Debra Sotelo, CPA CGMA, has dedicated her career to working in the nonprofit sector to contribute to causes that make a difference. She has over 20 years of experience in financial management, accounting, technology, business operations and change management for mid- to large-sized nonprofit organizations.
As chief financial officer at Results for Development, Ms. Sotelo is responsible for leading financial strategy and ensuring financial integrity. She provides executive leadership in the areas of finance, accounting, grants administration and business development.
Since joining R4D in 2019, Ms. Sotelo has instituted a new full-cost recovery rate structure, implemented a new financial system (JAMIS), created an organization-wide budget-tracking processes for over 100 awards from more than 15 funders valued at over $200M, overhauled R4D’s funder reporting mechanisms and built the finance team — during a period where the organization grew by 30 percent.
Over her career, Ms. Sotelo has developed and executed financial and business strategies, led finance teams through systems implementations and conversions for high-quality fiscal management, provided expertise in contract and customer negotiations and developed financial infrastructures for sound business management.
Prior to joining R4D, Ms. Sotelo served as a chief financial officer at CRDF where she oversaw 10 consecutive years of clean audits, an investment portfolio of over $30M, implementation of new travel and expense systems and IT integrations to improve organization-wide efficiency. She established international systems for accounting and reporting in Russia, Jordan and Ukraine, and led financial management and business consolidation of a CRDF for profit tech hub subsidiary. Before CRDF, Debra was an assistant controller at Population Services International (PSI) in Washington, D.C., where she was primarily responsible for reporting and consolidating 60 international field offices (ranging in size from $100,000 to $30 million).
Ms. Sotelo holds a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Strayer University, and is a certified public accountant and global management accountant. She speaks English and Spanish.
