Xavier Vollenweider

Director of Mobile Data Partnerships, Flowminder

As Director of Mobile Data Partnerships, Xavier oversees Flowminder's collaboration with Mobile Network Operators and engages in strategic discussions with governments and international stakeholders to design new collaboration models and new implementation projects.

He oversees and leads the development of Flowminder's OPAL programme, whose vision is to enable ethical and privacy-preserving access to timely and reliable data on mobility for accelerating the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in low- and middle-income countries. Over the years, his work at Flowminder covered a wide array of areas from financial inclusion, poverty mapping, migration and the more recently the covid-19 response. Xavier completed his Ph.D. at the Department of Geography and Environment and the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Prior to joining Flowminder, he worked as an independent consultant, notably with Kimetrica with which he developed a methodology for the USAID Famine Early Warning System for climate resilience measurement and used it for an impact evaluation of large development interventions.