Beth Porter (Vice Chair)
Jay Banjade (Treasurer)
Leslie Barcus (Secretary)
Robert Annibale
Deborah Drake
Edward Millard
Dan Norell
Timothy Nourse
William Tucker
Lauren Hendricks (Chair)
CARE151 Ellis St.
Atlanta, GA 30303
(404) 979-9253
lhendricks@care.org
Lauren Hendricks is the Director of the Economic Development Unit for CARE USA, and is responsible for strategic direction and technical leadership for over 100 active microfinance and enterprise development programs in 54 countries. She currently serves on the Board of Directors and Investment Committee for MicroVest, a capital management firm investing in microfinance institutions. Ms. Hendricks also represents CARE on the board of directors of several national MFIs. Prior to joining CARE, Ms. Hendricks was a program specialist at the Center for Institutional Reform and the Informal Sector (IRIS) at the University of Maryland. Her research focused on the development of low-cost tools to assess the poverty outreach of USAID funded microenterprise development programs in response to congressional legislation. She also served on the team designing and developing content for the CGAP Microfinance Regulation and Supervision Resource Center. Ms. Hendricks has over 10 years of experience evaluating, designing and promoting the development of microfinance programs worldwide. She spent three years in the Republic of Georgia with the International Rescue Committee managing a microfinance program and overseeing its transformation into a locally registered and managed institution. Prior to IRC, Lauren worked with ACDI/VOCA in their Washington headquarters. Lauren is a member of the SEEP Poverty Outreach Working Group, and has been a presenter at the SEEP AGM. Ms. Hendricks training in microfinance includes “Using the AIMS-SEEP Client Assessment Tools for More Effective Microfinance”, 2001 and “Microfin Business Planning and Financial Modeling for Microenterprise Programs,” 2000. Lauren has attended the Microenterprise Development Institute, New Hampshire College, Manchester, NH. Her recent publications include “SIMBA – supporting the income and basic needs of AIDS-affected households in Zimbabwe” in the Small Enterprise Development Journal, September 2005.
Beth Porter (Vice Chair)
Freedom from Hunger1644 DaVinci Court
Davis, CA 95618
(530) 758-6200 x14
bporter@freefromhunger.org
Beth joined Freedom from Hunger in 1999 and is currently the Vice President, Program Services. She has over fifteen years of experience in microfinance and organizational development in more than 25 countries. Beth leads the development of program initiatives and manages the provision of technical assistance to its partners. Beth’s expertise includes program appraisal, design and evaluation, and technical assistance and training in strategic and business planning, methodology development and product design, and improving organizational effectiveness and operational efficiency. Prior to joining Freedom from Hunger, Beth worked as an independent consultant with UNDP, The World Bank, Women’s World Banking, Catholic Relief Services, Save the Children, Oxfam/UK, and World Relief. Previously she served as Save the Children/UK’s Credit and Savings Advisor in Vietnam. Beth also worked in microenterprise programming in Senegal and Cape Verde for Catholic Relief Services. She has been on the faculty of the Microfinance Training Program at the Economics Institute in Boulder, Colorado for business planning and technical assistance courses. Beth currently serves on the board of directors of CRECER, a Bolivian microfinance institution.
Jay Banjade (Treasurer)
Save the Children2000 M St. NW Suite 500
Washington, DC 20036
(202) 530-4370
jbanjade@dc.savechildren.org
Jay Banjade is the Associate Director of the Economic Opportunities Office at Save the Children US, which focuses on microfinance, business development services and youth employment. Jay has been participating in SEEP’s activities since 1998 serving as an active member of the Poverty Outreach Working Group and making presentations at AGMs. Jay brings a considerable amount of knowledge and experience on governance and board development of non-profit organizations. He has developed manuals and training packages on board development for microfinance institutions, and trains senior management and trustees of MFIs on these packages. Jay has over 20 years of experience in micro and small enterprise development, sustainability strategies for development organizations, and institution building. Prior to Save the Children, Mr. Banjade worked for GTZ (German Agency for Technical Assistance) as a Senior Advisor, and for NCBA as the Chief of Party of an enterprise development project in Nepal. He also founded a consulting business and taught at the university level. He has been on the board five non-profit organizations and microfinance institutions. Currently, he serves as a board member of AzeriStar Microfinance Program, Azerbaijan, and Radio Dovaan, Washington DC. Mr. Banjade’s recent publications on microenterprise development include Mergers in Microfinance, Seven Killers of Microfinance, Facts for Economic Life: A Guide to Develop Earning Capacity of Micro Entrepreneurs in the Third World Economies, Reaching the Poorest Becomes Ever More Important and Social Enterprise Formation: Lessons From the Field.
Leslie Barcus (Secretary)
The Microfinance Management Institutec/o The Open Society Institute (OSI)
1120 19th Street, NW, 8th Floor
Washington, DC 20036
(202) 721-5631
lbarcus@themfmi.org
Ms. Leslie Barcus is the President of the Microfinance Management Institute (MFMI). The MFMI was co-founded in July 2003 by the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP), a secretariat of the World Bank, and the Open Society Institute (OSI), New York. The mission of the MFMI is to advance management capacity in the global microfinance sector, leveraging the respective experience of its founders in microfinance and educational networks. The primary project of the MFMI is “Microfinance in MBA Programs.” Through this project, the MFMI works with leading graduate management schools in developing countries and emerging market to bring the study of microfinance management to MBA, management and entrepreneurship programs. Leslie worked for CGAP from May 2001 to November 2003 to provide support to CGAP’s capacity-building initiatives for microfinance institutions. Prior to joining CGAP, Ms. Barcus was the Director of Lending at ACCION New York, an associate microfinance institution of ACCION USA and ACCION International. During her 20 year career, she has worked in small business development training, in corporate banking for Citibank, and as a consultant on a variety of economic development projects.
Robert Annibale
Citi MicrofinanceCitigroup Center
33 Canada Square
London E14 5LB
+44 2079 866380
robert.annibale@citigroup.com
Bob Annibale is Global Director of Citi Microfinance. He leads Citi’s commercial relationships with microfinance institutions, on a multi-business and multi-product basis, providing financing and product partnerships to institutions that serve the poor and the unbanked.
He joined Citibank in 1982. After a first assignment in Athens, he held a number of senior treasury, risk and corporate positions in Citigroup in Bahrain, Kenya, London and New York. Before establishing the Citi Microfinance Group, Bob’s last position was Citigroup’s Senior Treasury Risk Officer.
Bob serves on the Board of Advisors for the United Nations High Level Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor. He represents Citi on the Board of the Microfinance Information Exchange, on Council of Microfinance Equity Funds and on the Steering Committee of the Microfinance Network. He also serves on a number of external boards and councils, including the University of London, Institute of Commonwealth Studies and Goldsmiths College and the University of Oxford’s St. Anthony’s College (Centre for the Study of African Economies).
He was born in New York, completed his BA degrees in History and Political Science at Vassar College and his Masters Degree in African Studies (History) at the University of London, School of Oriental and African Studies, and lives in London.
Deborah Drake
ACCION International56 Roland Street, Suite 300
Boston, MA 02129
(617) 625-7020
ddrake@accion.org
Deborah Drake has worked with ACCION International since 1990. She currently manages 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 and for which ACCION International serves as Council Coordinator. The Council spearheads the advancement of the field of equity investment in MFIs through research projects, publications and biannual meetings. For many years, she managed the Financial Management Unit, a specialized unit dedicated to gathering and analyzing data to improve financial transparency and establish international standards of financial performance for microfinance institutions, including the application of the ACCION CAMEL evaluation instrument.
Ms. Drake leads ACCION’s efforts in investment policy including the development and provision of investment readiness training and strategy to MFIs. She is the co-facilitator of the SEEP Working Group on Investment Readiness, which is comprised of major networks and industry participants involved in transformation, governance of and supply of capital to MFIs.
Ms. Drake is the co-editor of The Commercialization of Microfinance: Balancing Business and Development and the co-author of Alchemists for the Poor: NGOs as Financial Institutions. Her previous roles at ACCION have included Special Assistant to the President of ACCION International and a senior director in ACCION’s Capital Markets Department. Before joining ACCION International, Ms. Drake was a banking specialist in the Financial Policy and Systems Division of the World Bank and a commercial banker in Washington, DC. She chairs the board of Root Capital; a Cambridge, MA- based non-profit which provides loan capital to support low-income communities whose business activities foster environmental conservation and grassroots economic development.
Edward Millard
Rainforest Alliance665 Broadway, Suite 500
New York, NY 10012
+44 1865 722062
emillard@ra.org
Edward Millard is currently the Senior Manager of Sustainable Landscapes at Rainforest Alliance UK. He previously was the Senior Enterprise Advisor at Conservation International (CI), where he manages a technical team that supports partners in tropical countries to develop businesses that contribute to biodiversity conservation. He worked for CI from 1995-96 as enterprise manager in Guatemala and Peru before moving to the enterprise development department in Washington, DC where he has a key role in managing CI’s relations with private sector partners. He represents CI in SEEP’s BDS Working Group and has contributed papers for the guide on BDS and the Environment and BDS and Fair Trade. Mr. Millard has 25 years of experience in small business development, providing and facilitating training, technical assistance and market development to craft and food businesses in Africa, Asia and Latin America. He worked from 1981 to 1995 with Oxfam Fair Trade in England, establishing its Latin America department and later its food products division. In 1991 he became a founder director of Cafédirect, Britain’s leading fair trade company. He was Chair of the Crafts Center board until 2003. Mr. Millard has published three books, Financial Management of a Small Handicraft Business (1987), Export Marketing for a Small Handicraft Business (2nd edition, 1996), and Business Planning for Environmental Enterprises (2003). He has a bachelor’s degree in European Studies, and postgraduate diplomas in Financial Management from the Association of Certified Accountants and in Marketing, from the Chartered Institute of Marketing.
Dan Norell
World Vision Inc.300 I Street, NE
Washington, DC 20002
(202) 572-6300
(202) 572-6480
dnorell@worldvision.org
Dan Norell of World Vision has worked 14 years in international development with an additional 10 years in domestic refugee resettlement. Dan is the Team Leader for Microenterprise Development for World Vision US including supervising Microenterprise Development Officers who provide technical assistance to local Microenterprise Development programs as well as leading a multi-regional team to determine strategy, funding priorities, and new initiatives for World Vision US. Among his accomplishments, is his role as facilitator to establish two country level MF networks, the Zimbabwe Association of Microfinance Institutions (ZAMFI) and the Association of Ethiopian Microfinance Institutions (AEMFI). Dan has an MBA and a Master’s Degree in Social Work. Dan was first elected to the board in October 2004.
Timothy Nourse
Academy for Educational Development1825 Connecticut Ave., NW
Washington, DC 20009
(202) 884-8271
tnourse@aed.org
Tim has been implementing and supporting microenterprise development programs for more than ten years in Africa, the Middle East and Europe. Tim began his career with Catholic Relief Services, working mostly in developing countries to build the capacity of local microfinance institutions. However, his work soon took him to more conflict affected countries, including Bosnia, Croatia, the West Bank and Gaza, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Sri Lanka and Liberia. From 2002-2006, Tim led American Refugee Committee’s (ARC) Microenterprise Development programs that provide microfinance and market development services to conflict affected entrepreneurs in East and West Africa. With ARC, he pioneered approaches to providing cross-border microfinance services, utilizing for-profit structures to advance microfinance in conflict environments, introduced market led livelihoods programs as part of reconstruction efforts, and developing support programs for vulnerable clients to help them qualify for microfinance loans. Recently, Tim moved to the Academy for Educational Development (AED) to work as their Microfinance and Enterprise Development Specialist on the USAID supported Field Support program and now advises programs in Afghanistan, Palestine and other fragile states. Besides his direct programmatic work, Tim has taught at the University of Southern New Hampshire’s Summer Institute and published papers on Microfinance and Market Development in Challenging Environments with USAID, UNCDF, the Journal of Humanitarian Practice and the Forced Migration Review.
William Tucker
The SEEP Network1825 Connecticut Ave, NW
Washington, DC 20009
(202) 884-8393
tucker@seepnetwork.org
Bill has over 30 years of microfinance experience and has worked in over 40 developing countries. For 26 years he lived in Colombia, Peru, Bolivia and Egypt. Prior to joining SEEP, he held the position of Director of Program Development at the National Cooperative Business Association (NCBA). From 1999 to 2004 he was NCBA’s Chief of Party for USAID’s microcredit program in Egypt, where he directed program growth from approximately 200 loans per day to over 1,500 micro-loans per day, generating an annual lending volume of a quarter of a billion US dollars, holding non-performing loans to under two percent. During this same period, the percentage of loans to women increased from less than 15 percent of total loans to more than half of all disbursed loans each month. He also directed the introduction of micro-lending into Banque du Caire (96 branches in 24 months – 80 new micro-lending branches created, all bank-funded).
From 1994-1999, Bill was President of Community Finance Incorporated where he designed a best practice training course titled GOALS, taught for USAID, the IDB, the World Bank and other local and international organizations in 20 countries to banks, audit firms, Central Banks, and Supervisory agencies. From 1989-1994 he worked for the World Council of Credit Unions (WOCCU) in Bolivia, where he was Chief of Party of USAID’s microcredit program. It was under this project – managed within USAID under the leadership of Richard Rosenberg – that PRODEM converted to BancoSol and the local credit unions voted – for the first time ever – to fall under the supervision of the local bank Superintendency. Prior to his work with WOCCU, Bill worked with the Calmeadow Foundation to assist the lead international investor in developing the financial projections for what was to become BancoSol. Prior to this, Bill worked for ACCION International from 1977-1987, where he developed its microenterprise program with the Carvajal Foundation in Colombia. At ACCION, he also created the first micro-lending program to generate a profit in Latin America (Progreso in Peru – later converted to Mibanco).
Bill holds an MBA from George Washington University and an BS in International Business from Syracuse University. He has been an instructor for several years at the “Boulder” Microfinance Training held in Colorado and Italy, and he has been a presenter at multiple international events. He speaks English, Spanish and – according to his gracious and ever-forgiving Middle Eastern colleagues – a certain amount of Arabic.