Ariadne Plaitakis

Ariadne Plaitakis leads efforts to promote evidence-based policymaking, regulatory innovation, and cross-sector research that can advance safe, equitable access to digital financial services in low- and middle-income countries.
Ariadne joined the Gates Foundation in 2022 as the team’s senior program officer for regulation. In that role, she managed grantmaking for regulatory and capacity-building efforts. She currently serves as deputy director for regulation, policy, and research.
Ariadne has more than two decades of international experience in digital finance and payments regulation, open banking, financial inclusion, data protection and privacy, e-commerce, competition law, and consumer protection. Before joining the foundation, she was a senior financial sector specialist at CGAP, where she led research on open banking, interoperability, and competition in digital financial services. Earlier, she served as a senior associate at BFA Global and as general counsel and head of regulatory affairs at Mondato, a digital finance consultancy.
Ariadne is a UK-qualified solicitor. She has an M.A. in jurisprudence from the University of Oxford and a B.Sc. in foreign service from Georgetown University. She is fluent in French, German, and Greek.