Chris Mahony is CEO and cofounder of Peloria, a D.C.-based Public Benefit Corp employing social science-informed data science to forecast, explain, and advise on social risk. He advises the World Bank on the development finance utility of emergent sources and methods and previously worked in its Finance Competitiveness and Innovation Global Practice, where he developed the world's first human displacement risk financing mechanism, as well as the Independent Evaluation Group and the Governance Global Practice. He also worked on development policy and programming at UNDP, taught Law and International Relations at Auckland University, Peking University and Oxford University, and appeared for the Crown in criminal matters after admission to the Bar of the High Court of New Zealand. Dr. Mahony holds a Bachelor of Commerce (B.Com) and a Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.) from Otago University, as well as a Masters in African Studies (M.Sc.) and a D.Phil. in Political Science from Oxford University. While studying, he played rugby professionally in New Zealand and the UK (winning the 2007 NPC with Auckland), won four Oxford University Blues, designed Sierra Leone’s witness protection program (2008), and, in 2003, worked on human rights and governance in Sierra Leone and Liberia, including at Sierra Leone's Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Both the UN and World Bank have cited his peer reviewed publications in Law, International Relations, Refugee Studies, Development Economics, and Psychology. He sits on the UN Tech Envoys Digital Public Infrastructure Safeguards working group.
