Priscilla Rabb Ayres

Priscilla Rabb Ayres is an Associate Partner, IBM Global Business Services, in the Banking Risk and Compliance Practice. Her work with financial institutions, regulators, and professional associations is focused on the transformation of risk management and compliance activities to delivery of enterprise business value.

Ms Rabb Ayres has extensive financial services industry experience, including work in commercial and investment banking, service in the Federal Government, and as Chief Regulatory Executive on IBM’s Global Financial Services Sector team.

Since joining IBM in 1996, Ms Rabb Ayres has been deeply involved in developmental as well as commercial finance, and in major projects with the Federal Government. As an International Business Development Executive for Emerging Markets, Ms Rabb Ayres leveraged programs and resources of the multilateral development banks and bilateral government trade agencies to support IBM participation in major infrastructure projects in emerging markets.

From 1984 to 1993, Ms Rabb Ayres enjoyed a remarkable career in the Federal Government, where she served as a senior official in four Executive Branch agencies. She began at the Department of Treasury as Special Assistant to the Under Secretary for Monetary Affairs. In 1986, she moved to the Department of Commerce (DOC), where as Director, Office of Trade Finance, International Trade Administration (ITA), she led the DOC office responsible for trade finance policy and programs. In this capacity, Ms Rabb Ayres served as the DOC representative at board meetings of the Export-Import Bank and OPIC, was an official USG delegate to the OECD Export Credit Group, and represented DOC on the Committee for Foreign Investment in the US (CFIUS), Trade Policy Review Group, and the National Advisory Council.

In 1988, Ms Rabb Ayres was appointed Director of the U.S. Trade and Development Agency (TDA). As the first Director of TDA as an independent agency, she oversaw a 40 percent growth in its annual budget, and restructured the agency to integrate it into the Executive Branch’s commercial foreign assistance apparatus. She testified before Congress and advocated globally in support of USG export promotion programs designed to spur economic development in emerging markets.

In 1991, Ms Rabb Ayres moved to the Office of the Secretary, Department of State as Senior Deputy Director, Assistance to Emerging Democracies. She was responsible for the design and implementation of the USG private sector-led assistance effort for Central and Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union, and she mobilized USG assistance programs and funds to support US business initiatives in those countries. She was instrumental in the design, structuring, and launch of the Polish-American Enterprise Fund, the first of several such funds intended to  establish indigenous commercial financial markets in countries of the former Soviet Union.

In 1993, Ms Rabb Ayres returned to the private sector. She joined Motorola as Director, Global Finance Development, where she was responsible for securing official funding support for major infrastructure telecommunications projects.

Ms Rabb Ayres earned her MBA at Harvard Business School, concentration in Finance, and her BA at Smith College.