Speakers

The Microfinance Club has assembled an outstanding group of speakers who will appear at this years conference, each representing a unique perspective on issues concerning microfinance. Additional speakers will be announced each week; check back on this page for more details.

Audrey Choi, Morgan Stanley

Keynote

Audrey Choi is Managing Director and Head of Morgan Stanley's Environment, Social Finance & Community Reinvestment Group, directly overseeing the Firm’s microfinance franchise and engagement in other sustainability-related sectors. Prior to joining Morgan Stanley, Audrey held a variety of positions in the public and private sectors. She served in the Clinton-Gore Administration in senior policy positions at the Federal Communications Commission, the Commerce Department, and the White House. In the White House, she was Chief of Staff of the Council of Economic Advisers and Domestic Policy Advisor to the Vice President. Prior to her government service, Audrey was a bureau chief, foreign correspondent, and investigative reporter for The Wall Street Journal. Audrey also led organizational strategy for a private equity portfolio company. Audrey serves on the boards of the International Association of Microfinance Investors (IAMFI) and Living Cities as well as on the National Leadership Council of Communities In Schools. She is also Ambassador-at-Large for the international non-profit One Laptop per Child. She was a Fulbright Scholar and White House Fellow, and is currently a David Rockefeller Fellow. Audrey earned an MBA with high distinction from Harvard Business School and graduated from Harvard College.

Rupert Scofield, FINCA International

Keynote

Rupert Scofield, is FINCA International’s President and CEO. He is an agricultural economist with 30 years of experience in the developing countries of Africa, Latin America, Eurasia, and the Greater Middle East. Mr. Scofield co-founded FINCA in 1984 with John Hatch and has served as its President and CEO since 1994. Under his leadership, FINCA has grown from 60,000 clients and a loan portfolio of $5 million to a true global presence with over 700,000 clients across five continents and a loan portfolio of more than $300 million. Mr. Scofield has expanded FINCA's commitment to serve populations in the most need by advancing FINCA's presence in Africa and leading FINCA's entry into Eurasia and the Middle East. Mr. Scofield is a practitioner at heart and remains actively involved in the management of FINCA’s network of 21 wholly-owned subsidiaries, consistently guiding each program toward self-sufficiency.  As an Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service and a frequent keynote speaker, Mr. Scofield seeks to inspire the next generation of microfinance leaders. Prior to FINCA, Mr. Scofield served as the CEO of Rural Development Services, a consulting firm, and as country program director of the AFL-CIO’s Labor Program in El Salvador.  He earned two Master of Arts degrees in agricultural economics and public administration from the University of Wisconsin as well as a Bachelor of Arts degree from Brown University, and served in the Peace Corps in Guatemala. Mr. Scofield is fluent in English and Spanish.

Bryan T. Wagner (Morgan Stanley)

Panelist

Bryan T. Wagner is responsible for microfinance coverage as a member of Morgan Stanley's Environment, Social Finance and Community Reinvestment Group. Wagner has six years of experience with the firm, mostly spent as a member of the Latin America Investment Banking Group in New York and Buenos Aires. He has recently worked on a variety of financing and advisory mandates, including CARE's sale of EDYFICAR to BCP and a pro-bono advisory assignment for Grameen America. Prior to Morgan Stanley, he was a loan consultant for ACCION New York and worked with ACCION International on the transformation of PADME (Benin MFI).  Wagner is currently vice chair of the ACCION USA Microfinance Council, a group of over 190 members he helped co-found in 2007. He holds an MBA from the Harvard Business School and a MPA in international development.

Mark Narron (Assistant Vice President, Deutsche Bank)

Panelist

Mr. Narron is an Assistant Vice President within Deutsche Bank’s Community Development Finance Group, mandated to make investments globally that have both a financial and social return in areas including microfinance, affordable housing, health, and education. He supports the Bank’s management of funds for microfinance, currently the Global Commercial Microfinance Consortium, db Microfinance Invest Number 1 GmbH, the Deutsche Bank Microcredit Development Fund, the Deutsche Bank Start-up Fund and the FINCA Microfinance Fund B.V. He has special responsibility for relationships in Latin America and Eastern Europe and provides client services in Spanish and English. He joined Deutsche Bank in November, 2007. Prior to joining Deutsche Bank, Mr. Narron was Program Officer at the Soros Economic Development Fund, a private foundation established by George Soros to invest in microfinance and social enterprises. Narron also served as a Grants Officer at the Open Society Institute, where he sub-granted and monitored USAID and other federal funds in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. He received an MSc in International Relations from the London School of Economics and a B.A. in English from McGill University.

Hanadi Toutonji (Program Manager, UNCDF)

Panelist

Hanadi Toutonji Joined UNCDF as Program Manager in 2009. She is responsible for supporting the Financial Inclusion Practice Area (FIPA) strategy to promote access to financial services and the development of inclusive financial sectors in the Least Developed Countries. Ms. Toutonji is responsible for Knowledge Management, and providing support in portfolio monitoring, business planning, resource allocation, and monitoring the implementation of key activities under FIPA’s action plan. She has more than twelve years experience in microfinance including rating, market assessment, training, and MFI management. She has Microfinance related work experience in Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Yemen, India, Pakistan, Indonesia, Mali, Benin , Senegal, and Haiti.

Nathanael Goldberg (Financial Inclusion Director, Innovations for Poverty Action)

Nathanael Goldberg is Financial Inclusion Director at Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA), a non-profit that creates, evaluates, and replicates innovative solutions to development problems.  He manages two multi-country research initiatives for financial inclusion in the developing world: evaluations of microfinance “graduation” pilots to enable participation of the poorest households in entrepreneurship; and microfinance interest-rate sensitivity studies to investigate how pricing affects poor borrowers. Previously he was chief of staff of the Microcredit Summit Campaign; he supervised industry data collection and organized major conferences.  Nathanael authored several publications including: “Measuring the Impact of Microfinance: Taking Stock of What We Know,” for Grameen Foundation USA.  He has a B.A. in economics from Wesleyan and a MPA in International Development from Princeton's Woodrow Wilson School.

Betsy Teutsch (Communications Director, Green Microfinance)

Betsy Teutsch, a Philadelphia sustainability activist, serves as Director of Communications for GreenMicrofinance.org whose mission is to utilize microfinance to deliver distributed eco-smart solutions to the interlocking challenges of agriculture, water, and energy for the bottom of the pyramid.

Lara Storm-Swire (Relationship Manager, Pro Mujer)

Lara Storm Swire, Manager of Client and Market Research, is a key contributor to Pro Mujer’s Product Development and Analysis team. Lara works closely with Pro Mujer management and staff in-country to develop, implement and improve the research tools necessary to deepen our understanding of the clients we serve and the markets in which we operate. Her work also contributes to new product development, cross learning, documentation and dissemination of Pro Mujer best practices and expansion to new countries. Prior to joining Pro Mujer, Lara 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. Lara holds a Master’s degree in International Affairs from Columbia University and a B.A. in Spanish and Geography from the University of California, Davis.

Ron Dadina (Chief Credit Officer, Minlam Asset Management)

Ron Dadina is the Chief Credit Officer for Minlam Asset Management. Mr. Dadina has over 20 years of emerging market credit and debt financing experience. Prior to joining Minlam, Mr. Dadina worked as a Managing Director in the International Debt Capital Markets group at Bear Stearns where he was responsible for the origination and execution of a wide range of debt financings for emerging market issuers. Mr. Dadina served as a Vice-President at Fitch Ratings from 1994 to 1999, where he managed the ratings process for emerging market bank and corporate transactions, as well as project finance, future flow and asset backed transactions. Mr. Dadina has analyzed, structured and closed deals in more than 20 countries across various regions of the globe.

Peter Bremberg (Manager, IFMR Trust)

Peter Bremberg graduate from Franciscan University of Steubenville in 2006, after which he worked for Bear Sterns for two years. Currently he is a managing director at IMFR Trust. Bremberg works heads a team that helps microfinance institutions to raise the money they need to give out loans, linking them with investors and banks in India. The microfinance institutions in turn help millions of low-income families.

Christian Ruehmer (Founder and President & Founding Partner, Perfect Point Partners/Horizonte Ushpa Ushpa)

Panelist

Christian Ruehmer, has been working in banking risk management, treasury and operations since 1991. Currently, he is the Managing Director of West Lb bank in New York, where he heads the Investment Management Unit / Credit Investment Group.Mr. Ruehmer has been very active as a consultant in microfinance since 2001, developing costing and risk management tools adapted to microfinance institutions (MFIs). In 2005, he founded Perfect Point Partners SRL, a consultant firm based in Bolivia and specialized in costing, efficiency and risk management. Thus far, the company has worked with more than 50 microfinance institutions in 15 countries of Latin America, Eastern Europe, Africa and Asia.

John Wilson (Analyst, Frontier Investments)

Panelist

John is responsible for evaluating new investment opportunities and helping to develop the Frontier Investments Group marketing and growth plans. Frontier Investments is a hands-on equity partner that invests in early-stage, post-revenue, companies that have moved beyond the “seed” stage. Frontier Investments invests in three sectors that promise to revolutionize microfinance: technology, distribution, and new products. Prior to joining ACCION, John was an Associate at ClearLight Partners, a middle market private equity firm. He evaluated acquisition opportunities and managed relationships with portfolio companies. Previously he worked at Bain & Company, focusing on growth strategy and acquisition projects with numerous technology and private equity clients. John graduated from UC Berkeley, majoring in Business, Economics, and Political Science. 

Gretell Merlo (Relationship Manager for South America, Developing World Markets)

Ms. Gretell Merlo joined DWM in February 2009. As Relationship Manager for South America, Ms. Merlo is responsible for origination and financing of debt transactions in the region. Prior to joining DWM, Ms. Merlo worked at FINCA International Capital Markets team, where she supported the funding of FINCA affiliates and worked on multiple financing projects. She also spent over three years as a Financial Analyst at J.P. Morgan Investment Banking and Commercial Banking Divisions. Her roles at J.P. Morgan included Debt Capital Markets and Corporate Banking origination for clients in Latin America and the US South Region, respectively. Ms. Merlo received her BBA from the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas in Austin. She speaks Spanish fluently and is learning Armenian.

Katie Mckee (Senior Advisor, CGAP)

Kate joined CGAP in September 2006 as a senior advisor for Policy, Outreach, and Aid Effectiveness and she is currently acting director of the Savings Team. Prior to joining CGAP, Kate served as director of the Microenterprise Development Office at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). She is a development economist, with a master’s degree in public and international affairs from the Woodrow Wilson School of Princeton University.

Michaela Walsh (Founder and Board member, WWB)

Michaela Walsh was a member of the Founding Committee of WWB, and served as the organization's Founding President from 1975 to 1990. Prior to that, Ms. Walsh served as a Project Director for the U.S. Congressional Office of Technology Assessment, and as a Program Associate with the Rockefeller Brothers Fund. Ms. Walsh subsequently founded the Global Student Leadership and Enterprise Management at Manhattanville College. She was the first woman partner of Boettcher & Company, and the first woman manager of Merrill Lynch International. Ms. Walsh serves on the boards of several organizations, and has been a member of the WWB Board of Trustees since its inception in 1979.

Thomas Brunner (Partner, Wiley Rein LLP)

Panelist

Thomas Brunner, named by Legal Times as a "Leading Insurance Lawyer," serves as chairman emeritus of Wiley Rein's 40-attorney Insurance Practice.   Active in coverage litigation for insurers for more than 30 years, he counsels insurance industry clients in major trial and appellate cases.  Mr. Brunner's practice focuses on emerging insurance issues, such as privacy, punitive damages, Y2K, asbestos, mass tort, pharmaceutical, product liability and toxic tort claims.  He was founding counsel for several industry groups, including Complex Insurance Claims Litigation Association (CICLA), and Insurers Technology Litigation Roundtable. He is the chief insurance counsel for LeapFrog Investments, a Bermuda-domiciled social investment fund supporting microinsurance projects for low -income individuals in developing countries.

Estelle Berger (Director of Knowledge Management, Opportunity International)

Panelist

Estelle Berger is Director of Knowledge Management at Opportunity International. She develops and manages Opportunity’s knowledge strategy for technological, operational, and market innovations for microfinance. Estelle has led learning efforts in areas such as mobile phone banking, water and sanitation, girls’ education, and risk management. She has worked in microfinance for six years and was CFO of Opportunity’s Micro Insurance Agency (now MicroEnsure). She also served as acting CEO for MicroEnsure’s pilot agency in Uganda. Estelle is a CPA and holds degrees from Princeton University, the University of Chicago, and the University of Illinois.

Rajesh Jayaraman (CTO, Oflows)

Rajesh Jayaraman is currently the CTO at oFlows, an origination workflow software that aims to make the process of applying for financial products easy and efficient for small and mid-size financial institutions. Previously, he headed technology for Zopa, a pioneer in social finance, where he was instrumental in building out the technology for Zopa's US operations. Prior to Zopa, Rajesh held multiple engineering and product management positions at Yodlee, a leading provider of online financial services software products where he led the building of their online money transfer and account verification product and at Infosys Technologies, a global technology consulting firm, where he developed billing systems for telecom clients. Rajesh has obtained a Bachelor's degree in Engineering with distinction from National Institute of Technology.

Alberto J. Jimenez (Mobile Banking for SMEs, IBM Global Business Services)

Alberto Jimenez has experience in banking strategy and business development work, consulting and as a corporate practitioner. He leads mobile banking and payment initiatives globally. He conducts advisory and implementation projects in South East Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America, for banking and telco clients. Previously, Mr. Jimenez was a strategy consultant with the Banking Industry for IBM Global Business Services.  He was involved in strategy and operations projects for banking organizations in the US, Western Europe and Latin America. Previously, he implemented equity research and business development for Prudential Securities. He has graduate degrees from Harvard and Emory.

Erica Dorn (Kiva and Volunteer Coordinator, Accion USA)

Erica Dorn served as the first domestic Kiva fellow at ACCION USA in New York City, where she now coordinates the Kiva and Volunteer programs. At ACCION USA she is working with University Microfinance clubs to bring ACCION USA’s products and financial education to microentrepreneurs nationwide. Her work founding a non-profit to aid redevelopment in New Orleans introduced her to the field of Microfinance. She holds a B.A. in Spanish and International Studies from Colorado State University. Find her on twitter @eldorn or email her at edorn@accionusa.org.  

Professor Keith Weigelt of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania

Keith Weigelt is the Rebecca and Morris Marks Professor of Strategy at The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. He is the course head of Management 653 – Field Application Project. The class is one of applied strategy and is taken by over 120 MBAs each year. Keith is a game theorist and his teaching focuses on the theory’s relevance to the business world. He is the recipient of Wharton School Excellence in Teaching Awards for both his negotiation and strategy classes.

Keith has worked with a wide range of organizations in developing strategies including, IBM, GM, Boeing, Verizon, Ethicon, The Gap, ESPN, Hartford Life, Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the UN. He also counsels upper level managers as a strategy advisor. He is an expert in the growing micro-credit market working on projects in both the retail and wholesale markets for organizations such as FINCA and Women’s World Banking.

Professor Weigelt has published numerous articles in management and economics journals. He is the co-author of Managerial Economics (sixth edition) a book that is the category leader in the global education market. His articles have also appeared in several books and the popular press. Professor Weigelt is presently finishing a book on “making strategy”.

Dr. Geoff R. Archer (Associate Professor, Royal Roads University)

Dr. Geoffrey R. Archer is an Associate Professor on the faculty of Management at Royal Roads University. Immediately prior to entering academia, he worked as an intrapreneur, starting businesses inside of ExxonMobil, Hewlett-Packard and Yahoo!, Inc. Much of this work is centered on his true passion - understanding how value creation opportunities relate to the natural world - Environmental Entrepreneurship. Current projects include a forthcoming book on Environmental Entrepreneurship and academic journal articles on microfinance, cleantech venture capital, and appropriate technology. His dissertation at the University of Virginia concerns the growing international development phenomenon of green microfinance. 

Professor Andrew Lamas of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania

Andrew T. Lamas is a Professor at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. A graduate of Davidson College in North Carolina, where he was elected a member of Phi Beta Kappa, Professor Lamas received his Masters degree in Economic Development from the University of London, and his J.D. degree from the Law School of the University of Pennsylvania. Professor Lamas has extensive consulting experience with employee-owned businesses, community development corporations, religious and cultural organizations, and alternative investment. He is Co-Director of a project that supports faculty and curriculum development at two new business schools in the Ukraine, and he is a founding Board Member of the Center for Community Self-Help (Durham, NC) and the Reinvestment Fund (Philadelphia, PA).

Professor Marjorie Margolies-Mezvinsky of the Fels Institute of Government

Marjorie Margolies is the Founder and President of the non-profit organization Women's Campaign International. This non-profit works in emerging democracies and post-conflict regions to help women to actively participate in public advocacy and political processes. She is a faculty member of Penn's Fels Institute of Government, teaching courses including "Women Leaders and Emerging Democracies". Ms. Margolies served as a Member of Congress for the 13th District of Pennsylvania, was Chair of the National Women’s Business Council, and led the US delegation to the UN's Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing. Ms. Margolies graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and was a CBS News Foundation Fellow at Columbia.

Nicholas Sullivan (Author of You Can Hear Me Now: How microloans and cell phones are connecting the world’s poor to the global economy)

Moderator

Nicholas P. Sullivan is the author of the book “You Can Hear Me Now: How Microloans and Cell Phones are Connecting the World's Poor to the Global Economy”. This book tells the story of Western-trained entrepreneur Iqbal Quadir, the driving force behind the creation of GrameenPhone, the largest Bangladeshi GSM (Global System for Mobile) cell-phone operation. Quadir had the idea of to help villagers attain micro-loans funded by foreign investors and then show villagers how to operate cell-phone leasing businesses. Sullivan refers to this successful business model as the "external combustion engine" because of its impressive multiplier effects on economic growth. This book has received much acclaim in the microfinance community.