He is the founder of FINCA International and the Rural Development Services (RDS), and is famous for innovating village banking, arguably the world’s most widely imitated microfinance methodology.

His mother, born in Costa Rica, had ancestors which included an authentic conquistador, a railway-builder, and a co-founder of Pan American World Airlines[1] After high school in Massachusetts and a BA in History from Johns Hopkins University, in July 1962 Hatch joined the Peace Corps for a 2-year tour of duty in Colombia.

In between (1970–71) a Fulbright grant allowed him to spend two crop cycles as a hired labor to 30 peasant farmers in Peru, documenting the power and wisdom of their traditional farming practices.

For the next 12 years he worked as a consultant in the design, management, and evaluation of mostly agricultural projects seeking to benefit the poor, eventually completing over 55 assignments in 28 countries of Latin America, Africa, and Asia.

By the time he landed in La Paz, he had the outline of a radically different approach to poverty alleviation: a financial services program that put the poor in charge.

Its purpose was to provide the poorest families, particularly those headed by single-mothers, with loans to finance self-employment activities capable of generating additional household income.

Yet considering current growth trends, I know that by the time I retire over 200 million households worldwide will have been benefited by the poverty vaccine of microfinance and/or village banking .