We believe in the power of enterprise to reduce global poverty.
Board of Directors
Sharon D'Onofrio (Executive Director)
Sharon is the Executive Director of the SEEP Network. Prior to this, Sharon was Lead Facilitator in SEEP’s Association Development Community of Practice providing strategic direction in SEEP’s service to its association members and overseeing the creation of a suite of association development tools. Sharon’s experience in microfinance spans twenty-three countries in Latin America, Asia, Eastern Europe and Africa. As Senior Technical Advisor for Catholic Relief Services (CRS) she led the creation of a new microfinance institution in El Salvador, serving as the institution’s first Executive Director. While with CRS, Sharon also held the positions of Regional Technical Advisor for Latin America as well as Program Trainer in the organization’s Small Enterprise Development Technical Unit.
Timothy Nourse (Chair)
Timothy Nourse is President of Making Cents International, a social enterprise that provides specialized technical services and curriculum to individuals and organizations in enterprise development, workforce development and microfinance. To lead Making Cents, Tim draws upon his sixteen years implementing and supporting microfinance and enterprise development programs in Africa, the Middle East and Europe. Prior to joining Making Cents, he has worked for Catholic Relief Services, American Refugee Committee, and most recently with the Academy for Educational Development in various technical advisor and management roles. He specializes in serving hard-to-reach and conflict-affected populations with financial and enterprise development services.
Alison Griffith (Vice Chair)
Alison Griffith is the Head of the Markets and Livelihoods International Program at Practical Action (formerly ITDG). She is responsible for leading a team specializing in pro-poor market development in Africa, South Asia and Latin America. This role involves setting the strategic direction and objectives; supporting the international team to develop innovative approaches to market system development; analysis and synthesis of lessons from the program, and sharing knowledge with other agencies, practitioners, researchers and donors.
Alison has been with Practical Action since 2001 and previously worked in development consultancy, fair trade and livestock services in Kenya.
Deborah Drake (Treasurer)
Deborah Drake has worked with ACCION International since 1990. She is Program Manager, Investing in Inclusive Finance, of the Center for Financial Inclusion at ACCION International. The Center, launched in September 2008, is a collaborative effort to advance the commercial model of microfinance while upholding the interests and needs of poor clients worldwide. Ms. Drake directs the Council of Microfinance Equity Funds (CMEF), a membership organization of private entities that make equity investments in microfinance institutions (MFIs) of the developing world. The Council spearheads the advancement of the field of equity investment in MFIs through research projects, publications and biannual meetings.
Jhale Hajiyeva (Secretary)
Jhale Hajiyeva is currently an Executive Director of Azerbaijan Micro-finance Association (AMFA), a public association dedicated to strengthening the capacity of microfinance institutions and to promote effective collective action in advancing the interests of the microfinance community and its clients. Jhale has worked in the field of microfinance since 1999 in the areas of project design, network development, and project implementation. She is a publisher of the quarterly Azerbaijan microfinance sector portfolio statistics, organizer of country level Conferences on microfinance, policy dialogues, actively promoting financial transparency in the market and best practices in microfinance.
Scott Bohannon
Scott Bohannon is the President and Founder of nSight2 in Alexandria, Virginia. nSight2 helps organization better engage their most important people, especially employees, through a unique combination of news and organization messages. Prior to nSight2, Scott was General Manager of the Finance, Strategy, Corporate Integrity, and Government Division at the Corporate Executive Board (CEB) and a member of the firm’s Executive Committee, primarily responsible for ensuring high-quality research and service delivery to about 4,000 senior executives around the world. Prior to joining the Corporate Executive Board, Scott practiced law in Washington, DC for Sidley & Austin.
David Fischer
David Fischer is the Vice President of Advertising and Global Operations at Facebook and oversees sales, advertiser marketing, and customer operations throughout the world. He joined Facebook after over seven years at Google, where he was Vice President of Global Online Sales and Operations and was responsible for Google’s online sales channel, which represents the majority of Google’s customers worldwide. In that role, he helped build Google's online advertising network into the largest in the world. Prior to that, David served as Deputy Chief of Staff at the United States Treasury Department during the Clinton Administration. Earlier, David was an Associate Editor at U.S. News & World Report.
Beth Porter
Beth Porter has over twenty years of experience in microfinance and organizational development in 30 countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Ms. Porter is Policy Advisor at UNCDF where she provides policy guidance and support to the global team on financial inclusion. She previously launched and directed the YFS-Link initiative at Making Cents International to build the capabilities of financial services providers and youth-serving organizations in youth-inclusive financial services. At Freedom from Hunger, Ms. Porter led program strategy and managed delivery of integrated microfinance services to 1.2 million women and their families in 16 countries. Ms. Porter has provided technical assistance and training in strategic and business planning, product design, and organizational effectiveness and operational efficiency, and is experienced in program appraisal, design and evaluation. Ms. Porter is on the boards of the SEEP Network, the Bolivian MFI CRECER, the SMART Campaign in Microfinance, Child and Youth Finance International, and the YFS-Link initiative, and was a founder of Women Advancing Microfinance (WAM)-International and past Chair of WAM-Northern California.
Lynn Exton
Lynn is the Chief Risk Officer for Opportunity International. In this role, she manages Opportunity International’s risk profile and related policies and practices aimed at supporting Opportunity’s growth in a prudent manner and in keeping with good stewardship. The role of the risk officer is integral to Opportunity’s efforts to impact millions of hard working entrepreneurs, at minimal credit, operational, market and reputational loss to the organization. Lynn has been involved with the SEEP’s Financial Services Working Group since 2009 and during 2010, served as the Facilitator for the FSWG. She was elected to the SEEP Network’s Board of Directors in November 2010.
Ranya Abdel-Baki
Ranya Abdel-Baki is an economist by education and is currently the Executive Director of Sanabel – the Microfinance Network of Arab Countries. Prior to working at Sanabel, Ranya has worked as a corporate credit analyst and supervisor for five years at National Société Générale Bank. Ranta has also worked as an Urban Economist & Development Specialist in EcoConServ, an environmental consultancy firm where she has undertaken a number of consultancy assignments assessing the social impact and financial sustainability of development projects in Egypt. Experience in microfinance includes the co-writing of the Arab Microfinance Analysis and Benchmarking Report for the past three years, training on financial analysis for microfinance, and lecturing on microfinance in the American University in Cairo. Ranya holds a MSc. in Urban Economic Development from University College London.
Mathew Titus
Mathew Titus is the Executive Director of Sa-Dhan, the Association of Community Development Finance Institutions, based in New Delhi. Sa-Dhan works with Community Development Finance Institutions in identifying areas of work that will contribute to the development of the sector. This includes the organizing training programs, identifying and building industry standards, and bringing together policy initiatives.
Mr. Titus is in the Prime Minister’s Council on Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs). Mr. Titus is a Member of the Board, Microfinance Development and Equity Fund, National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development in Mumbai, and also a member of the advisory committee of INSURANCE REGULATORY AND DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY (IRDA). Some of his recent publications include: Expanding “Secular Growth”: The role for innovations in microfinance and Financial Inclusion: - Does MF demonstrate any lesson for public policy? He is a post-graduate from the Department of Economics and International Development at the University of Bath, England, and has a Masters from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.
