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| Distinguished Speakers and Panelists
We continue to receive confirmations from speakers and will update this page regularly. At this time, the following speakers will be participating in the Chicago Microfinance Conference:
Speaker Bios Vikram Akula is the Founder of CEO of SKS Microfinance, one of the leading microfinance institutions in the world. In 2006, Vikram was named by TIME Magazine as one of the world’s 100 most influential people. He launched SKS Microfinance in 1998 and it is one of the fastest growing microfinance organizations in the world, having provided over $140 million to over 550,000 poor women in impoverished regions of India while maintaining a 98% repayment rate. In addition to rapid expansion, SKS leads the industry in the use of innovative technologies. SKS has received numerous awards and has been profiled in media ranging from CNN to front page of the Wall Street Journal. A former management consultant with McKinsey & Company, Vikram has over a decade of experience in microfinance. He holds a B.A. from Tufts, an M.A. from Yale, a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago, and was a Fulbright scholar. He has received several awards, including the Ernst & Young Start Up Entrepreneur of the Year (India), the Schwab Social Entrepreneur of the Year (India) and the Echoing Green Public Service Entrepreneur Fellowship. Elizabeth Littlefield is Chief Executive Officer of the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP). CGAP is a multi-donor organization created to help build a large scale permanent microfinance industry providing flexible, high-quality financial services on a sustainable basis to the poor. CGAP provides technical assistance and strategic advice, development and dissemination of technical tools and services, delivery of training, and in-depth research products. Prior to joining CGAP in 1999, Ms. Littlefield was the Managing Director in charge of J.P. Morgan's financing business in Central, Eastern and Southern Europe, Central Asia, Middle East and Africa. Her responsibilities encompassed public and private financings for governments, corporations and banks, and related advisory work such as debt management and credit rating advisory. She also held positions at J.P. Morgan as a Vice President and Head Debt Trader in Africa, Eastern Europe and Asia, and as a Director in J.P. Morgan's Paris office, among others. Ms. Littlefield also spent 1989-1990 providing banking consultancy to several microfinance institutions in West and Central Africa. She has served on the Board of Trustees of Women's World Banking from 1992-1994 and on the Executive Committee of the Board as treasurer from 1994-1999. Malika Anand is Associate Microfinance Analyst for the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP). She joined CGAP in 2006. She has worked on CGAP’s savings team and now focuses on the CGAP’s Poverty and Social Performance agenda. Before joining CGAP she spent a year in the Dominican Republic on a Fulbright Fellowship. During her time there she worked with Banco ADOPEM conducting a market research and impact assessment study. She holds a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Chicago in Public Policy Studies with a minor in South Asian Languages and Civilizations. She speaks English, Spanish, and rudimentary Hindi. Patrick Ball is a Vice President on the Originations, Analysis and Servicing (OAS) team for Developing World Markets (DWM). He brings 6 years experience in investment banking, private equity and emerging markets consulting. Patrick spent 3 years with Bear Stearns' investment banking in New York and London and 3 years with London-based private equity firm Doughty Hanson & Co. Patrick has an MBA from the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan and a BS in finance from Georgetown University. While pursuing his Masters, Patrick completed in-country research and consulting engagements in micro-enterprise development and development finance for Development Alternatives, Inc. (DAI), the EBRD, and Winrock International, as well as for the Ross School of Business. Patrick has lived and traveled in over 50 countries and speaks conversational French. Jonathan Brereton is the Chief Executive & Lending Officer since October 2004. He started with ACCION Chicago as an Americorps Volunteer in 2000. He spent a summer doing microfinance in Haiti while an undergraduate. He earned a Bachelor’s degree in Business and Economics from Wheaton College in 2000. Paul Christensen manages ShoreCap International Ltd., a $28 million international private equity company which invests in financial institutions in developing countries throughout Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe. Having established the company initially in London, Paul is now based in Chicago with responsibility for the company’s overall business development efforts, investment structuring, shareholder relations, Board reporting and development impact measurement. He is the former President and CEO of ShoreBank Enterprise Group, a $12 million-asset small business support organization in Cleveland, Ohio. At ShoreBank Enterprise, Paul managed a $3 million seed capital fund for small firms, a for-profit $5 million small business mezzanine finance company, and over 150,000 square feet of small business incubator space. Paul previously was Vice President of Neighborhood Progress, Inc., a leading civic organization investing in low income, minority neighborhoods in Cleveland. From 1992-1996, he was an Engagement Manager for the consulting firm, McKinsey and Company, where he focused on operations performance, organizational effectiveness and strategic planning for clients in the financial services, manufacturing, consumer goods, petroleum, and electric utility industries. Paul is a former Director of ShoreBank Cleveland and now sits on the Boards of BRAC Bank Ltd. in Bangladesh, BRAC Afghanistan Bank, and Reliance Financial Services Company in The Gambia. Paul received an MBA with distinction from Cornell University and a Bachelor of Arts, economics, summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa, from Dartmouth College. He also teaches as an adjunct associate professor at Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. Tom Coleman is the Founder of Microfinance Consulting, and organization focused on integrating the best of commercial finance with the best of microfinance for poorer clients. Prior to founding Microfinance Consulting, Tom was Director of Research and New Product Development at the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) 1978-1994. The CBOT consistently led the global futures industry in volume and in new product innovation during those years. Paul is a graduate of the University of Chicago MBA 1974, AB 1974. George Conard leads the Mifos Initiative at Grameen Foundation, following nine months spent in Rwanda launching the Grameen Foundation Village Phone program in that country. Prior to joining Grameen Foundation, George spent 7 years at Microsoft in a variety of roles including international marketing, open source competitive analysis, and program management for the Visual Studio and C# teams. Jesse Fripp is currently Senior Manager with ShoreBank International (SBI), based in their Washington, DC offices. With over twelve years of international experience in the Balkans, the Middle East, and South Asia, Mr. Fripp currently leads the Microfinance Line of Business for SBI. Mr. Fripp has designed and managed development finance and economic development programs including microfinance lending, credit union and cooperative development, housing microfinance, non-bank small enterprise finance, community infrastructure finance, association and municipal development, and post-conflict and post-disaster reconstruction interventions. Mr. Fripp has served in senior management positions, including Chief of Party and Unit Director roles, in both field and headquarters contexts for development project portfolios exceeding $100 million, with partners including USAID, the US State Department, European donor agencies, the World Bank, the International Finance Corporation, and national and local governments. He has managed projects recognized for their innovations and impact in such forums as the World Bank’s Global Development Network and elsewhere. Mr. Fripp holds a Master’s in Public Management with a concentration in International Economic Development from the University of Maryland at College Park. David C. Grace is Senior Manager of the World Council of Credit Unions (WOCCU). He is responsible for WOCCU’s legislative tools, regulatory monitoring, marketing, fundraising, educational programs and the development of the International Remittance Network (IRnet) service and its application in both developed and developing countries. Mr. Grace has been deeply involved in remittances briefings for both the U.S. and Mexican governments and has been widely interviewed as an expert on remittances by national and international media. Mr. Grace was previously with the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, managing its financial services and information technology units. Mr. Grace holds a Masters degree from Washington University in St. Louis and graduated with honors from St. Louis University. Julie Harris is a Managing Director and the Senior Investment Officer at Minlam Asset Management. Prior to joining Minlam she was a Senior Consultant to Deutsche Bank’s Microcredit Development Funds where she originated and structured numerous loans for microfinance institutions worldwide. Ms. Harris has been in the financial services industry for over 25 years and has significant global experience in fixed income, structured finance and securitizations. She was a Co-Founder and Senior Managing Director at Fixed Income Analytics, a financial advisory firm that helped institutional investors manage portfolios of asset-backed securities; a Managing Director in Structured Finance at XL Capital Assurance, a “AAA”-rated monoline financial guaranty company focused on asset securitization, global infrastructure and U.S. public finance; and a Director in Structured Finance and Asset Securitization at Deutsche Bank Securities where she originated, structured and managed a portfolio of over 60 transactions. Ms. Harris also has banking experience in asset based lending, project finance and public finance. Ms. Harris received her M.S.P.H. in Health Administration from the University of North Carolina and her B.S. in Chemistry from Tufts University. Calvin Holmes is the Executive Director of the Chicago Community Loan Fund (CCLF), a certified Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) providing low-cost, flexible financing and technical assistance to community development organizations conducting neighborhood revitalization projects throughout Chicagoland. Holmes has worked for the loan fund for 12 years and was promoted to Executive Director in 1998. He holds a master’s degree in urban and regional planning, with a concentration in real estate development, from Cornell University and a bachelor’s degree in African-American studies from Northwestern University. In 2001, Holmes was honored as one of Crain’s Chicago Business journal’s 40 Under 40 young leaders and was a 2002-2003 Leadership Greater Chicago fellow. Holmes currently serves on a number of non- and for-profit boards, including the Opportunity Finance Network’s Board of Directors. André Laude is Acting Manager for IFC’s Global Financial Markets Department focusing on Micro and Small Business Finance worldwide. Prior to that, André worked as Principal Investment Officer for IFC in the financial sector in Southern Europe and in the Middle East. He has over 15 years of financial markets experience in Wall Street, in London, Mexico City and Casablanca, including management consulting for the Financial Institutions Group at Booz-Allen & Hamilton. Educational background: M.A. international economics at the School of Advanced International Studies of the Johns Hopkins University. André was also a Hoover Foundation Fellow for the Development of the Université Libre de Bruxelles. Yasmina McCarty is an associate in the Strategy and Customer Insight group and helps WWB network members develop their marketing capabilities in four areas: Marketing Strategy, Branding, Customer Research and Customer Delight. By applying traditional marketing practices to the nonprofit sector, Yasmina helps MFIs strategically position themselves in competitive markets, develop strategies to increase the number of customers they serve, and provide excellent customer service to their existing customers. Her most recent work on customer care helps MFIs understand what dissatisfies their customers, how to delight low-income entrepreneurs, especially women, and how to become the financial provider of choice. Prior to joining Women's World Banking, she worked with ACCION USA as a Marketing and Outreach Business Development Specialist marketing and delivering financial services to low-income clients. Before entering the field of microfinance, she was an Account Manager at a top advertising agency, developing campaigns and corporate brands for clients such as eBay. Ms. McCarty has a bachelor’s degree in Secondary Education and Spanish from Northwestern University and is a 2008 candidate for a Global EMBA from London Business School and Columbia Business School. She is an American national who lived in the Philippines, Thailand and Paraguay for 9 years. She is fluent in Spanish, and speaks conversational Tagalog Bhakti Mirchandani is currently in strategy in Lehman Brothers' Investment Management Division. Through Lehman Brothers, Bhakti organized a Microfinance Forum, collaborated with Women’s World Banking to create a Capital Markets Guide for Microfinance Institutions (being used in 50 countries), assisted Pro Mujer with their Loan Fund strategy, and participated in the Young Global Leaders of the World Economic Forum Microfinance Task Force. Bhakti has worked in the Global Network for Banking Innovation at Women's World Banking, where she has pioneered work with micropensions; and (microfinance) capital markets at Unitus. Bhakti co-founded the Graduate Student Microfinance and Development Venture Capital (MADVC) Network and the Global Microentrepreneurship Awards (GMA). The GMA was first a student project in 9 countries and later a three-way partnership in 32 countries between Citigroup, the United Nations, and the GMA Student Alliance. Bhakti has spoken broadly on microfinance, including speeches and lectures at the United Nations, the NASDAQ, Lehman Brothers, Harvard University, the University of Chicago, and Baruch College. Bhakti is an advisor to Cambridge University Student Alliance, a microfinance student organization. She holds an A.B. in Chemistry cum laude from Harvard College, an MPA from the Kennedy School of Government, and an MBA from Harvard Business School, where she was a Dean’s Award winner for her work in microfinance. Jonathan Morduch is a Professor of Public Policy and Economics, NYU Wagner School. He is the co-author of The Economics of Microfinance (MIT Press, 2005), and has focused on ways that financial access can help reduce poverty. He has written recently on "social investment," the development of insurance markets to help address the devastation brought by natural disasters, and on ways that low-income households use financial services in Asia. Professor Morduch has been a consultant for the World Bank and the United States Agency for International Development, and has worked with a variety of non-profits and non-governmental organizations. He is currently an advisor to the board of Pro Mujer, a provider of microcredit for poor women in Latin America, and is a member of the board of SafeSave in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Since 2003, Professor Morduch has been the Chair of the United Nations Steering Committee on Poverty Measurement.
Ben Moyer, Pro Mujer’s first Chief Executive Officer, is a Senior Consultant with Wainwright Investment Counsel, an independent, full-service investment consulting firm based in Boston, Massachusetts. Mr. Moyer also serves as a director and member of the Audit Committee of Ferroviaria Oriental, a publicly traded cargo and passenger transportation company in Bolivia. His international career started as a Peace Corps volunteer in Colombia. He joined First National Bank of Boston in 1968 and served as an officer of the Bank in Boston, Australia, Central America, the Dominican Republic, Bolivia, Panama and Taiwan. Mr. Moyer is a Yale University graduate and received an MBA in finance from Cornell University. Saurabh Narain is Chief Fund Advisor to National Community Investment Fund (NCIF) and Senior Managing Director at ShoreBank Corporation ($2.0 billion bank holding company). NCIF is an independent non-profit private equity fund with $23 million of capital and $38 million of New Markets Tax Credits. It invests equity and debt in banks and thrifts - Community Development Banking Institutions (CDBIs)—that generate both excellent financial and social returns. NCIF also manages a CDBI Exchange Network that provides best practices on risk management, valuation among the CDBI community. Prior to NCIF, Mr. Narain has had extensive experience in capital markets and risk management having worked at Bank of America for 17 years based in Asia and the US. He has worked in almost 10 countries in Asia/US dealing with financial institutions, global multinational corporations and governments. He has experience in raising capital from private and public markets and in client risk management advisory work across risk-classes. Mr. Narain is actively involved with the microfinance and micro entrepreneurship movement in India. He serves on the Board of NMTC Coalition and the CDFI Coalition and is a member of the Steering Committee of the Professional Risk Managers’ International Association, Chicago Chapter (www.prmia.org). He has previously served as the President of the Board of the Health Clinic of the Asian Human Services, the Council of the United Way of Metropolitan Chicago, Board of FpML.org and of the North Asia Steering Committee for International Swaps and Derivatives Association (1999). He has a Bachelors of Arts (Honors) in Economics from University of Delhi and an MBA from Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad (1985), India. Zac Pessin is the CEO and founder of Distributed Capital Group (DCG). He founded DCG after a number of years researching market mechanisms and the expansion of Globalization. The patent portfolio that supports DCG's commercial efforts derives from Zac's integrated experience in Markets, Engineering, and Development. Distributed Capital focuses on increasing access to wealth opportunity and higher standards of living for the global majority, accomplished by means of commercially sustainable economics. Our first products serve cross-border capital flows by eliminating currency risk even where conventional swaps and forwards are not available or are too expensive; and further serve central banks and ministries of finance in the complex goal of maintaining growth and stability in the context of increasing liquidity. Previously at JPMorgan in New York, Zac reported to the Global Head of Operational Risk Management, and was one of three employees at the firm charged with operating and advancing JPM's $6bn economic capital model for Operational Risk. Zac has a BS in Engineering (Product Design) from Stanford University, and an MA, East Asian Studies (Strategic Management for Asia Pacific) from Yale University. He spent a year of post-graduate research at the Stanford InterUniversity Center in Yokohama, and two further years working in private equity based in Tokyo. Zac is an inventor on several patents in addition to those in the Distributed Capital portfolio, and he is also an Eagle Scout. Mitchell Petersen is the Glen E. Vasal Professor of Finance at the Kellogg Graduate School of Management. He has been at Kellogg since 1994. Professor Petersen research focuses on the empirical role of market frictions in influencing the capital budgeting and capital structure decisions made by firms. His research has explored the way in which small firms finance themselves as well as the role of lending relationships in easing small firm’s access to capital. More recently he is examined the changes in these market wrought by information technology. His research has also examined how risk management creates value for publicly traded firms. Professor Petersen's articles have appeared in the Quarterly Journal of Economics, the Journal of Finance, the Journal of Financial Economics, and the Review of Financial Studies. In 1994, he was awarded the Smith Breeden Prize for outstanding paper in the Journal of Finance and the Michael Brennan Award for Best Paper in the Review of Financial Studies in 1998. Professor Petersen is currently an editor of the Journal of Financial Intermediation and is a member of the American Finance Association and the American Economic Association. AB 1986, Economics, Princeton University; Ph.D. 1990, Economics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Lynn Pikholz is a South Africa national and formerly a Senior Managing Director of ShoreBank Advisory Services, ShoreBank’s international consulting company, serves as the President and CEO of Exchange. Lynn has over ten years of development finance experience and has worked closely with development finance institutions in Southern and Eastern Africa, South East Asia, the Middle East and Eastern Europe as well as in the U.S. Employed by ShoreBank Advisory Services since 1996, she has written extensively on development finance. Lynn previously worked in South Africa for a major commercial bank (Barclays) and for The Urban Foundation, and she holds an Honors Degree in Marketing and Economics from the University of Cape Town and the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa, and a Masters degree in Planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Johanna Posada is the Senior Associate for the Unitus Equity Fund L.P. She has a professional background in economics, finance and investment and has worked in both public and private sectors in the US and Mexico. At the Equity Fund, she actively participated in structuring the fund, raising the capital commitment and executing the Fund’s existing investments in India and Mexico. Before this, Johanna was the MFI Investment Manager of Unitus, Inc. Capital Markets Team, primary responsible for the sourcing and managing the global MFI partner pipeline and due diligence process and structuring debt transactions in Mexico. She formerly worked at the Economic Research Department of the Central Bank of Mexico, where she participated in several projects related to the financial and banking sector. She later worked as a senior financial analyst at ExxonMobil’s Exploration Company, providing financial, strategic and analytical support to the African Region and Corporate groups. During this engagement, Johanna gained exposure and experience in working in and investing in developing countries. Johanna has worked in a small strategy-consulting firm based in Mexico, in addition to an internship in the Financial Development Program at Texas Instruments. She has also worked as an independent consultant for the World Bank in issues related to credit reporting. She holds a B.A. in economics from the ITAM (Mexico City) and an M.B.A. from Stanford University. Marcos A. Rangel is an assistant professor at the University of Chicago’s Harris School of Public Policy Studies. He researches topics on development economics, population economics, and applied econometrics. His work focuses on the nature of decision-making within families in developing and developed countries. At the University of Chicago, Rangel is also associated to NORC's Population Research Center and to the Center for Latin American Studies. Rangel received his Ph.D. in economics from the University of California at Los Angeles in 2004, where he was also affiliated to the California Center of Population Research (CCPR) and to the Center for Health and Development (CenterHEAD). Both his undergraduate (1997) and master’s (1999) degrees were received from the Pontifical Catholic University-Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio), Brazil. He was awarded a William and Flora Hewlett Population Studies Fellowship for 2002-2003 and a University of California Dissertation Fellowship for 2003-2004. Rangel's 1999 M.A. Thesis was awarded the best Master Thesis in Economics by the Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES) in 2003. Myka Reinsch, Director, Microfinance and Health Protection, joined Freedom from Hunger in 2004. She brings over ten years of experience in international community and economic development. Ms. Reinsch leads Freedom from Hunger’s worldwide initiative to help microfinance institutions develop and offer innovative health protection services that improve the health and financial stability of both clients and the institutions themselves. In her previous role as Senior Technical Advisor, Microfinance, Ms. Reinsch provided direct technical assistance and training to credit unions throughout West Africa, including Nyèsigiso and Kondo Jigima in Mali, PAMECAS in Senegal, FECECAM in Benin and FUCEC in Togo, and to the Center for Agriculture and Rural Development (CARD) in the Philippines, in areas such as business planning, new product development, operational capacity-building, supervision and performance monitoring. Prior to joining Freedom from Hunger, Ms. Reinsch provided technical assistance to entrepreneurs and microfinance institutions in Kenya, Senegal, Zambia and Thailand, helped supply development financing to impoverished communities in the United States, and wrote case studies on microfinance innovations around the world. She has consulted to international development clients such as the World Bank/CGAP, Chemonics International, Action for Enterprise, and Associates in Rural Development (ARD). Ms. Reinsch has served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Thailand where she collaborated with rural women to create a weaving cooperative and with small farmers to build village water systems and increase sustainable agricultural practices. Ms. Reinsch holds an MBA in Business Economics and Nonprofit Management from Columbia University and a Bachelor’s degree in Cultural Linguistics from Vassar College. She speaks fluent French and Thai and proficient Wolof (a Senegalese language). Loren Rodwin is a Senior Investment Officer in OPIC’s Small and Medium Enterprise Finance Department focusing on micro, small and medium enterprise finance. Diana Rutherford is a Program Specialist at IRIS Center, University of Maryland. Ms. Rutherford specializes in international development program management and the design, implementation and analysis of surveys. Currently Ms. Rutherford is managing Assessing the Impact of Innovation Grants in Financial Services grant funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. She recently completed a report for the monitoring and evaluation of the Bosnia ALPS project that measured the effectiveness of a legal NGO’s media campaign. For a project for USAID’s E&E Bureau, Ms. Rutherford prepared the quantitative research design for a study of pharmaceutical procurement in Bulgarian hospitals. Other survey projects include: managing a survey in Peru to collect baseline data from lawyers on the quality of new commercial courts, and working with a project team to design a survey instrument for Armenian businesses about competition policy. From 2001 to 2005, Ms. Rutherford was involved with the annual survey of households for the Georgia Rule of Law Program. In 2004, she worked on the design of an instrument to measure judges’ training in Uzbekistan and a similar instrument in Kazakhstan. She spent a month in Indonesia pre-testing several survey instruments in 2001 for the multi-faceted fiscal decentralization program. In 2000, she was in Uganda pre-testing and finalizing surveys to capture “before & after” information on Uganda’s decentralization policies. Ms. Rutherford also has extensive experience managing large, complicated development projects sponsored by USAID, the World Bank, and most recently the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. She holds a MA in International Relations from American University.
Kyle Salyer is Sr. Vice President, Portfolio Management for MicroCredit Enterprises, which provides debt financing to microfinance institutions worldwide. He is responsible for managing the loan portfolio of MicroCredit Enterprises, including loan origination, negotiations, due diligence, and managing client relationships. Kyle began his career with the Mexican Association of Rural and Urban Transformation (AMEXTRA), where he started and managed their Chiapas-based microfinance institution, providing financial services in poor peri-urban and rural indigenous communities. Kyle has a BA from UCLA in International Economics and International Development Studies and an MBA from the Graduate School of Management at UC Davis, where he was awarded the James F. Sullivan Award for distinguished service to the school. Kyle serves on the Board of Directors for Mayview Community Health Center. He is fluent in Spanish
Amitabh Saxena is a Director in the Marketing and Product Development Unit of ACCION International. He leads ACCION’s global strategy for alternative channels, with a particular emphasis on banking correspondents, pre-paid cards, and mobile banking. He recently returned to Washington, DC after spending 9 months based out of ACCION’s Colombia office. Prior to ACCION, Mr. Saxena spent several years in Product Development at Capital One, leading cross-functional teams in over a dozen high-impact innovation tests at the company. He also managed projects in Kenya for Jamii Bora, a local microfinance institution with over 120 000 clients, and worked in Norway and Mexico on technical projects. He is fluent in English, French, and Spanish and conversant in Swahili and Hindi. Mr. Saxena holds a B.Eng in Mechanical Engineering from McGill University in Montreal, Canada. Premal Shah, is the President of Kiva.org Prior to Kiva.org, Premal was a Principal Product Manager at PayPal, an eBay company. During his 6 year career at PayPal, Premal drove a number of key initiatives including a year long project defining eBay's role in economically empowering the global working poor. A number of corporate initiatives have come out of this effort, including PayPal's support of Kiva.org. Prior to PayPal, Premal was a strategy consultant at Mercer Management Consulting in New York. Premal has had a long standing interest in microfinance. In 1997, he was awarded a grant from Stanford University to research microfinance in Gujarat, India. More recently Premal co-founded the Silicon Valley Microfinance Network and spent 2 months in India working to refine / validate Kiva.org's model. In 2006, Premal was a featured speaker at the Clinton Global Initiative and Global Microcredit Summit. Premal graduated with a B.A. in Economics from Stanford University. Sangita Sigdyal is Deputy Director of the Microcredit Summit Campaign, a leader in the microfinance field that brings practitioners, donor agencies, government leaders and other stakeholders to the table to forward the movement. Sangita manages all aspects of the Campaign's work with a special on its on its two goals: working to ensure that 175 million of the world's poorest families are receiving credit for self- employment and other financial and business services by the end of 2015, and working to ensure that 100million of the world's poorest families move from below US$1 a day by the end of 2015. Prior to joining the Campaign in January 2007, she served as Chief Operating Officer of the Association for Conflict Resolution, the largest membership association for mediators and arbitrators, for four and a half years. She has also worked as management consultant for five years and has a Master of Public Administration with a concentration in finance and business from Columbia University's School for International and Public Affairs. She is a native of Nepal and grew up in Kathmandu prior to her joining to Ithaca College for her Bachelor's. Mrs. Sigdyal is married to Atulya Dhunga and they have one daughter, Anusha. Robert S. Spich is a senior lecturer of management and international business at UCLA Anderson School of Management where he is a faculty member in the Global Economics and Management area. His teaching specialty covers courses in international management, emerging markets, negotiations and cross cultural issues in global business. With a bachelors degree in international relations from Lafayette College, Dr. Spich continued his professional formation with field experience in economic development projects and technical assistance for the Peace Corps in Chile and the Agency for International Development in Washington D.C. After earning both his MBA and Ph.D. in management and international business from the University of Washington in Seattle, Dr. Spich was recipient of several research and teaching fellowships to Latin America from both the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy of Tufts University as well as the Fulbright Scholars Program. Lara Storm Swire is the Relationship Manager at Pro Mujer International. As part of the network operations team, she manages technical assistance and training projects for the Pro Mujer Network. She also contributes to new product development, cross learning, documentation and dissemination of Pro Mujer best practices and expansion to new countries. She previously served as microfinance accreditation specialist in the microfinance unit at Catholic Relief Services (CRS) where she led institutional assessments of CRS microfinance partners. She has also consulted with Women’s World Banking, PlaNet Rating and the World Bank. Prior to working in microfinance, she worked as an analyst at Fitch Ratings in New York. She holds a Master’s in International Affairs from Columbia University and a BA in Spanish and Geography from the University of California, Davis. John TenBrink joined Opportunity International in February 2006 and has been involved in technology and online marketing strategies. John worked in Nicaragua and is particularly passionate about promoting entrepreneurship among the global poor. He holds a master’s degree in Integrated Marketing Communications from Northwestern University. Lisa Thomas is the Vice Present of Capacity Building and Operations for ShoreCap Exchange. Prior to joining Exchange, Ms. Thomas was a manager for the Chicago-based strategy consulting firm, The Clement Group. In addition, she has worked for Merrill Lynch Investment Banking in New York and CRT Capital Group in Connecticut. Ms. Thomas is responsible for assisting in the development and management of client technical assistance relationships as well as overseeing the operations of Exchange. She holds an MBA from the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business and an honors degree in business administration from the University of Oregon. William Toannan is the Director of Microenterprise Development at World Relief Corporation. Bill has been leading the MED Technical Unit at World Relief for the last two years, supporting 7 owned MFI’s and 4 partner MFI’s. He has over 16 years experience in domestic commercial banking; lending and providing cash management services to small, middle-market and large US regional businesses. He and his family spent one year in Russia teaching a curriculum of morals and ethics in the secondary schools near St. Petersburg. For seven years Bill raised money for domestic and international agencies. Bill graduated from Illinois State Univ. (Finance and Economics). Atsumasa Tochisako. Prior to founding Microfinance International, Atsumasa Tochisako spent 27 years in various operational and representative positions with the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, including 12 years as a manager and officer in several Latin American countries, including Mexico, Ecuador, Peru, and Panama. He retired from the Bank as Chief Representative of its Washington, D.C. office, having previously served the company in virtually every operational theatre, including reorganization of major Japanese trading companies, international syndicated loans, foreign exchange, and overseas operations. Mr. Tochisako received his M.B.A. from George Washington University, after earning his B.A. in International Trade and Commerce from Doshisha University in Kyoto, Japan and studying at the Universidad de Guanajuato in Mexico. A native of Japan, he is fluent in Spanish, English, and Japanese. Luca Torre is an Associate in the Financial Institutions Group at Credit Suisse. He has worked on a variety of transactions including the Initial Public Offering of Banco Compartamos in Mexico. Prior to his current position, Luca worked in Italy as a management consultant at the Boston Consulting Group in the financial services practice and in India as a consultant for Inter Aide, a French microfinance network. Luca received an MBA from Kellogg School of Management and was awarded the Siebel Scholarship as well as the Dean's Service Award. At Kellogg, he co-founded in 2005 the First Chicago Microfinance Conference and spearheaded several microfinance initiatives in conjunction with the United Nations Year of Microcredit. Katie Torrington. Working within the Executive Initiatives Group, Katherine Torrington serves as Research and Customer Relationship Manager at FINCA International (the Foundation for International Community Assistance). Ms. Torrington is responsible for overall management and supervision of program outreach, assessment, and the use of client data to improve product design at FINCA’s Washington, DC Headquarters and 21 country programs. She also oversees field initiatives on social performance and customer relationship management. She serves on the SEEP Network’s Poverty Outreach Working Group and is a member of the Social Performance Task Force. Prior to joining FINCA, Ms. Torrington worked with the Caribbean Project to develop trade networks, technical capacity and marketing materials among micro-entrepreneurs in Haiti and the Windward Islands. An Alumnus of FINCA’s Client Assessment Fellowship, she spent the summer of 2005 conducting interviews with FINCA clients in Guatemala and Nicaragua. Ms. Torrington has also worked extensively with FINCA’s programs in Tanzania and Mexico. She holds a Masters degree in International Development from American University (with an emphasis in Management and Microfinance) where her thesis focused on the empowerment of microfinance clients. In addition to her graduate work, she earned a Bachelor of Arts in Government from the University of Redlands with a minor in Race and Ethnic Studies. Luigi Zingales is the Robert C. McCormack Professor of Entrepreneurship and Finance at the University of Chicago’s Graduate School of Business. Dr. Zingales is one of the foremost academic experts on corporate governance and is an inaugural fellow of the European Corporate Governance Panel. He is a faculty research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research and a research fellow at the Center for Economic Policy Research. |
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