Mae Watson Grote is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Change Machine, formerly The Financial Clinic. Mae brings decades of experience on financial security issues and innovation around pro-poor financial technology.

Mae founded Change Machine – one of the nation’s first nonprofits dedicated to building financial security – as a volunteer-run local service organization to what has become a national social enterprise. The nation’s first random control trial evaluation of financial coaching, commissioned by the CFPB and conducted by the Urban Institute, demonstrated unprecedented causal effects of Change Machine’s model.

As an inaugural member of the New York Federal Reserve Board’s Community Advisory Group, Mae advised the New York Fed president on socio-economic and financial conditions faced by communities in the Second District. She was also appointed as a Consumer Advisory Board member with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), serving a two-year term to strengthen the CFPB’s charge to serve and protect consumers. Mae is also a co-founder of Nonprofit Leaders in Financial Technology (nLIFT), a leadership group dedicated to advancing the field at the intersection of technology and financial inclusion.

Prior to establishing Change Machine, Mae was with a national nonprofit research and policy organization researching the effectiveness of work supports. Her career-defining experience was at the Legal Aid Society where she advocated for public assistance recipients to avoid sanctions and maximize budgets. Mae received a B.A. from Rutgers University and a J.D. from the City University of New York School of Law.