Speaker and Panelist Bios:

Simone Balch - Developing World Market
Simone joined DWM in 2005 and is responsible for financial analysis and identification of investment opportunities, marketing and investor relations.

She began her career at Goldman Sachs Equity Sales and Trading in Chicago and later spent 4 years in Private Wealth Management in Switzerland. Simone then worked with various microfinance organizations and networks including the Women’s World Banking and Philadelphia Development Partnership. In addition, she co-led the China team of the Global Microentrepreneurship Awards, an effort by the United Nations to promote the Year of Microcredit 2005.

Simone has an MBA from the Wharton School of Business and a BA in economics from the University of Chicago. Simone has lived and traveled in over 40 countries and speaks Chinese, some French and German and is learning Spanish.

Estelle Berger - Opportunity International
Estelle Berger is the Director of Knowledge Management at Opportunity International. She is responsible for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation funded learning agenda focusing on expanding microfinance services across Africa. She has worked as the CFO for the Micro Insurance Agency; she has worked in microfinance for five years.

Sharlene Brown - Grameen Foundation
Sharlene Brown joined Grameen Foundation in February 2008 as a Program Officer in the Social Performance Measurement group. Sharlene has spent most of her career in the socially responsible investment (SRI) marketplace, initially working as a business development manager for Domini Social Investments, and most recently as research associate for the Social Investment Forum, producing the 2007 Trends Report on Social Investing in the United States.

Sharlene's interest in microfinance began during her undergraduate career at Wellesley College, where she majored in Economics and Africana Studies, and focused her research on development issues and women in the Caribbean. Throughout her career in the SRI industry, she continued to build her knowledge on microfinance and community investing by sitting on Dominis Social Policy Review Committee and being engaged in the Social Investment Forum’s 1% for Community campaign.

Bridget Burkhardt - ShoreBank
Bridget Burkhardt is a Senior Finance Analyst based in ShoreBank International’s Chicago office and her responsibilities include the provision of financial modeling and analysis support to SBI projects, the creation of financial and other analyses to support internal SBI business decisions, and general participation as a consultant on SBI projects, particularly in a strategic advisory or funds development capacity. Prior to joining SBI she spent two years as a financial analyst in investment banking and six years as an investment professional with private equity funds in New York, London, and Chicago, including three years with community development venture capital funds. Ms. Burkhardt holds an undergraduate degree from Brown University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Paul Christensen - Kellogg School of Management
Paul Christensen is a Senior Lecturer at the Kellogg School of Management where he teaches courses on microfinance and international business. In addition, he helps direct the school’s International Business and Markets Program where he is involved in international curriculum development, visiting scholars and executives, student club activities and alumni outreach. Prior to Kellogg, Paul served as the founder and President of ShoreCap International Ltd., a $28 million private equity company sponsored by ShoreBank Corporation which invests in financial institutions in developing countries throughout Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe. Prior to joining ShoreBank, Paul 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 received an MBA with distinction from Cornell University and a Bachelor of Arts, economics, summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa, from Dartmouth College.

Lisa Jones Christensen
The research and teaching of Lisa Jones Christensen focus on sustainable enterprise in the United States and in developing economies, corporate social responsibility, microfinance and microfranchising, change management and change implementation. Dr. Christensen's research has been published in edited books (Microfranchising, and Eliminating Poverty through Business Strategies) and journals, including the Journal of Applied Psychology, Journal of Business Ethics and Academy of Management. She worked for nearly 10 years as a marketing and sales manager at Silicon Valley startup firms before she began her academic career. She also co-founded H.E.L.P. Honduras (now HELP-International), a nonprofit organization originally focused on post-disaster relief and microfinance work in Honduras, which has expanded to emphasize economic self-reliance and microfinance principles in developing economies such as Peru, El Salvador, Venezuela and Thailand. She now sits on its board.

Dr. Christensen has consulted with various public and private sector firms, including SJF Ventures, Johnson & Johnson, BST Consulting, Earthbound Farms, Sustainable Harvest, Pioneer Hi-Bred (DuPont), Procter & Gamble, UNC Hospitals and Papa Johns Pizza. She received her PhD in organizational behavior from UNC Kenan-Flagler, her MBA from the Marriott School and an MA in international development from the David Kennedy School, both at Brigham Young University. She received her BA from the University of California at Berkeley

Tom Coleman - Microfinance Consulting
Tom Coleman founded Microfinance Consulting to integrate 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 transaction volume from new products and in new product innovation of financial derivatives during those years. Tom is a graduate of the University of Chicago, MBA 1974, AB 1974.

Tom has consulted with a number of the major microfinance networks on challenges ranging from guarantee funds and innovative capital market financing vehicles, to social measurement to increase emphasis on service and measurable results for the bottom billion.

Leslie Davis - ShoreCap International Ltd.
Leslie Davis currently serves as a Consultant to ShoreCap International Ltd., a small international private equity company which invests in financial institutions in developing countries throughout Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe. In 1999, Ms. Davis co-founded SB Partners, a $40 million private equity fund, as a General Partner. Prior to SB Partners, Ms. Davis was a Senior Vice President at ShoreBank, where she had responsibility for the bank’s senior and subordinated debt lending division. At Shorebank, the bank holding company, Ms. Davis also served as manager and co-founder of the National Community Investment Fund, a fund that made equity investments in depository financial institutions. Previously, Ms. Davis was a corporate lender at Continental Bank and held various marketing positions at IBM Corporation. She has a BA in Economics from Brown University and an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. Ms. Davis has served as an adjunct assistant professor in the Entrepreneurship program at the Kellogg Graduate School of Management.

Patrick Fisher - Creation Investments
Patrick Fisher is the Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Creation Investments, LLC and Fund Manager for Creation Investments Microfinance Fund I. Mr. Fisher spent the majority of his career working in the financial services industry, most recently for JPMorgan Chase. His relevant work experience includes years of service in International Banking and Global Treasury and Trade Services, primarily covering Asia and Latin America. Prior to that, Mr. Fisher marketed interest rate, commodity foreign exchange derivatives on a Chicago trading floor. He has started numerous businesses, established investment groups and serves on the board of several not-for-profit organizations. Mr. Fisher is a graduate of the JL Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, where he received a Master of Business Administration degree in Finance and Marketing. He also received his Bachelor of Arts, magna cum laude, at the University of Notre Dame, where he majored in Philosophy, Theology, and Computer Applications, with a minor in Spanish.

Joel Freehling - ShoreBank
Joel Freehling is the Manager of Triple Bottom Line Innovations at ShoreBank, America’s first and leading community development and environmental banking corporation. In this position, Mr. Freehling is responsible for developing innovative programs that further ShoreBank's mission of promoting economic equity and environmental sustainability. A primary task is the creation of innovative financial products to promote energy efficiency and green development in urban markets, such as ShoreBank’s Homeowners’ Energy Conservation Program. Prior to his current position, he served as Deputy Director of Corporate Risk Management at ShoreBank Corporation and served as a small business lender in ShoreBank’s Business Banking unit. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree (honors) from the University of Michigan and Masters of Arts from the University of Florida and Stony Brook University.

Mike Gabriel - Grameen Foundation
Mike Gabriel is an Associate with the Grameen Foundation's Capital Management & Advisory Center where he connects microfinance institutions to commercial sources of capital by structuring guarantee-backed debt financing and advising on raising other forms of capital. Previously, Mike worked with Unlad Kabayan Migrant Services Foundation, a social enterprise incubator in the Philippines, and with Banc of America Securities’ short-term finance group helping to execute commercial paper programs for large multi-nationals. Mike speaks Spanish and Tagalog. He received his MBA from Thunderbird Global School of Management and his BA in Latin American Studies from Vanderbilt University.

Joshua Goldstein - ACCION
Joshua Goldstein is the Principal Senior Director, Center for Financial Inclusion at ACCION International. Previously, Josh worked in the External Affairs Department at ACCION and also started and ran a small non-profit called Timoun Haiti. He has given talks about microfinance at a number of conferences and universities. Mr. Goldstein also teaches at Boston University in the Creative Writing Program and published a book of plays with several plays produced in London and the U.S. He is a graduate of Yale University.

Henry Gonzalez - Morgan Stanley Microfinance Group
Henry is a Vice President in Morgan Stanley's Microfinance Institutions Group which he joined after working for the firm’s Private Wealth Management practice providing investment advice to Central American clients. Prior to that, he worked for The Global Exchange for Social Investment (GEXSI) in London and for the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in San José, Costa Rica which he joined after working for the World Bank in Washington D.C. In his earlier career, he was the Chief of Staff to the Minister of Agriculture in his home country Costa Rica and served as well as a Legislative Advisor to a member of the Assembly. Henry received an MBA from Oxford University where he was granted a Skoll Scholarship for Social Entrepreneurship and an MPA from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government where he was a Fulbright Scholar. He also holds a BA in Political Science from the University of Costa Rica.

Jeremiah Grossman - IRIS Center – University of Maryland
Jeremiah Grossman is a legal and regulatory microfinance specialist with 10 years of experience and education in law and international development. A lawyer with a Master's degree in international relations, Mr. Grossman analyzes legal and regulatory constraints to access to finance for the poor; drafts microfinance regulations; and directs the Microfinance Regulation and Supervision Resource Center, an online database of microfinance-related legal and regulatory information developed through a collaboration between IRIS and CGAP. He has also worked directly for CGAP as a consultant, analyzing issues related to branchless banking. Mr. Grossman served for three years as a Peace Corps Volunteer in the Philippines. He is proficient in Tagalog and Spanish.

Beth Houle - Opportunity International
Beth Houle is on the Board of Women Advancing Microfinance (WAM) International and she is Head of Global Services with the Opportunity International Network. At Opportunity, she is responsible for global business planning, knowledge management and marketing/brand. After working in private investment, she has now worked in microfinance for ten years.

Annette Krauss - Kellogg School of Management
Annette Krauss is a senior lecturer in the Social Enterprise at Kellogg (SEEK) Program at the Kellogg School of Management, where she teaches a course on social entrepreneurship in the developing world. Prior to her appointment at Kellogg, she managed the microfinance training programs of the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) and worked as a programme manager at a development non-profit with a focus on microfinance. She holds an MA in Economics from the University of Trier and a PhD in Economics from Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany.

David Constantijn Kruijff - IFC
David Constantijn Kruijff, is an Investment Officer at the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and responsible for all corporations’ microfinance investments in Latin America and Caribbean. David is involved in developing the unit’s overall microfinance strategy, steering a team of investment officers, undertaking due diligence, and leading special missions involving turn around of MFIs. Before joining the IFC, David was with Oxfam Novib and spent four years with the International Project Consult (IPC) working on projects in the Philippines and Albania. David received an MS in International Politics from the University of Wales and an MS in Development Economics from the Agricultural University of the Netherlands.

Brian Lehnen - Village Enterprise Fund
Brian Lehnen is founder and Executive Director of Village Enterprise Fund. VEF is a leader in grant based microenterprise development. Brian founded VEF in 1987. Prior to starting VEF, he worked in the biotechnology industry. Brian is a graduate of U.C Davis, and a MBA degree from Eastern University in economic development.

Lionel Lopez - Technoserve
Lionel Lopez, Ph. D, is the Guatemala Country Director for Technoserve, a global non-profit organization who helps entrepreneurial men and women in poor rural areas of the developing world build businesses that create income, opportunity and economic growth for their families, their communities and their countries. Over the last three years Dr. Lopez has developed Technoserve's presence in Guatemala, focusing on a variety of initiatives including, the development of a broad platform of institutions to promote the development of the Biodiesel industry in Guatemala through small producers and communities, as well as large scale investors in the region. Dr. Lopez previously has held positions as a consultant for the World Bank, IDB and was a partner at McKinsey & Co. leading the Industry Strategy and Operations practice in Germany. Dr. Lopez has a Masters in Science and Ph.D in engineering, both obtained from the University of Wuppertal, West Germany.

Mary McVay - The Value Initiative
Mary McVay is with The SEEP Network and is the Director of The Value Initiative, which is funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The program’s mission is to advance urban value chain development and help people work their way out of poverty; Mary is an independent consultant, trainer, research and facilitator. She is considered a "thought leader" in her technical field and has over 20 years of experience in microenterprise development.

Ann Miles - Blue Orchard
Ann Miles is Director at BlueOrchard Finance, S.A., an asset-management company based in Switzerland that specializes in microfinance commercial debt instruments. Before joining BlueOrchard in 2006, Ann worked at Women's World Banking, New York, a non-profit global network of microfinance institutions (MFIs), where she managed the Financial Products and Services team which monitored the financial performance of the MFIs and helped them access commercial sources of funding. Prior to this, Ann worked at Citigroup, where she held positions in Trade Finance, the Financial Institutions Group, and the Private Bank. Ann is a founder and committee member of the International Associations of Microfinance Investors, member of the Microfinance Club of New York, and member of the external investment committee of the Calvert Foundation. Ann holds a BA in Economics and French Literature from Drew University.

Donna Nails - Independent Consultant
Donna Nails provides consultative services on risk management and lending to financial institutions internationally. She held the following positions at ShoreBank Corporation: Special Projects Manager for the CFO, Deputy Director of the Corporate Risk Management Department and a small business lender. In addition, she worked at USAID in Ukraine and as a Peace Corp volunteer in Moldova.

Bhuvana Nataraj - Growing Opportunity
Bhuvana Nataraj is the Client Development Manager for Growing Opportunity (GO) Finance in Chennai, India. She is responsible for client training that enhances the social impact of Opportunity’s microfinance programs in Chennai as well as the annual week-long Women’s expo. She has worked in microfinance for or HIV/AIDs education for seven years.

Lynn Pikholz - ShoreCap Exchange
Lynn Pikholz is President of ShoreCap Exchange. She currently focuses on strengthening sustainable financial institutions, businesses and transactions in the microfinance and small business fields with a focus on interventions that improve livelihoods and increase wealth and economic opportunities for underserved households and firms. Lynn has worked in the fields of micro and small business finance and housing for over fifteen years.

Dennis Ripley - Opportunity International
Dennis Ripley is Senior Vice President for International Business Development for Opportunity International. Opportunity International has established 46 Microfinance Institutions in 29 countries, including 17 commercial MFIs and four commercial microinsurance agencies built, owned and operated by Opportunity. Dennis sets strategy and provides oversight for the grant and equity funding raised and placed in these institutions. He serves as a member of the Board of Directors of the Micro Insurance Agency, a global brokerage institution that has secured life, health and crop insurance policies that currently cover 3.5 million lives in ten countries; is a founding Board Member of the Opportunity Foundation of Ghana; and served as the Managing Director for the Opportunity Loan Guarantee Fund which provides letters of credit through HSBC to enable Opportunity banks and MFIs to secure loans in local currencies.

Prior to his time at Opportunity, Dennis served as a Vice President for World Relief Corporation, heading up their Refugee Services Division, and as the founding President of Exodus World Service. He holds a Master of Divinity Degree from Trinity University.

Luisa Pulido - Bancrecer
Luisa Pulido is an Executive Vice President of Bancrecer, where she is involved in planning, launch, and operations of a regulated new Development Bank of Grupo Santander in Venezuela. Grupo Santander started its operations in 2006 and provides financial services and assistance to low income entrepreneurs. Prior to this, Ms. Pulido served as General Manager of Fundacion Eugenio Mendoza until 2005. Today, she serves as Senior Executive Board Director and assists with the management of business, fundraising, and new program development operations for one of Venezuela’s largest foundations in Social Development, Education, and Microbusiness. Ms. Pulido received her MBA with emphasis in Marketing and Finance at Universidad Metropolitana in Caracas, Venezuela in 1993. She also holds her BA in Landscape Architecture from Cornell University.

Kathleen Robbins - Green Microfinance
Dr Robbins is currently working on a biofuels program in Haiti to empower small farmers and address the energy, economic and environment issues in rural Haiti. Previously she developed FonkoSel Aktive pa Digicel, a replication of the Grameen Bank Village Phone program, creating a partnership between Digicel, the largest cellular provider and Fonkoze, the largest MFI in Haiti. Prior to that, Dr Robbins was CEO of a cellular company in the US. Her educational background includes an engineering degree, MBA and DMin. Her doctorial dissertation was on the impact of wireless communications in the developing world.

Amitabh Saxena - Accion
Amitabh Saxena is a Director in the Marketing and Product Development Unit of ACCION International. He leads ACCION’s strategy and implementation projects in alternative channels, with a particular emphasis on using banking agents, pre-paid cards, and cell-phones for delivering financial services to the base of the pyramid. 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, the country’s largest microfinance institution with over 180,000 clients. 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.

Raven Smith - American International Group, Inc
Raven Smith is a Management Associate in the business development and strategy team of American International Group (AIG)'s international general insurance division, American International Underwriters, which focuses on growth & innovation of insurance products in emerging markets. Her team leads AIG's global microinsurance strategy which has insured over 2 million lives in 12 countries. At AIG Raven has been involved in launching a bancassurance program for one of the largest banks in Indonesia and has conducted insurance training to over 22 bank product managers in Latin America and over 20 staff of a German Development Bank. She plays a role in helping AIG to develop and grow its wider microfinance strategy bringing together products across AIG’s diverse companies. In this function she has served on a variety of public forums, conferences, and panels to enhance and share AIG’s experience and position in the microfinance space.

Raven's past work experience includes an internship with the Omidyar Tufts Microfinance Fund (OTMF) as well as with BASIX Finance, a large microfinance institution in India. Prior to this she spent 2 years with Edward Jones Investments where she underwent an analyst rotational development program and was ultimately one of a team of two responsible for the growth of banking products such as credit cards, mortgages, and high interest savings accounts in the Canadian market. Raven has a masters in international finance and development economics from the Fletcher School at Tufts University.

Robert Spich - UCLA
Robert S. Spich, Ph.D, 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 research and teaching fellowships to Latin America from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy of Tufts University as well as the Fulbright Scholars Program.

Paddy Srinivasan - Oracle
Paddy Srinivasan is the Director of Oracle Asia Research and Development group based in New Delhi India. His group is responsible for developing innovative solutions for the emerging markets and have been focused on mobile phones and related embedded technologies as a means of including the bottom of the pyramid in the growth stories of India and other markets. Prior to this role, Paddy was with Microsoft Corp in Seattle in various engineering capacities. He holds an MBA from the Southern Methodist University, Dallas TX and a B.S in Electrical Engineering.

Lisa G. Thomas - ShoreCap Exchange Corporation
Lisa G. Thomas is a Vice President of Capacity Building and Operations at ShoreCap Exchange Corporation. Ms. Thomas is responsible for the development and management of client technical assistance relationships as well as overseeing the operations of ShoreCap Exchange. Prior to joining Exchange, Ms. Thomas was a manager at The Clement Group, a Chicago-based strategy consulting firm. In addition, she worked in investment banking at Merrill Lynch in New York and distressed debt/equity research at CRT Capital in Connecticut. Ms. Thomas holds an MBA from the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business and a B.S. (Honors) from the University of Oregon.

Maria Virginia Vilela - FINCA International
Maria Virginia Vilela serves on the Corporate Counsel for FINCA International, where she has worked since 2003. She has also worked as Regional Counsel for Latin America, providing legal support to FINCA’s affiliates in that region. Her responsibilities have included the transformation of FINCA’s affiliates into regulated entities, the monetization of commodities and the drafting and negotiation of international contracts. Before joining FINCA, she worked as legal counsel for Viamericas Corporation, a remittances company in Maryland focused on the Latin American market. She also worked as an associate at the Caracas office of Baker & McKenzie, where her practice focused on commercial law, corporate, contracts and immigration. Maria received her law degree from Universidad Católica Andres Bello (Caracas, Venezuela) in 1999 and earned a Master’s degree in International Legal Studies from Georgetown University Law Center in 2002.

Damian von Stauffenberg - Microrate
Damian von Stauffenberg is the founder of MicroRate, the world's first rating agency specializing in microfinance. Through its Latin American and African subsidiaries, MicroRate has conducted well over 400 ratings of microfinance institutions in Latin America, Africa and Eastern Europe. Before dedicating himself to microfinance, Mr. von Stauffenberg worked for 25 years in the World Bank and its private sector affiliate, the International Finance Corporation (IFC).

In the past, Mr. von Stauffenberg has been closely associated with a number of institutions that have played pioneering roles in connecting microfinance to capital markets. He has been president of Seed Capital Development Fund (SCDF), chairman of the Investment Committee of Profund, chairman of the executive committee of MicroVest and member of the executive committee of the Latin American Challenge Investment Fund, LA-CIF.

Peter Wall - Executive Director, Microfinance Information Exchange, Inc. (MIX)
Peter joined MIX in May 2005, with a long career in financial information services. During his time with MIX he has led it to greatly expanded scope and depth of coverage in microfinance in developing countries. From 2000 until early 2004, he was senior vice president for business development in the Americas for FTSE International Ltd., a global producer of financial indexes and related data services. Prior to joining FTSE, Peter worked for 20 years at International Finance Corporation’s (IFC), where he ended his career as manager of the pioneering Emerging Stock Markets Data Base, on which IFC’s Emerging Stock Market Indices were developed. Over this period, he was also active for IFC in research concerning the development of domestic capital markets in developing economies.

Peter has an MA in International Affairs from the George Washington University and a BA in Eurasian History and Economics from Hofstra University. He is also a member of the Institute of Chartered Financial Analysts.

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