health cooperation. He has deep experience at the U.S. State Department and Department of Justice and has worked with a range of other agencies and international organizations including WHO, ILO and IMO. He has been extensively involved in multilateral and bilateral negotiations, including work on the 2015 Paris climate agreement and the 2010 U.S.-Brazil debt-for-the-environment swap. He has held diplomatic posts in Poland, Venezuela, Mexico and Afghanistan. Mr. Driscoll currently works with indigenous people to promote renewable energy projects in Latin America. He is fluent in Spanish and holds a J.D. from the University of Virginia as well as an LL.M. in Taxation from Georgetown University.

DR. FARSHID MEIDANY

Dr. Farshid Meidany has more than thirty years of global public health experience, working with governments, international organizations, INGOs and diverse communities. He designed and implemented projects and programs financed by ministries of health, USAID, UNICEF, PEPFAR, CIDA, the World Bank, large corporates and local communities in Africa and Asia. Dr. Meidany has extensive experience advising ministries on health systems strengthening and operations research. His areas of specialization and interest include epidemiology and implementation of maternal and child health, HIV / AIDS and TB, malaria programs as well as infectious diseases outbreak response and surveillance, policy strategies to reduce the burden of disease, monitoring and evaluation, health systems transformation and cost effectiveness of interventions supported by performance and result-based financing. With an MD from University of Tehran and a Master’s in International Public Health from the Johns Hopkins University, Dr. Meidany has broad experience in the management and administration of health and development programs at different levels of the health system, as well as in clinical tropical medicine.