Speakers

Bill Abrams

William M. Abrams is the President of the Trickle Up Program in New York. Mr. Abrams joined Trickle Up following a career as a senior executive and journalist for the New York Times, ABC News and The Wall Street Journal.

Mr. Abrams served as President of New York Times Television in November 2001 through January 2005. Under Mr. Abrams’ leadership, the documentary production company became an industry leader in the field of current affairs programming for cable and public television. Prior to joining the Times, Mr. Abrams was President of 1France.com, a website that provided information and travel services for tourists to France, and a new-business consultant for Discovery Communications Inc.

From 1993-1998, he was Vice President of Business Development for ABC News. There he founded and managed ABC News Productions, a leading producer of documentaries. From 1978 through 1985, Mr. Abrams was a staff reporter and editor for The Wall Street Journal.

He has served as an advisor to the Soho Partnership, a job-readiness program for the homeless in New York City; the Bowery Residents Committee, a New York agency that helps the homeless and others with limited resources; and the Partnership for a Drug-Free America, a national anti-drug advertising campaign.

Mr. Abrams has Master’s degrees, in journalism and business, from Columbia University, and a Bachelor’s degree from Tufts University.

Al Alper

Mr. Alper is President and Operating Officer of People Capital, responsible for day-to-day oversight as well as fund and capital raising. Al joined People Capital following a string of successful ventures including the first online asset-based lending facility commercially available to small and medium business across the United States and Canada.

Over the course of his 20+ year career, Mr. Alper’s successes in the financial technology sector, and experience in planning, building and executing progressive IT solutions has made him a recognized expert in his field. Al holds a BA from Barnard M Baruch College, where he was awarded the National Deans' List honor for four consecutive years, an MA from Adelphi University and completed most of his MBA Barnard M Baruch College before leaving to launch his first company.

Bob A. Annibale

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. Bob 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.

Bob has served on a number of external boards and councils, including the Board of Advisors for the United Nations Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor. He is currently serving on the University of London, Institute of Commonwealth Studies and the University of Oxford’s, St. Anthony’s College (Centre for the Study of African Economies).

Bob also represents Citi on the Board of the Microfinance Information Exchange, the Council of Microfinance Equity Funds, the SEEP Network, the Microfinance Network and the Executive Committee of CGAP (World Bank).

Jeffrey Ashe

Jeffrey Ashe is the Director of Community Finance at Oxfam America where he and his team have launched Saving for Change. Saving for Change uses a unique microfinance methodology that starts with savings mobilized and administered through small independent groups rather than loans provided through microfinance institutions. Building on the 180,038 villagers previously organized into savings and lending groups, Oxfam America received a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to build SfC to 550,000 villagers, carry out extensive research and introduce the model to Latin America.

Prior to coming to Oxfam, Jeffrey Ashe founded Working Capital and served as its Executive Director. Working Capital was for several years the largest microfinance initiative in the United States and franchised its model in eight states and Russia. Working Capital received the first Presidential Award for Excellence for microfinance from President Clinton at a celebration at the White House.

As Senior Associate Director at ACCION International, Mr. Ashe was Director of the "PISCES Project," the first worldwide investigation of programs reaching the smallest economic activities of the poor. In the early 1980s PISCES laid the groundwork for the best practice work in microfinance design and implementation as he assisted in the dissemination of peer group lending throughout Latin America. After he left ACCION, Mr. Ashe designed, assisted and evaluated microfinance programs in thirty-five countries in Asia, Africa, Latin America and Eastern Europe.

Mr. Ashe has published extensively in the micro-enterprise field and is the author of several books and articles on the topic. He also teaches microfinance at Brandeis and Columbia Universities. He holds a BA in Political Science from the University of California, Berkley, and an MA in Sociology from Boston University.

Janie Barrera

Janie Barrera is founding president and chief executive officer of ACCION Texas-Louisiana. Created in 1994, ACCION Texas-Louisiana has become the largest nonprofit micro-lending organization in the United States. The agency provides small loans and management training to micro-enterprises throughout Texas and Louisiana. With an active portfolio of more than $20 million, ACCION Texas-Louisiana has lent nearly $75 million to more than 9,300 people during the last 15 years.

As president and CEO, Ms. Barrera is responsible for the organization’s financial management, oversight of its annual budget and the development of methodology and loan delivery procedures. She has received recognition for her accomplishments, including the Small Business Administration Financial Services Advocate of the Year and the Minority Enterprise Development Consortium's Corporate Advocate of the Year. San Antonio Business Journal listed Ms. Barrera as one of “Twenty Defining Players: People.

Who Have Helped Shape the City.” She also has served on many national, state and local boards, including the Federal Reserve Board’s National Consumer Advisory Council. In December 2008, American Banker presented her with the Innovator Award in New York City.

Ms. Barrera began her career as director of telecommunications for the Diocese of Corpus Christi in 1977. There, she helped found the area's first nonprofit radio stations, KLUX and KHOY, as well as two television production studios. After completing her MBA from Incarnate Word College, the Corpus Christi native remained in San Antonio where, in 1989, she became marketing director for the U.S. Air Force Morale, Welfare and Recreation Division headquartered at Randolph Air Force Base.

Peter Bladin

Peter Bladin is Executive Vice President of Programs and Regions at Grameen Foundation and the Founding Director of the Grameen Technology Center. Under his helm, the Technology Center led the microfinance industry in driving relevant and appropriate technology innovation. They are leading experts in ICT for development initiatives that benefit people living at the “bottom of the pyramid”. Peter was a founding member of the MTN-Village Phone board, the first public-private partnership to extend telecommunications access to the rural poor. He is a frequent speaker at international telecommunication and microfinance conferences, and is an Executive Board Member of the International Telecommunications Union Connect the World initiative. Peter is also actively involved with various Seattle-based non-profits, including Global Partnerships and Social Venture Partners. Prior to Grameen Foundation, Peter worked for over 10 years for Microsoft managing various projects and departments during his tenure. Peter has a degree in Mathematics from the University of Uppsala, Sweden

Jonathan Brereton

Jonathan became ACCION Chicago’s Chief Executive and Lending Officer in 2004. Taking the day-to-day reigns of the organization at a tumultuous time in its history, he helped ACCION establish new loan processes and hire all new staff to continue serving struggling microentrepreneurs in Chicago. He worked closely with the organization’s Board of Directors and donors to restructure its balance sheet, increase participation and develop new controls, leading to a more than 400% increase in mission outcomes.

Jonathan joined ACCION in 2000 as an Americorps VISTA. He rapidly assumed greater responsibility, first as Director of Operations from 2001 to 2003, then as Chief Operating Officer from 2003 to 2004. He first became involved with microfinance through volunteer work in Haiti while a student at Wheaton College, where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in business and economics.

Jonathan is the recipient of the 2009 Illinois District U.S. Small Business Administration’s Financial Services Advocate of the Year Award and has represented ACCION in the Chicago Tribune, on WTTW, in Crain’s Chicago Business, and on the Business Matters Radio Show.

Maya Chorengel

Maya Chorengel is a co-Founder and Managing Director of Elevar Equity, a leading global growth investor that provides equity capital to microfinance institutions and other companies focused on the underserved four billion at the base of the economic pyramid. Prior to co-founding Elevar, she was the Managing Director of the Dignity Fund, a private investment fund that provides local currency debt financing to high-growth microfinance institutions in Asia, Latin America, Africa and Eastern Europe. Maya grew up in Asia, has long been active in international investing and is passionate about commercially viable, bottom up solutions to development challenges. Before engaging in microfinance investing, Maya was a Vice President of Warburg Pincus, a leading, global private equity firm, working in WP’s New York, Hong Kong and Menlo Park offices. She invested in a variety of companies (IT/business services, consumer packaged goods, food production and manufacturing) spanning venture capital to leveraged buyouts to post-Asian-crisis balance sheet restructurings. She also previously worked as an investment banker at Morgan Stanley and James D. Wolfensohn, Incorporated. Maya is a Director of Comat Technologies, Dignity Fund, Silicon Valley Microfinance Network and Wokai and serves as an advisor to Water.org and MicroCredit Enterprises. Maya graduated with Honors in Social Studies from Harvard University and has an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Bhagwan Chowdhry

Bhagwan Chowdhry is a Professor of Finance at UCLA Anderson where he has held an appointment since 1988. He received his Ph.D. in 1989 from the Graduate School of Business at the University of Chicago. He also has an M.B.A. in Finance from the University of Iowa and a B.Tech. in Mechanical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology.

Professor Chowdhry’s research interests are in International Finance and Corporate Finance and Strategy. He teaches International Finance, Corporate Finance and Financial Institutions at Anderson. He has also organized and taught Executive Education programs on Financial Derivatives, Corporate Risk Management and Valuation in Los Angeles, Singapore, Hong Kong, Mumbai, and Hyderabad.

Microfinance has been his recent teaching, research and applied interest. He has supervised several MBA student projects in Microfinance in the last several years and has taught an undergraduate seminar class and an MBA elective on the subject. He has developed a new model for "Franchising Microfinance" on which he has written a research paper and is studying the feasibility of implementing the model with a Microfinance Institution.

Professor Chowdhry has recently proposed a Financial Access at Birth (FAB) Campaign in which every child born in the world is given an initial deposit of $100 in an online bank account to guarantee that everyone in the world will have access to financial services in a few decades. You can read about the campaign at www.FABcampaign.org..

Stephanie Cohn

Stephanie is a Manager, Investments at Omidyar Network, where she leads the organization's Property Rights investment area and invests in Microfinance. In Microfinance, she focuses on investments that improve infrastructure by expanding networks, enabling the sharing of credit information, and mitigating foreign exchange risks. Stephanie’s portfolio includes the Rural Development Institute (RDI), the SEEP Network, MFX Solutions, Microfinance Information eXchange (MIX), Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP), and Sa-Dhan. Stephanie is a board member for MFX Solutions and board observer for RDI, MIX, and the SEEP Network.

Stephanie came to Omidyar Network after serving as a senior investment officer at Planet Finance, where she originated loans to microfinance institutions and advised socially responsible investors. Previously, Stephanie specialized in fixed income deals at UBS Investment Bank in New York City and London. She also focused on microfinance for ACDI/VOCA, where she coordinated USAID-funded microfinance programs in Central Asia and Russia. In addition, she contributed to education infrastructure projects based in sub-Saharan Africa for the World Bank and UNESCO. Stephanie earned an MPA from Harvard's Kennedy School of Government where she specialized in Trade and Finance, an MS in comparative government from the London School of Economics, and a BS from the University of Bristol, England in philosophy and politics.
 

Eleni Constantine

Eleni Constantine is the Director of the Financial Security Portfolio within the Pew Health Group, a newly created position at Pew which she assumed in June 2009. In that position she is responsible for a group of Pew projects aimed at helping improve Americans’ financial well being by removing hidden risks and unfair practices in consumer financial products and giving individuals the tools and access they need to better manage their financial matters. Prior to working at Pew, she was the General Counsel of the Joint Economic Committee in the 111th Congress, and was Staff Director of the Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit in the 110th Congress, in which position she played a key role in passage of the Credit CARD Act of 2008 and the Foreign Investment and National Security Act of 2007. Ms Constantine served in the Treasury Department as Deputy Assistant General Counsel for Banking and Finance under Treasury Secretaries Rubin and Summers, and worked as Associate General Counsel at the NASDAQ Stock Market. A member of the D.C. Bar, she holds a J.D. from Harvard Law School and a B.A. from Harvard University.

Alex Dang

Alex Dang is Founder/Director of US Microfinance Brigades and Midwest Regional Advisor for Global Brigades. Global Brigades is a young non-profit organization that mobilizes student volunteers and professionals to empower communities in developing countries with programs that improve quality of life while respecting local culture. As the first domestic program for Global Brigades, US Microfinance Brigades empowers university students to provide technical assistance and financing for underserved small businesses in their own communities. As the Director of US Microfinance Brigades, Alex oversees program and lending-partner development. Alex was among the first group of brigade students to join Global Brigades as volunteer advisors to develop the incubation program. In his day job, Alex is Business Development Officer at Opportunity Fund. Prior to joining Opportunity Fund, Alex served as an Americorp VISTA at ACCION USA.

Erica Dorn

As the Volunteer Partnerships Manager at ACCION USA, Erica is developing a program to collaborate with Campus Microfinance clubs nationwide. Her work is targeted at bringing access to microloans and Financial Education to entrepreneurs in the U.S. by harnessing the capacity and leadership of students. In 2006, Erica founded a community organization based in Brooklyn that aided redevelopment in New Orleans; it was through this project that she found her passion for localized development initiatives. Following her interest in Domestic Microfinance she served as Kiva’s first U.S. based fellow at ACCION USA in New York City. Erica holds a B.A. in Spanish and International Studies from Colorado State University. Find her on twitter @eldorn.


 

Martin Eakes

Mr. Eakes co-founded Self-Help, a community development lender and credit union, in 1980. Self-Help has provided $5.6 billion in financing to more than 64,000 homebuyers, small businesses and nonprofits and serves approximately 65,000 mostly low-income families through 17 retail credit union branches. Self-Help reaches people who are underserved by conventional financial institutions—particularly persons of color, women, rural residents, and low-wealth families. Mr. Eakes holds a law degree from Yale, a Master's from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public Affairs at Princeton, and a BA from Davidson College. He is a nationally recognized expert on development finance and has been honored by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation as a MacArthur Fellow and by the Opportunity Finance Network, which presented him with the Ned Gramlich Lifetime Achievement Award for Responsible Lending.

In 1998, Eakes helped form the Coalition for Responsible Lending, a group of 120 financial institution CEOs and organizations representing 3 million North Carolina citizens opposing predatory lending practices in NC and nationally. The work of the Coalition resulted in the nation’s first anti-predatory mortgage lending law being enacted in the state of North Carolina in 1999. This work led to the creation of Self-Help affiliate the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL), dedicated to protecting home ownership and family wealth. With staff in North Carolina, Washington, D.C. and Oakland, CA, CRL has helped American families save more than 4 billion dollars annually.

Jessica Falk

Jessica Falk is a Program Analyst at the U.S. Department of Commerce Economic Development Administration in the Austin Regional Office, where she has led efforts to assess economic impacts of Hurricane Ike on businesses and communities and to identify projects to assist the region in recovering from natural disasters. Jessica is actively engaged in program policy, research and evaluation for the regional office, including identifying EDA partners that provide access to capital and other assistance for small and medium sized enterprises.

Prior to joining EDA, Jessica worked as an attorney for the Citizens Utility Board, a non-profit organization specializing in public utility law and policy, and as an attorney for a private law firm in Chicago. She holds a B.A. from the University of Illinois, a J.D. from the University of Michigan and a Masters in Social Service Administration from the University of Chicago.
 

Amanda Feinstein

Amanda Feinstein is currently the Senior Program Officer for Economic Security at the Walter and Elise Haas Fund in San Francisco. In this capacity she developed and manages a grantmaking program that promotes economic advancement for low-income families and communities through workforce development, asset building and community development strategies. Amanda also is the co-chair of the Asset Funders Network, a national funder affinity group, and chair of the Bay Area Workforce Funding Collaborative. She is active on a variety of local committees and projects related to economic advancement.

Previously, Amanda oversaw welfare to work training contracts and developed new workforce training initiatives as a special assistant to the director of the San Francisco Department of Human Services. She was the founding director of the San Francisco Council on Homelessness a non-profit policy and advocacy organization; and worked as an aide to a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. Amanda has two decades of experience working in the non-profit, government and philanthropic sectors on a variety of issues related to ameliorating poverty. She has a Masters in Public Administration from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and a Bachelors in Sociology from Antioch College.

Sean Foote

Mr. Foote is the Managing Director of Labrador Ventures and a Professional Faculty Member of the Haas School of Business, University of California-Berkeley. Mr. Foote has been a venture capitalist investing in early stage companies since 1998, including cleantech companies Solaicx and Integrated Photovoltaics, SaaS company Green Border (sold to Google), and materials companies Eoplex Technologies and Integrated Materials, Inc. Previously, Mr. Foote was a management consultant with Boston Consulting Group and a systems engineer for AT&T Bell Laboratories.

He is philanthropically interested in microfinance, serving as board member of Silicon Valley Microfinance Network and a Trustee of Freedom From Hunger, as well as education, as co-founder of Community Promise ("You graduate high school, we'll pay your California college tuition"). He is Chairman of the Development Council of Entrepreneurs Foundation, a non-profit organization that engages high growth companies in corporate citizenship and philanthropic efforts, and sits on the Advisory Board of Silicon Valley Bank's Private Client Services.

Mr. Foote is on the Professional Faculty of the University of California-Berkeley's Haas School of Business where he teaches two courses: Venture Capital & Private Equity, one of the most highly sought classes at the school, and Microfinance, which is simulcast to over 30 college campuses around the world, including 13 of the top 20 U.S. MBA programs.

Mr. Foote received his undergraduate degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Missouri Rolla (1988), and his MBA from the University of Virginia's Darden Graduate School of Business (1993), where he received the Shermett Award granted to the top 3% of students. He is a middling singer/songwriter (www.myspace.com/seanfoote) and an avid triathlete and sailor.

Grace Fricks

Fricks founded Appalachian Community Enterprises (ACE), a North Georgia non-profit corporation that provides microloans and expertise to build small businesses, in 1997 and began the lending service in 2000. In 2008, Fricks created a statewide collaboration, Georgia Green Loans, to provide capital for emerging sustainable businesses. She serves on the board of directors of the national trade association, Association for Enterprise Opportunity (AEO), serves on the national advisory committee to the revolving loan program of the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) and is past treasurer of Georgia Microenterprise Network (GMEN). Fricks, a small business owner for over 10 years, is a former board member of the National Association of Women Business Owners, Atlanta chapter. Other community work includes former Board of White County Rotary Club and former Trustee of the Board of North Georgia Technical College. Fricks was the 2005 recipient of the Founders Award for GMEN.

Elizabeth Funk

Elizabeth Funk is actively involved in supporting rapid growth and commercialization in the Microfinance industry, which provides small loans to the world’s poor allowing them to start businesses and build their own way out of poverty. She serves on the Board of Unitus, a leading Microfinance accelerator, where she previously served as Chairman. Ms. Funk is the founder and CEO of the Dignity Fund, a debt fund for Microfinance.

Prior to becoming Chair of Unitus, Ms. Funk served as the President and CEO of CML Global Capital, a diversified international investment firm. Prior to joining CML, Ms. Funk was one of the earliest employees of Yahoo!, where she helped formulate Yahoo!’s initial shopping, online Finance and commerce strategy, and helped grow that business to comprise a major source of Yahoo!’s revenues and customer usage. Ms. Funk spent four years at Microsoft Corporation where she served as a Product Manager for Microsoft Word and as one of the early members of the Microsoft Office team.

Ms. Funk is an active member of the Young President’s Organization (“YPO”) serving serving on the International Board, and as a founder of Social Enterprise Networks, an initiative within YPO that brings together members worldwide on projects that “make a difference” in the world. Her other board involvements include Root Capital, Deutsche Bank’s Global Microfinance Consortium Fund, the Silicon Valley Microfinance Network, Glide Community Development Corporation (San Francisco), I-Spire (London) and Imperial Parking (Hong Kong).

Ms. Funk holds an undergraduate degree in International Relations and Economics with Honors from Stanford University and an MBA from Harvard Business School, where she graduated in 1996 as a Baker Scholar. She is a frequent speaker about Microfinance, to audiences such as at the US Department of State, the Forbes CEO Conference, and the Clinton Global Initiative. She was recently named the “Female Entrepreneur of the Year” by TiE. She has been profiled in publications including Forbes, the San Jose Mercury News, and Business Week. Ms. Funk has two children, and lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Rob Garcia

Rob has been creating innovative ecommerce and web based products for more than 10 years, delivering outstanding web experiences for his clients. He is curently the Senior Director of Product Strategy at LendingClub.com, responsible for the overall product roadmap and experience. Under his leadership, Lending Club's website has become a rapidly growing online financial community, winning numerous prizes such as the Webby Award as best Banking site, the W3 Silver Award as outstanding Financial Services website, two WebAwards for outstanding website in the Financial Services and Investment categories, and the Interactive Media Award as Best-in-Class Banking website. Rob has quickly become a leading voice in the peer-to-peer lending, microfinance, and emerging finance 2.0 space, blogging, tweeting, and speaking passionately about the exciting new products and technologies available. Rob holds a Computer Science degree and an M.B.A. in Entrepreneurship from Babson College.

Menekse Gencer

Menekse Gencer founded mPay Connect, a consulting service for clients seeking to launch mobile payments. Her consulting service advises financial institutions, mobile network operators, and third party platforms on market assessment, go-to-market strategy, product design, business development, and implementation. Her market expertise extends from North America to emerging markets such as Bangladesh and sub-Saharan Africa. Prior to founding mPay Connect, Menekse led PayPal Mobile’s Business Development efforts in North America for two years during which time she closed PayPal’s first mobile network operator deal to launch PayPal Send Money on Sprint’s mobile wallet. She also led all aspects of PayPal Mobile Checkout's pilot.

Menekse has an MBA from Wharton and a BA in Economics from Harvard University and was previously featured on the cover of Fortune Small Business Magazine for her innovative startup. She is the founder of the Mobile Payments Series(TM) initiative which hosts panel discussions and networking events for professionals in the mobile money industry and has over 345 members in her LinkedIn Group: Mobile Payments Series - mPay Connect. She is a recognized expert in this field and has lectured on mobile money at events for Harvard Business School, Wharton MBA, and Columbia Business School. She is a contributor to U.S. government policy discussions with the Office of Science and Technology around mobile financial services and will participate in the World Economic Forum in Africa around Mobile Finance and Economic Development. She is a guest speaker at mobile money conferences in Africa, South Asia, and The Middle East and is a board advisor to several startups in this space. Menekse has 17 years of experience as a consultant and industry leader in high tech, mobile, and financial services.

 

Galen Gondolfi

Galen Gondolfi is Senior Loan Counselor with justinePETERSEN, a nationally recognized asset development organization and microlender. In his eight years with justinePETERSEN, he has held positions in the departments of housing, microlending and most recently in communications and development.

Galen routinely speaks publicly on issues of microfinance, microenterprise and the informal economy, credit building and the plight of the underbanked.

Prior to joining justinePETERSEN, Galen worked for community development firms in Chicago, Boston and Washington DC. He attended the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign for undergraduate and graduate degrees in Communications and Urban and Regional Planning.

James Gutierrez

James is a leading social entrepreneur and innovator in financial services serving the unbanked and lower-income. In 2005, James co-founded Progreso Financiero to bring micro-lending to the US Hispanic community and help millions of underbanked families build credit, move up the financial ladder, and achieve their lifelong aspirations.

Since 2006, Progreso has made over 35,000 loans, grown to over 120 employees and 25 locations in California and Texas, been certified by the US Treasury as a Community Development Financial Institution, and secured over $40 million in venture capital funding. By 2012, Progreso aims to help over 1 million families enter the financial mainstream while bringing fair and responsible lending practices back to the forefront of America’s banking industry.

James has been featured in numerous media outlets, including the American Banker, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Business Week, and Bloomberg and is a frequent speaker on topics of financial empowerment for America’s poor. In 2009, James was a featured speaker at the Clinton Global Initiative, Microfinance USA, SOCAP, and the FDIC’s Advisory Board Meeting. He has also pioneered new policies on banking reform, helped co-found the Coalition of New Credit Models, and serves on the Pew Trust/New America Foundation’s Working Group on Small Dollar Lending.

James also serves on the boards of organizations dedicated to strengthening the American middle class from the bottom up, including the Latino Community Foundation, PERC, and Core Innovation Capital. As a young Latino entrepreneur, he enjoys helping other entrepreneurs succeed and has invested in over 15 start-ups. In 2009, James was invited to the White House as a leading young entrepreneur and received the Entrepreneur of the Year Award by Hispanic-Net.

James received his MBA from Stanford and a B.A. in Economics from Yale University.

Liz Hamburg

Liz Hamburg is a “serial entrepreneur” with extensive experience as an entrepreneur, angel investor and mentor to entrepreneurs and small businesses. She is the founder and President of Upstart Ventures, where she has consulted to and incubated many start-ups including her latest venture, ApplyWise, an online college admissions counseling company.

Liz is the co-host on WOR radio (WOR 710AM) of “New York Uncovered” and “Launchpad”, a weekly radio segment focusing on entrepreneurs and small business. She also blogs about entrepreneurship and small business for the Huffington Post. Liz is New York’s SBA Small Business Journalist of the Year.

Liz was Chairman and Founder of Hypnotic, a broadband content and branded entertainment company and was one of the founding managers and Director of the Board of Vimpel Communications (NYSE:VIP), the leading cellular company in Russia.

She has launched new products for Reuters Tokyo and Fujisankei Communications, one of Japan’s largest media conglomerates, where she worked on the first international television home shopping show and played a leading role in the introduction of Fuji’s Nintendo game software into the U.S.

Liz received an MBA from Northwestern’s Kellogg Graduate School of Management and a B.A. from Brown University. She is a Director of the Board of Safe Space, a New York based non-profit; the President of the Advisory Board of the Brown University Entrepreneurs Program, a member of the New York advisory board of Astia and a member of the Advisory Panel of the Columbia Business School's Eugene Lang Entrepreneur Initiative Fund. She is a frequent lecturer on topics concerning entrepreneurs and women-owned businesses.


 

Gina Harman

Gina Harman assumed the position of President and CEO of ACCION USA on July 1, 2008. She has functioned in the same capacity at ACCION New York and New Jersey since February 2008. Her appointment as President and CEO was preceded by her seven-year tenure on the Board of Directors of ACCION New York and New Jersey.

Prior to her role at ACCION, Ms. Harman served as President of the over $600 million consumer division of publicly-traded Harman International. As president, she was responsible for the strategy, engineering, product development, marketing, manufacturing, sales and distribution for multiple brands worldwide. Her career with the company spanned 22 years.

Previously, Ms. Harman served in a variety of nonprofit positions in both New York and Chicago focused on childcare, labor relations and community development. She was the executive director of the Greater Astoria Development Corporation from 1983 to 1985, a Program Manager with the NYC Youth Bureau and founder and director of the Washington Square Methodist Day Care Cooperative.

Ana Recio Harvey

As the U.S. Small Business Administration’s assistant administrator for women’s business ownership, Ana Recio Harvey is the director of the SBA’s Office of Women’s Business Ownership. She oversees the agency’s efforts to promote the growth of women-owned businesses through programs that provide business training and counseling, access to credit and capital, and multiple business and networking opportunities.

Harvey manages a nationwide network of women's business centers that provide training and counseling to hundreds of thousands of entrepreneurs in nearly every state and two U.S. territories. Her office also works with representatives in every SBA district office to oversee operations of the women’s business centers and to coordinate services for women entrepreneurs.

After working as a translation consultant from 1991 to 2000, Harvey established Syntaxis, LLC, a highly successful SBA 8(a)-certified multilingual communications company with clients from Fortune 500 companies, government agencies, and nonprofit organizations. Harvey successfully grew her company from a single English-to-Spanish translation agency into a full-service multilingual communications firm with 75 employees handling communications and translations in 25 languages.

While still managing her company, Harvey served for two years as Latino programs director with Latino Programs Director for Cultural Tourism DC, where she developed relationships with community-based organizations and Latino audiences in the Washington DC Metropolitan Area. She developed and implemented tourism promotions and activities that highlighted Latino-based cultural tourism sites and programs in Washington’s historic neighborhoods.

In 2007, Harvey was named president and CEO of the Greater Washington Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, a post she held until President Obama appointed her to lead the Office of Women’s Business Ownership. At the Chamber, she set the direction and provided the leadership that helped the organization fulfill its philosophy, mission and strategy, and enabled it to achieve its annual financial goals and community objectives.

Harvey holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Houston.

Deepak Kamra

Deepak Kamra is a General Partner with Canaan Partners, a global venture capital firm with $3 billion under management and a worldwide footprint. Deepak’s early-stage investments include such internet companies as Match.com and DoubleClick, telecom companies such as Acme Packet and software providers such as SuccessFactors.

Prior to joining Canaan, he held senior executive positions at Aspect Communications from its founding through its IPO in 1990. He previously held senior positions at ROLM Corporation and TRW. He received a Bachelor of Commerce degree from Carleton University and an MBA from the Harvard Business School. Deepak was elected to the Board of Directors of the US National Venture Capital Association in 2008. He was also named to the Forbes Midas List of the most successful investors in 2007 and 2008.

Microfinance

Deepak has been an early supporter and active advocate of the microfinance industry since the late 90’s. As part of this effort he has been an investor in and/or advisor to NGO’s and commercial entities including Opportunity International, Unitus, Grassroots and Blue Orchard. Since 2005, Deepak has been Chairman of the Investment Committee of the Global Commercial Microfinance Consortium, a structured microfinance fund sponsored by Deutsche Bank to invest in microfinance debt instruments. This fund was the first of its kind and counts companies like Cisco, Merrill Lynch and Hewlett Packard as investors, as well as the US, British and French government development agencies. In 2009 he joined the Board of the Finca Structured Microfinance Fund.
 

Leslie Kane

Leslie Kane joined Grameen America in 2008, and is responsible for managing the organization’s strategic growth and national expansion plans. Since she joined, the program has expanded from Queens to Brooklyn, Upper Manhattan, the Bronx, and Omaha, Nebraska, with additional expansion plans for 2010. As Executive Vice President, Ms. Kane is also responsible for the oversight and management of all fundraising, finance, program development, and corporate operations across the organization, to ensure that they are efficient, integrated, and that resources are allocated effectively. Prior to joining Grameen America, Ms. Kane worked at Morgan Stanley from 2001 to 2008. Ms. Kane was Vice President and Operations Officer of Morgan Stanley's Real Estate Funds in Hong Kong from 2006 to 2008, where she helped manage a team across six countries in Asia. Prior to this, she worked in Morgan Stanley's Investment Banking Division in New York and Mumbai, where she had responsibilities to roll out the Firm's global strategy with the bank's senior management team. Ms. Kane holds a B.A. in History from Yale University.

 

Joyce Klein

Joyce Klein is a Senior Consultant with the Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Program. She has more than 20 years of experience in studying and supporting microenterprise and entrepreneurial development programs in the United States. As a private consultant with FIELD, Ms. Klein’s work has included co-authoring, with Elaine Edgcomb, Opening Opportunities, Building Ownership: Fulfilling the Promise of Microenterprise in the U.S. (2005), an examination of the state of the U.S. microenterprise industry after its first 20 years; managing the Welfare-to-Work Learning Evaluation, a five-year effort to evaluate 10 demonstration programs funded by the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation to provide microenterprise services to TANF recipients; and providing assistance to the MicroTest project. Other FIELD publications authored or co-authored include The Practice of Microenterprise in the U.S.: Strategies, Costs and Effectiveness; Entering the Relationship: Finding and Assessing Microenterprise Training Clients; and Microenterprise as a Welfare to Work Strategy: Two-Year Findings. Ms. Klein also has provided assistance to the CDFI Fund and CFED (Corporation for Enterprise Development). She holds a Master's Degree in Public Policy from the University of California at Berkeley and a B.A. in Economics from Boston College. 

Sean Kline

Sean Kline has more than 15 years of experience in poverty-focused programs around the world. Previously Sean directed Freedom from Hunger's Growth Initiatives Group, which scaled up proven microfinance and social franchise innovations to reach more than 800,000 poor women in Latin America, Africa and Asia. Prior to this, he founded and led Prizma, one of the largest microfinance institutions in Bosnia-Herzegovina now managing a portfolio of over $60 million in small loans to poor women. Sean has consulted for a variety of development organizations in the Balkans, Asia and Africa on strategy and social business models. Sean holds a Master's Degree from the London School of Economics.

Melissa Koide

Melissa Koide is the Policy Director for the Center for Financial Services Innovation. In this position, Ms. Koide leads CFSI's policy efforts to provide national leadership on financial services policies affecting lower income, underbanked consumers. Prior to joining CFSI, Melissa was the Deputy Director of the Asset Building Program at the New America Foundation, where she led its financial services policy to expand wealth-building financial services, improve financial education, and help Americans to better manage their debt. She also has served as Special Assistant to the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Community Development Policy at the U.S. Treasury Department. Melissa holds a MPP from Georgetown University and a BA in Economics from the University of Louisville.

Gustavo Lasala

Gustavo Lasala is the Chief Financial Officer of ACCION Texas-Louisiana. His responsibilities include leading the Finance, Accounting, Underwriting, Collections, and Information Technology Departments. He is also responsible for Microloan Management Services (MMSTM), the first service-center tailored to micro-lending in the United States. MMS uses ACCION Texas' proven model to scale up other domestic micro-lending organizations.

Mr. Lasala joined ACCION Texas-Louisiana in the summer of 2003 as a Citibank-sponsored intern. During that summer, he examined ACCION Texas-Louisiana's financial management, risk management, and product development, and conceived and developed the first scoring model used in microfinance in the US. He joined the finance department of ACCION Texas in June 2004, becoming CFO in October of that year. Lasala also conceived and led the development of MMS and the scoring engine at the core of this service. In 2008, he played an important role in the historic asset purchase agreement between ACCION Texas and Citibank, specifically in the design of the financial aspects and implementation of the deal.

Prior to ACCION Texas-Loisiana, Lasala worked for national and international organizations in Latin America, including the Inter-American Development Bank, Hydro Agri (then a Fortune 300 Global), the Republic's University and the Ministry of Agriculture. Originally from Uruguay, Lasala graduated with Agricultural Engineer degree from the Republic's University in 1994, specializing in investment projects and farm administration. He holds a Master's degree in Business Administration from the University of Texas at Austin. He lives in San Antonio with his wife Caroline and their children, Maria Eugenia and Andres (6 & 4 years old).

Maria Lazzarini

Maria is currently the Northern California Division Executive for Bank of the West. She held a variety of positions during tenure with Bank of the West including Management Trainee, International Banking Officer, Corporate Banking Officer, Branch Manager and Regional Manager. Her varied and long time experience gives her extensive knowledge of the Northern California Division’s regions, branches and markets. Maria is a Graduate of the University of Santa Clara and the Pacific Coast Banking School. She is also a JVS San Francisco Board Member and Member of the Finance and Operations Committee (JVS assists individuals and businesses achieve employment goals).


 

Paul A. Leonard

Paul A. Leonard directs the California operations of the Center for Responsible Lending, a national policy and research organization working on lending issues affecting low-wealth households. The Center is a non-profit, non-partisan research and policy organization dedicated to protecting homeownership and family wealth by working to eliminate abusive financial practices.

Prior to joining the Center, Mr. Leonard was an independent policy consultant working on housing, community development and social welfare issues, based in Berkeley, California. Mr. Leonard also served as an Assistant Agency Director for Workforce and Human Services at the Alameda County, CA Social Services Agency from 2002 – 2004.

Mr. Leonard previously served as the Acting Assistant Secretary for Policy Development and Research and Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy Development at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development from 1994 through 1998. Prior to his appointment at HUD, Mr. Leonard was a senior research analyst at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a non-profit policy and research organization in Washington DC.

Dan Letendre

Dan Letendre is the CDFI Lending & Investing Executive for Bank of America. In this role Mr. Letendre manages Bank of America’s lending and investing activities with Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs). Bank of America currently has over $1 billion of capital deployed to these community-based intermediaries that provide financing for affordable housing, small businesses, and community facilities providing health care, education, childcare and other needed social services.

Prior to this role, Mr. Letendre was Managing Director of the Merrill Lynch Community Development Company, a for-profit subsidiary of Merrill Lynch that specialized in providing capital, liquidity and technical assistance to underserved communities. He also managed the New Markets Tax Credit Program and was responsible for expanding the firm’s SRI products focused on the community development sector.

Before joining Bank of America, Mr. Letendre was Vice President at JPMorgan Chase, where he managed the bank’s lending, investing and philanthropic activities with CDFIs. He also managed JPMorgan Chase’s portfolio of community development venture capital investments and the New Markets Tax Credit Program.

Prior to his work with the bank’s community development division, Mr. Letendre worked within Chase’s Financial Institutions Group, which provides lending and advisory services to banks, thrifts and credit unions. He was a management consultant with Booz Allen & Hamilton in their Financial Institutions Practice and a research analyst with Paine Webber, focusing on financial institutions in developing countries in the Asia-Pacific Region.

He has served on the boards of several community development institutions including Low Income Investment Fund, Corporation for Enterprise Development, the New York Community Investment Company, as well as on the advisory boards of Local Capital Markets Investment Fund and the Opportunity Finance Network - CARS Program.

Mr. Letendre received a BS from Manhattan College and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
 

Andrea Levere

Andrea Levere is president of CFED (Corporation for Enterprise Development) and drives the pursuit of its mission to build assets and expand economic opportunity for low-income people and disadvantaged communities. Celebrating its 30th anniversary, CFED promotes the idea that it is possible and profitable—within a generation—to provide every American, including every child at birth, the opportunity and resources to pursue higher education, start a business, buy a home and save for the future.

Through Ms. Levere’s vision and leadership, CFED designs and operates major national initiatives that aim to expand matched savings for children and youth, bring self-employed entrepreneurs into the financial mainstream and turn manufactured housing into an appreciating asset. CFED operates a comprehensive public policy program to build and protect assets at the local, state and federal levels, and produces the nationally recognized Assets and Opportunity Scorecard. Last year, CFED launched innovation@cfed, an initiative which focuses on accelerating the development of next generation strategies to expand economic opportunity.

CFED has enjoyed significant growth under Ms. Levere’s guidance, expanding to a staff of 50 with offices in Washington, DC, Durham, NC and San Francisco, CA. Ms. Levere has added resources and focus to CFED’s policy and communications efforts, leading to a number of policy victories in state legislatures and growing attention to the importance of asset-building in the national media.
Ms. Levere has served as the Chair of the Board of the Ms. Foundation for Women and is currently the chair of ROC USA (Resident Owned Communities USA), a national social venture that converts manufactured home parks into resident owned cooperatives. She was recently appointed to Bank of America’s National Consumer Advisory Council. She holds a bachelor's degree from Brown University and an MBA from Yale University. In 2001, she received the Alumni Recognition Award from the Yale School of Management and in 2008 was named to the inaugural class of its Donaldson Fellows Program, which recognizes alumni who help educate business and society leaders.

Jonathan C. Lewis

Jonathan C. Lewis is the founder/CEO of the Opportunity Collaboration, a diverse community of 300 social investors and nonprofit entrepreneurs who annually attend a strategic offsite on World Poverty Day to leverage resources, combine forces, share innovations and operate more effectively.

MicroCredit Enterprises, which Jonathan founded in 2005, is an innovative, not-for-profit social venture which leverages private capital to make tiny business loans to deeply impoverished people, mostly women, in developing countries. MicroCredit Enterprises has grown to $40 million in guarantees and $20 million in overseas lending capacity. MicroCredit Enterprises has an enviable operating budget under 3% of loan portfolio and has achieved operational self-sustainability without a dime of traditional donations or grants. A rarity in the non-profit world, MicroCredit Enterprises is entirely open source.

Jonathan is a recipient of the Social Venture Network Innovation Award. He blogs at the Skoll Foundation's Social Edge and is a frequent public speaker on economic development issues, social entrepreneurship and social change

Matt Lonner

Matt Lonner is Chevron’s Manager of Global Partnerships and Programs, overseeing the company’s global contributions efforts. He also serves as President of Chevron’s foundations. Matt leads the company’s community engagement strategy and is responsible for developing and stewarding major charitable programs around the world.

In 2009, Chevron invested over $140 million in community engagement activities, with primary focus in health, education and socio-economic development. Matt spearheaded a major partnership with the Global Fund to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria – Global Fund’s first Corporate Champion – and developed the California Partnership, a significant investment to support science, technology, engineering and math education.

In addition, Matt has led Chevron through a number of disaster relief efforts in Myanmar, China, Gulf Coast, Haiti and elsewhere.

In 2009, Chevron, along with the Discovery Channel Global Education Partnership (DCGEP), was honored with the prestigious Corporate Citizenship “Partnership Award” from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Business Civic Leadership Center for their partnership to transform education in some of the most underserved communities in the world.

Matt has been a featured speaker on the subject of corporate philanthropy. Formerly a practicing attorney, Matt is a graduate of San Francisco State University and earned a law degree from the University Of San Francisco School Of Law.

Alejandra Lopez-Fernandini

Alejandra Lopez-Fernandini is a Senior Policy Analyst in the Asset Building Program at the New America Foundation. Her primary responsibilities include conducting research and analysis on policies related to short-term savings needs and managing the AutoSave pilot. Ms. Lopez-Fernandini has a background in anti-hunger, anti-poverty, and community development programs and policies. She has served as a Bill Emerson National Hunger Fellow, performed field research in Peru on maternal and child health, and conducted new business development and program evaluation with the Academy for Educational Development. While in graduate school, she focused on social policy and conducted empirical research assessing the wealth-building potential of various homeownership strategies in North Carolina. She holds a B.A. in anthropology from the University of Notre Dame and a master’s of public policy from the Terry Sanford Institute of Public Policy at Duke University.

Marco Lucioni

Marco Lucioni is the Founder and CEO of Confianza, Inc. Since founded in late 2006, Confianza has made over 2,500 microfinance loans totalling over six million dollars.

Marco has 13+ years of direct management experience in small and medium size businesses in various industries such as consumer finance, consumer goods, manufacturing and financial services. Before founding Confianza, Marco was the President and Investor in South Cone Trading Co. until 2005 (a multinational high-end furniture manufacturing company), was the co-CEO of a retail consumer appliances, electronics and consumer finance business for five years, and was an employee of McKinsey & Co in Spain for four years.

Marco earned his BS from Wake Forest University and his MBA from Columbia University.

James Magowan

James Magowan is a Managing Director and co-founder of Housing MicroFinance, LLC (“HMF”). The Company was established to develop housing finance instruments and technical assistance to address the housing and infrastructure needs of low and moderate income borrowers in emerging markets. Current assignment include developing financial instruments to support housing microfinance in Africa.

Mr. Magowan was previously a Director at Johnson Capital, one of the largest real estate investment banks in North America. In this capacity, Mr. Magowan advised owners and developers of real assets on their equity and structured financing requirements. His clients have included leading real estate investors, funds, community builders, green developers, and renewable power producers.

Mr. Magowan served as a co-founder and Principal of LuxCore, a real estate development company partnered with a real estate subsidiary of Zurich Life.

Mr. Magowan is an honors graduate of Harvard University and holds an MBA from IMD International. He is a Member of the Alumni Advisory Board of the Harvard Real Estate Academic Initiative.

Mr. Magowan serves on the Board of Advisors of Global Microfinance Group, a Swiss microfinance holding company with operations in Argentina.

Elizabeth Makee

Ms. Makee joined ACCION San Diego in 2004 and is currently responsible for all developmental and operational areas of the organization, in addition to public relations, human resources, and fund development. She brings nine years of project and organizational development, strategic marketing and public relations experience to the organization. Prior to joining ACCION San Diego, Ms. Makee worked with various public relations, marketing and event management firms where she managed client portfolios, budgets, campaigns and communication efforts for primarily small businesses and non-profit organizations.

Since working with ACCION San Diego, she has participated in small business organizations and committees including service in Net Impact, the SD Chamber Small Business Advocacy Committee, the Torrey Pines Bank Community Reinvestment Board and the Comerica Community Advisory Board. In 2009, Ms. Makee was awarded the CAMEO Job Generator of the Year Award, presented at the annual meeting in Sacramento by Senator Keyhoe. She received her B.A. in Communications with a Minor in Spanish from the College of Charleston in Charleston, SC. Ms. Makee enjoys outdoor activities, Spanish, traveling and has lived abroad in both Spain and Costa Rica.

Meyer Malka

Meyer Malka is founder, co-chief executive officer and director of Palo Alto, Calif.-based Bling Nation®, a provider of mobile payments services that connects financial institutions, businesses and consumers through mobile tap-and-pay purchases at the point of sale. Malka is responsible for overseeing the long-term direction and growth of Bling Nation.

Malka has been instrumental in several technology and financial services endeavors. He helped develop online brokerage, Patagon, Latin America’s first comprehensive Internet financial services portal, by founding its Venezuelan branch. The company expanded its online banking services to the United States, Spain and Germany and was later sold to Banco Santander, where Malka was the interim CEO for the Phone and Online Banking division.

Malka was a founding member of Classified Media Group, an online classified ads company focusing on Venezuela, Colombia and Central America. In 2002, he and his partners at MECK, Ltd., a private equity firm, founded Banco Lemon, a Brazilian retail bank serving the underbanked population, which Malka and his partners have helped grow into the largest microfinance institution in Brazil.

Malka is an Economist from the Universidad Católica Andrés Bello in Caracas, Venezuela.

Ben Mangan

Ben Mangan is the President, CEO and Co-Founder of EARN. Since 2002, EARN's 2500+ Savers have put aside over $3.3 million of their own money, and successfully invested millions in college degrees, small business start-ups, and first homes. Ben also founded and leads EARN's California-wide asset policy and research initiative, the Asset Policy Initiative of California (APIC, online at www.assetpolicy.org), which drives leadership, public will, and policy change for low wage workers in California.

EARN was the 2005 winner of the Fast Company Magazine/Monitor Group Social Capitalist of the Year Award, and was named one of the ten finalists in the 2005 Amazon.com Non Profit Innovation Award.

Ben has more than 15 years of experience in public policy and management, in the areas of education, affordable housing, business development and strategy. Ben was the Midwest Practice Leader for Ernst & Young's Public Private Development Group in Chicago. In this capacity, he led efforts to find solutions to policy, development and strategy problems for public, private and non-profit clients. Immediately prior to joining EARN, Ben served as the Director of Organizational Strategy for an international internet firm.

Ben has worked as a middle and high school teacher, a college admissions officer and an archaeologist. He is from Brooklyn, NY, and holds a Bachelor of Arts in History from Vassar College as well as a Master of Public Policy from Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government.

In 2005, Ben was appointed by San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom to the Board of Directors of the San Francisco Private Industry Council. He also serves on the Board of the Mission Economic Development Agency (MEDA).

Giovanna Masci

As the Regional Director for the Americas, Giovanna is responsible for managing the portfolio of the region and directing Kiva’s strategy in that market. In particular, Giovanna was responsible for driving Kiva’s entry into the US microfinance market in 2009. Prior to Kiva, Giovanna worked as a consultant in the technical assistance department at ACCION New York. In that role she was responsible for growing the department while providing one-on-one technical assistance services to entrepreneurs. Giovanna has been passionate about economic development, microfinance, and Latin America for many years. She has worked on community development projects in Mexico and Paraguay, and has done research on the interplay between eco-tourism and economic development in Costa Rica. Giovanna holds a B.A . in Economics from Yale University and an M.B.A from the Yale School of Management.

Rohan Mathew

Rohan Mathew is the co-founder and Executive Director of The Intersect Fund, a student-run microenterprise development organization headquartered in New Brunswick, NJ. Conceived in a dorm room in the fall of 2008, The Intersect Fund has empowered more than 150 New Jersey entrepreneurs to build strong businesses. Now working full-time for the Fund, Mathew is laying the foundation for a strategic expansion of the Fund's suite of services, which include access to markets, low-cost print and web design, and tax preparation. Mathew has been a leader in advancing the student-run microfinance field and helped form the Campus Microfinance Alliance, a coalition of nearly a dozen student groups that make loans in their communities. Previously, Mathew worked for Obama for America and in the Mergers & Acquisitions group at Credit Suisse. Mathew has a degree in mathematics from Rutgers University.

Margaret McConnell

Margaret McConnell is a postdoctoral research fellow at Harvard’s Center for Population and Development Studies. She received her PhD from the California Institute of Technology in 2009. Her primary research agenda is to understand what motivates individuals to save for the future and invest in health. She designs field experiments that test economic models of psychology and social interactions, providing insight into whether policies designed to encourage investments in savings and health are effective and why.

Ash McNeely

Ash McNeely is executive director of the Sand Hill Foundation, a family foundation in Menlo Park, California, that focuses on regional efforts to protect the environment and help families break the cycle of poverty. Ash is also a senior officer in the philanthropic services team at The Pew Charitable Trusts. She serves as Pew’s West Coast liaison for individuals, families and foundations wishing to leverage and amplify their philanthropy through partnerships with Pew, with special emphasis on environmental conservation and economic policy.

Immediately prior, Ash was vice president of donor engagement at Silicon Valley Community Foundation, managing grantmaking for 1,200 donor advised funds, supporting organizations and scholarships. At Peninsula Community Foundation, she led the strategy and execution of advised fund grantmaking, business development and communications for seven years. Ash also worked for a decade in Bay Area performing arts organizations in marketing and development capacities, including TheatreWorks, the California Shakespeare Festival and the Center for the Arts at San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Gardens. She has spoken at numerous national forums such as the Council on Foundations’ Family Foundation Conference, Council on Foundations’ Community Foundation Conference, the Institute for Private Investors, Grantmakers for Effective Organizations, the Junior League, and Credit Suisse Private Wealth Management Conference. She has been a visiting lecturer at Stanford University, Harvard Business School and Colorado College.

Ash sits on the boards of Open Square Foundation and Opportunity Fund, and is an active volunteer with Horizons Foundation, Crystal Springs Uplands School, Vassar College and TheatreWorks. She received an M.B.A. in nonprofit management from Golden Gate University and graduated Phi Beta Kappa and summa cum laude from Vassar with a bachelor’s in English and women’s studies.

Genevieve Melford

Genevieve Melford is senior program manager for applied research and a member of the Innovations in Manufactured Homes (I'M HOME) team. Ms. Melford's areas of focus include performance measurement; state and local economic development; asset building and financial security; manufactured housing; development finance; research on the links between small and medium enterprise development and poverty reduction; and the financial needs of low-income people and communities. Prior to joining CFED, Ms. Melford helped develop a performance measurement system for a statewide economic development plan for the Oregon Business Council and conducted field research on opportunities for commercial investment in the Indian microfinance sector. She has also worked as a labor consultant in New York City, performing research and analysis for a range of labor union clients in support of organizing, bargaining and policy campaigns. Ms. Melford holds an M.P.A. from Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and a B.A. in economics from Wesleyan University.

Lisa Mensah

Lisa Mensah is the Executive Director of the Aspen Institute's Initiative on Financial Security, which is dedicated to building support for the idea of a new generation of individual development accounts available universally but structured to help low- and moderate-income families build assets from birth through retirement. Before launching the Initiative, Ms. Mensah was the deputy director of the Economic Development Unit at the Ford Foundation. In her 13 years at the Ford Foundation, she was responsible for grants to community development financial institutions and for work on savings and wealth building for low-income populations. Prior to joining the Ford Foundation, Ms. Mensah worked in corporate finance for Citibank in New York.

Theodore P. Michaels

As general manager, Ted leads and manages all aspects of the International Credit Card business encompassing consumer and business credit cards, merchant services, e-commerce, insurance, and loyalty programs in the United States, Mexico, and Latin America for Banamex USA. Second, Ted serves as Banamex USA’s Chief Internet Banking Officer supporting all of the bank’s business lines including Corporate Banking, Personal Banking, Funds Transfer, Credit Cards, and Cross-border Banking. Third, Ted serves as one of the two Chief Information Officers for the bank. Fourth, in a new role, Ted will lead Banamex, the corporate parent, with credit card initiatives focusing on the super affluent segments throughout Latin America. Ted has been with Banamex USA since June 1996.

From 1995 to 1996, Ted served as Vice President and Head of Business, Market, and Strategy Development for NatWest Bank (Delaware).

From 1991 to 1995, Ted served in two roles for the Consumer Financial Services (CFS) Company of Advanta Corp. He was the Chief Planning Officer from 1993 to 1995. From 1991 to 1993, he directed the strategic operations and information technology initiatives.

From 1986 to 1991, Ted got his start in Credit Cards with American Express. During the first two years, he completed the Graduate Management Program and served as a manager within the Platinum and Gold Card Division. The final three years, Ted was part of a major corporate re-engineering initiative named Genesis.

From 1982 to 1984, Ted worked for Ethicon, Inc., a Johnson & Johnson Company. He led seven manufacturing departments in a union organized plant environment.

Ted earned an MBA from Harvard Business School in 1986 concentrating in finance and general management. He received a Bachelor of Science degree from Drexel University in 1982 concentrating in marketing, operations management, and engineering. At Drexel, Ted received the Wall Street Journal, Charles E. Etting, and Who’s Who Among Students in American Universities and Colleges Awards for academic and leadership excellence. He graduated from George Washington High School in Philadelphia in 1977 and was recipient of the Max E. Rosen Scholar Athlete Award.

Throughout his life, Ted has been involved with charity and youth organizations. Presently, Ted is a Director of FCBarcelona LA and is expanding his role with Drexel’s alumni association in Southern California. Ted received the President’s Volunteer Service Awards from the White House in 2007, 2008, and 2009 for serving as a West Valley Soccer League Youth Coach and for mentoring college students as part of the Citi TELACU Scholars Mentoring Program. In the past, Ted served as a board member of the Family Literacy Advocates of Southern California, Fort Lauderdale Jaycees, Harvard Business School Club of Southern Florida, and as Chief of the Cheyenne Tribe for the YMCA’s Father/Daughter Program.

Ted has been married to his wife, Bonnie, for twenty years. Ted and Bonnie have a 16-year-old daughter named Heather and a 13-year-old daughter named Holly.

His personal interests include physical fitness, sports, golf, skiing, karate, reading, art, theater, dance, music, community affairs, and spending quality time with his family.

Ted has dual citizenship in the United States and Brazil. Ted is fluent in English, Ukrainian, and Spanish and is knowledgeable in Russian and Portuguese.

Haydeé Moreno

Haydeé Moreno joined Self-Help in 2008 and is leading the launch of the Micro Branch Pilot. The Micro Branch pilot is designed to meet the needs of working families who are un-banked and under-banked. The objective of the Micro Branch model is to provide a one-stop-shop of relevant products and services that can meet the needs of working families today and offer a path towards financial stability and wealth building tomorrow. The first Micro Branch opened in East San Jose on January 2010. Prior to joining Self-Help, Haydeé spent four years on Wall Street – as a financial analyst in the Mergers & Acquisitions group of JPMorgan, then as an equity research associate in the Specialty Retail Stores group of Goldman Sachs. After leaving New York, she spent a year in Austin, Texas and worked with the CDFI PeopleFund as a Strategy Consultant before moving to the Bay Area. Haydeé holds a BBA from The University of Texas at Austin and an MBA from Stanford University.

Adair Morse

Adair Morse is Assistant Professor of Finance at the Booth School of Business at the University of Chicago, where she teaches Entrepreneurial Finance and Private Equity. She earned a Ph.D. in finance from the University of Michigan in 2007, masters degrees in statistics and agricultural economics from Purdue University, and a B.A. in Middle Eastern studies from Colgate University. Prior to entering academia, Morse was a Fortune 500 accountant and an entrepreneur. Her main area of research covers the interaction of individual financial decision making, financial services and well-being. In this area, recent works look at the importance of disclosure and financial understanding in the household borrowing and the disposition of federal stimulus check for the highly indebted. Prior work uses community outcomes following natural disasters as a laboratory to study role of payday loans for those in financial distress. Morse also studies corporate governance, researching the pervasiveness of corporate fraud, the incentives for fraud detection, and the implications of CEO power in pay-for-performance contracts.

Gavin Newsom

Gavin Newsom, 42, is the youngest San Francisco mayor in over a century. Newsom, the son of William and Tessa Newsom, grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area. He attended Santa Clara University on a partial baseball scholarship, graduating in 1989 with a B.A. in political science.

After college, Newsom sold orthotics and worked as an assistant at a real estate firm. In 1991, Newsom recruited investors and founded PlumpJack, a wine shop, which he grew into a thriving enterprise of 15 businesses including wineries, restaurants, and hotels.

In 1996, Newsom was appointed by San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown to the city’s parking and traffic commission. Soon he was elected president of the commission. In 1997, Brown appointed him to the city’s board of supervisors. Voters elected Newsom to the board in 1998 and re-elected him in 2000 and 2002.

As a supervisor, Newsom focused on combating homelessness. His initiative, Care Not Cash, provided homeless individuals services instead of welfare. Although the city’s political establishment opposed Care Not Cash, the voters approved it in November, 2002. One year later, after a fiercely-contested race, Newsom was elected mayor.

After only 36 days as mayor, Newsom gained worldwide attention when he granted marriage licenses to same-sex couples. This bold move set the tone for Newsom’s first term. Under his energetic leadership, the economy grew and jobs were created. The city became a center for biotech and clean tech. He initiated a plan to bring universal health care to all of the city’s uninsured residents. And Newsom aggressively pursued local solutions to global climate change.

In 2007, Newsom was re-elected with over 73% of the vote. Since then he has built upon the successes of his first term, launching new environmental initiatives and a comprehensive strategy to transform one of the city’s most troubled neighborhoods into a life sciences, digital media, and clean tech center. More than 80% of the previously uninsured are now covered by city’s first-of-its-kind universal health care program.

Newsom’s commitment to combating homelessness has never waned. As mayor, he has moved 10,000 homeless individuals off the street, and his volunteer initiative, Project Homeless Connect – now imitated in over 130 cities – has attracted over 20,000 San Franciscans who give their time to help the homeless.

Newsom is married to Jennifer Siebel Newsom. Their daughter, Montana, was born on September 18, 2009.


 

J. Reymundo Ocañas

J. Reymundo Ocañas joined BBVA Compass in 2009 from Wachovia Bank. While at Wachovia Bank, he served as the Community Relations Executive covering California, Arizona and Nevada, overseeing the bank’s Foundation and CRA initiatives. He has also held positions with JPMorgan
Chase, Bank of America, the Texas Association of CDCs and the Austin Hispanic Chamber.

At BBVA Compass, Ocañas oversees the company’s Corporate Responsibility and Reputation programs, including the BBVA Compass Foundation, employee involvement and volunteerism, diversity, environmental sustainability and responsible practices. Ocañas reports to the Director of Communications and Corporate Responsibility a function of the Office of the Chairman.
 

Rick Parras

Rick has over 25 years of experience in the consumer finance industry, including 18 years at Citifinancial, a member of Citigroup. While at Citifinancial, he was an instrumental part of the team that started Credito Familiar, a joint venture between Citigroup (formerly Travelers Group) and Bancomer Financial Group. He helped grow the network from two to 28 branches, and was responsible for branch operations and the implementation of a business model and business culture.

At Citifinancial, he was also involved with the aquisitions of Atlas Finance, the second largest consumer finance company in Chile: and Provencred, a consumer finance company in Argentina. Rick was responsible for implementing the business model and transforming the branch operations at Atlas Finance. Rick spent over four year on international assignments in Mexico, Chile and Argentina.

Rick established Apoyo Financiero in San Francisco's Mission District in November 2007. Apoyo Financiero is a microfinance company serving primarily the Hispanic unbanked population. Apoyo Financiero has provided almost $5 million in loans in the San Francisco Bay Area in the first two years of operation.

Melissa A. Paulsen

Melissa A. Paulsen is Social/Micro Venturing Programs Manager for the Gigot Center for Entrepreneurial Studies, Mendoza College of Business, University of Notre Dame. She is responsible for all social initiatives and serves as an instructor in the Center. Melissa worked with Dean Carolyn Woo, franchising business leader Frank Belatti, and former Gigot Center Director, Dr. James H. Davis, to design and implement the Gigot Center’s unique undergraduate offering, the Microventuring Certificate Program. The program incorporates microenterprise development and microfinance theory along with practical skills and tools in a domestic and developing country technical assistance setting.

Prior to returning to academia, Melissa worked in the insurance industry as a disability risk analyst; her responsibilities included balancing medical and financial risks and ensuring a positive return on equity, while also promoting sales and pro-active, creative decision-making. She also has prior experience in the accounting and communications industries.

Melissa is a graduate of Assumption College, where she earned dual bachelor degrees in English and philosophy, as well as the Master of Nonprofit Administration program at the Mendoza College of Business, University of Notre Dame.
 

Leigh Phillips

Leigh Phillips is the Program Manager for the San Francisco  Office of Financial Empowerment”, and the flagship Bank On San Francisco program- the first city-wide initiative designed to bring “un-banked” residents into the financial mainstream.  She has worked for Treasurer José Cisneros in the Office of the Treasurer since December 2004.  She previously managed the successful two-year pilot of the City’s “Working Families Credit” program, a local match to the federal EITC.

Prior to working for the City and County of San Francisco, Ms. Phillips worked in development and fundraising at the University of California, San Francisco.  She received both her Bachelor of Arts in English Literature and Social Sciences and a Masters of Economic and Social Sciences in Women’s Studies from the University of Manchester, UK.

Paloma Pineda

Paloma Pineda is a sophomore at Yale University, where she studies Ethics, Politics, and Economics and directs Client Services for The Elmseed Enterprise Fund, the oldest student-run micro-finance organization in the country. Elmseed provides business training courses, small loans, and individualized consulting to New Haven entrepreneurs. It currently serves twenty clients in diverse industries, and has given out $50,000 in loans over its nine-year history. Paloma has also worked with microfinance organizations in Buenos Aires and the Dominican Republic, and will help to implement a study on micro-savings this summer in Ghana.

Mark Quinn

Mark Quinn is the District Director of the U.S. Small Business Administration. The San Francisco District covers the San Francisco Bay Area and Northern California counties from Crescent City to Santa Cruz.

The San Francisco District covers a business loan portfolio of more than 10,500 loans worth $3.7 billion. Annually, the District approves SBA guaranty loans, which, in 2005, totaled over $750 million for 2,500 small business loans made through 100 lending institutions. Additionally, the District funds ten Small Business Development Centers and supports five chapters of the Service Corps of Retired Executives (SCORE), the volunteer organization that proves free business counseling. Both organizations provide free, in depth, consulting for new and existing entrepreneurs. Finally, SBA cosponsors over 1,000 training events for over 50,000 Bay Area small businesses or prospective businesses from SBA resource partners.

Prior to his appointment, Mark served as Deputy District Director for the San Francisco District Office. He previously supervised the San Francisco District’s Portfolio Management Division, handling the servicing of SBA lending throughout Northern California.

Prior to coming to SBA in September 1986, he held positions as a Regional Economist and Economic Development Specialist with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in San Francisco and Philadelphia Regions.

Jody Raskind

Jody Raskind directs the SBA Microenterprise lending programs including the SBA Microloan program and the Program for Investment in Microenterprise (PRIME). The SBA Microloan program has a loan portfolio of over $100 million through 175 Microloan Intermediaries. PRIME funds 58 non-profits nationally providing capacity building and technical assistance funding.

Prior to her current position, Ms. Raskind served as Director of the Specialty Programs Division of USDA’s Rural Business and Cooperative Service. She managed a number of USDA business loan and grant programs including the Intermediary Relending Program (IRP), Rural Business Enterprise Grant (RBEG) and Rural Business Opportunity Grant (RBOG) programs, the Rural Economic Development Loan and Grant (REDLG) program, and the Rural Energy for America (REAP) programs. In addition, Ms. Raskind served as a member of the National Farmers Market Consortium.

From 1991 until 2005, Ms. Raskind worked for SBA in the Microenterprise Development Branch. She was instrumental in setting up the Microloan Program from its inception and was named the program’s Chief in 1997. Under her leadership the Microloan Program grew significantly, and the PRIME program was added in 2000. She served as a strong advocate for microenterprise development and was a trainer and speaker at numerous venues. Ms. Raskind was a member of the first CDFI Presidential Awards for Excellence judge’s panel. Her contributions to microenterprise have been acknowledged in numerous publications, by Congress, and by many Microenterprise Organizations.
 

Elisabeth Rhyne

Elisabeth Rhyne is managing director of the Center for Financial Inclusion at ACCION International, where she works to bring together leaders in financial services to address challenges facing the microfinance industry today. As senior vice president of ACCION International from 2000-2008, Ms. Rhyne led ACCION’s initial entry into Africa and India, directed the organization’s research efforts to develop new financial products, and managed ACCION’s publications and educational activities.

Ms. Rhyne has published numerous articles and five books on microfinance, including Mainstreaming Microfinance: How Lending to the Poor Began, Grew and Came of Age in Bolivia (Kumarian Press, 2001). She was also co-editor of The New World of Microenterprise Finance (Kumarian, 1994), which provided the introduction to microfinance for many of the field’s current professionals. Her most recent book, Microfinance for Bankers and Investors, was published by McGraw-Hill in June, 2009.

Ms. Rhyne was director of the Office of Microenterprise Development at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) from 1994 to 1998, where she developed and led USAID’s Microenterprise Initiative. Ms. Rhyne’s experience includes eight years living in Africa (Kenya and Mozambique), consulting on microfinance policy and operations for governments, international organizations, and microfinance institutions.

Ms. Rhyne holds a master’s and Ph.D. in public policy from Harvard University. She earned a bachelor’s degree in history and humanities from Stanford University.

Jaunice Rufai

Jaunice Rufai has worked in the Microloan industry for the past ten years and over 20 years in the Federal Government. Ms. Rufai has held positions with various agencies including the Department of Navy, National Institutes of Health, Internal Revenue Service and the US Small Business Administration as a Financial Analyst.

Currently, Ms. Rufai is a Financial Analyst and Regulatory Specialist in the SBA Office of Financial Assistance, Microenterprise Development Division where she provides operational guidance and assistance to Microloan and PRIME program participants. She oversees SBA Microloan Intermediaries and works with SBA District Offices and non-profits on Microloan and PRIME program guidance. In this role, she provides program oversight and administers management control over a Microloan Program with a portfolio of over $100 Million to 175 Microloan Intermediaries and PRIME grants to 58 non-profit organizations.

Ms. Rufai played a key role in the expansion of SBA Microlending through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) which significantly increased loan funds and Technical Assistance funds available for the Microloan program.
 

Premal Shah

Premal Shah is President of Kiva.org – a website that lets you make $25 micro-loans to low-income entrepreneurs around the world.  Kiva raises $1 million every 10 days for the working poor and was named as a Top 50 website by TIME magazine in 2008.  Prior to Kiva, Premal spent 6 years at PayPal, an eBay company where he began to develop his thinking on how the internet could expand microfinance.  Premal started his career as a management consultant at Oliver Wyman in New York.  He was an invited speaker at the Clinton Global Initiative and was selected as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum in Davos.  His most surreal experience was carrying the Olympic Torch for the 2008 Summer Games.  Premal graduated with a degree in Economics from Stanford University.

Robert Shoffner

Robert Shoffner is Senior Vice President / Region Manager of Business Banking for the San Jose / Central Valley Region of the Metro North Division of Citibank, N.A. In this role Robert is responsible for all aspects of Business Banking in the Region. Robert has had responsibility for Small Business Banking and Business Banking in this geography since 2003.

From 2001 – 2002 Robert was the Division Manager Marketplace/Product Manager for Commercial Banking in the Western Division. In this role he was responsible for the implementation and introduction of new products, services, systems, staff training programs including credit training, cross-sell initiatives with internal and external manufacturers of small business products and services, SBA program initiatives and the implementation of marketing programs in the markets of California, Nevada, Illinois, Florida and Washington D.C.

From April 1999 through January 2001 Robert was President for Citibank in California and Nevada. In this position he was responsible for managing the day-to-day operations of Citibank’s consumer businesses in the West Coast region. In addition Robert was responsible for executing Citibank’s retail banking strategy in California and Nevada and overseeing bank-sponsored community programs and events.

In 2007 – 2008 Robert worked with the International Retail bank of the Global Consumer Group as a business advisor to Citibank, Taiwan for integration and development of a business banking proposition for the marketplace as the result of an acquisition.

A native of St. Paul, Minnesota, Robert attended Brown University where he earned a bachelors degree in American Civilization. He also has a MBA degree from Golden Gate University.

 

Maria Shriver

Coming Soon

Chuck Slaughter

Chuck earned both a BA and a Master’s in Public and Private Management from Yale. In 1991 he founded TravelSmith Outfitters and built it into the #1 brand in travel wear with over two million customers and $100 million in sales. Since selling TravelSmith Chuck has devoted his energies to building vibrant enterprises in both the private and social sectors. As its pro-bono president Chuck lead the turnaround of the HealthStore/CFW Shops, a system of micro franchised clinics serving the poor in Kenya. In affiliation with private equity firm Golden Gate Capital he has participated in the acquisition and turnaround of 10 major apparel brands with combined sales over $2 billion including Spiegel, Newport News, Norm Thompson and Express. In 2006 Chuck conceived Living Goods - the ‘Avon of Rural Health’. Living Goods aims to be the first truly sustainable system for defeating the diseases of poverty in Africa. In the late 1980’s Chuck served as a Program Officer for Trickle Up, a pioneering microfinance program. He currently serves on the boards of Three Day Blinds, BRAC-USA, The Initiative for Global Development and Living Goods, and is a former board member of Spiegel Brands. He has spoken at many venues including Yale, Harvard, Stanford and the World Affairs Council. He resides in California with his wife Molly and sons Cooper, Riley and Jackson.

Harold Solomon

Mr. Solomon’s areas of expertise include using innovative business models and technology to automate data-based decisioning that favors the under-banked, such as rental payments, mobile phone and ATM transaction data. His primary responsibility is building the Decision Services International (DSI) division at RentBureau. DSI builds automated, decision-based lending and customer segmentation systems in emerging markets using data from new and existing infrastructures such as ATM and mobile networks. DSI’s locations of focus include Central Africa, Central and South America, China and India.

As RentBureau COO, Solomon leads the day-to-day operations and integration of RentBureau’s technology within member organizations and multifamily properties. He is a founder of Seraphim Partners, an Atlanta-based technology investment fund. He is also the past president and the past area director of YEO (Young Entrepreneurs Organization) and a member and past executive committee member of Atlanta Technology Angels, an investment group based at Georgia Tech. Solomon was previously with IBM in Space Shuttle software development at NASA's Kennedy Space Center.



 

Kathleen E. Stack

Kathleen Stack, Vice President, Program Development for Freedom from Hunger, has thirty-five years of experience in international development with expertise in program design, strategic business planning, microfinance and microenterprise development, curriculum design and training of trainers. She has consulted for and trained microfinance organizations, NGOs and networks in Asia, Africa and Latin America.

Ms. Stack is one of the co-creators of the Credit with Education methodology and developed the strategy for linking Credit with Education to credit unions. She also developed Freedom from Hunger’s Basic Business Education curriculum for microfinance clients. More recently she contributed to the design of Saving for Change, a joint program with Oxfam America to support savings-led microfinance.

Ms. Stack currently coordinates strategic planning efforts for Freedom from Hunger. She has served on the Steering Committee of the Global Financial Education Program (GFEP), a joint program of Microfinance Opportunities and Freedom from Hunger. She was a founding member of the Small Enterprise Education and Promotion (SEEP) Network and served on the SEEP Board of Directors, and has been an instructor at the University of Southern New Hampshire’s Microenterprise Development Institute.

Ms. Stack was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Mali, West Africa. She managed a women’s integrated credit and nutrition training program for USAID in Burkina Faso before joining Freedom from Hunger in 1984. She holds a Master of Arts degree in International Administration from the School for International Training Graduate Institute and a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from Clark University. She speaks fluent French.
 

Kat Taylor

Kat Taylor is active in a variety of social business, public benefit and philanthropic ventures in the San Francisco Bay Area. Currently, she focuses on beneficial banking services and food systems through two primary organizations.

Kat and her husband, Tom Steyer, are the Founding Directors of OneCalifornia Bank and Foundation, a triple bottom line Federal Savings Bank in Oakland CA. OneCalifornia Bank lends in low-income communities to support local economies and job creation. It is also attempting to help low income individuals and households build and protect assets through fair and innovative banking products. OneCalifornia hopes to expand throughout California.

Kat is also a Founding Director of TomKat Ranch Educational Foundation dedicated to a return to sustainable food production through ranching, tours, research, and school lunch and garden programs. Related to that work, Kat is a Partner in INKA, a startup renewable food company pioneering closed loop food systems that use very little water, soil or other scarce resources and no harmful chemical agents to grow produce and fish in home, educational, and developing world settings.

Since 1986, Kat has served as a member of the Board of Directors of the Good Samaritan Family Resource Center, a nonprofit entity which helps new immigrant families in San Francisco access needed services, stabilize in the country, develop self-sufficiency and participate in the community. She also serves on the Board of Directors of the Insight Prison Project, a nonprofit organization working in collaboration with San Quentin State Prison. The project provides unique rehabilitation programs that help self-selected, motivated prisoners break the cycle of incarceration.

In prior non-profit work, Kat served as a member of the Board of Directors of KQED, Inc., the Bay Area and Northern California’s public radio and television station. She was also a member of the Board of Directors of the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, multidisciplinary art center, located in the Yerba Buena Gardens district of downtown San Francisco, features visual arts, performing arts, film and educational programs, from 1996 to 2002. Kat graduated from Harvard College in 1980 with a Bachelor of Arts degree. She earned a joint JD/MBA degree from the Stanford Law School and the Stanford Graduate School of Business, graduating in 1986.

Jennifer Tescher

Jennifer Tescher is the Director of the Center for Financial Services Innovation, which aims to transform the financial services experience in America in order to better serve underbanked consumers and help them achieve prosperity. Towards that goal, CFSI develops and distributes real-world tested research and strategy, provides funding to promising companies, and facilitates cross-sector business collaboration. The Center is a non-profit affiliate of ShoreBank Corporation, the nation's leading community development bank holding company. Ms. Tescher has been part of the ShoreBank family since 1996 in a variety of capacities, focused primarily on the development and implementation of new financial products and services.

Ms. Tescher has guided CFSI since its inception in 2004, and has achieved notable success in raising the profile of underbanked access and asset-building as an objective for the industry. She has become a nationally known expert on this topic, with a monthly column in American Banker, frequent interviews and articles in the financial press, and major speaking engagements at a broad spectrum of industry events, including: Best Practices in Retail Financial Services; ATM, Debit and Prepaid Forum; BAI’s Retail Delivery; AARP’s Diversity and Aging Crisis; Commission on the Future of Economic Development’s (CFED’s) Asset Learning Conference; Financial Service Centers of America’s (FiSCA’s) Annual Conference; and CFSI’s own Underbanked Financial Services Forum, which she chairs as co-producer.

Ms. Tescher serves as a member of the Board of Directors for Project Match and the Credit Builders Alliance and is a member of Bank of America's National Community Advisory Council. Ms. Tescher also serves as a member of the Federal Reserve Board’s Consumer Advisory Council, advising the Board on the exercise of its responsibilities under the Consumer Credit Protection Act and on other matters of consumer financial services. A recipient of the Crain's Chicago Business "40 Under 40" Award for 2006, Ms. Tescher received undergraduate and graduate degrees in journalism from Northwestern University and a public policy degree from the University of Chicago.

Lynn Trojahn

Lynn Trojahn, Vice President of Advancement for ACCION New Mexico-Arizona-Colorado, has a bachelor's degree in International Relations from Colgate University and a master's degree in International Management from the American Graduate School of International Management. Lynn has been in the fundraising field for 26 years in the California Bay Area and now Albuquerque, her hometown.

Lynn has worked with ACCION since February 2005, where she has supported raising over $19 million for operational, endowment, lending, and building capital. She is chair of the advisory board for the Center for Nonprofit Excellence and a volunteer with the Albuquerque Community Foundation, United Way of Central New Mexico, the NM Association of Fundraising Professionals, the NM Association of Commerce and Industry and the National Jewish Respiratory Hospital in Denver. Lynn was president of the NM Association of Fundraising Professionals in 2000 and received the NM Outstanding Fundraising Executive award through this group in 2003. She has been distinguished as a Power Broker, a Woman of Influence, an Up and Comer and in the 40 Under 40 groups through the New Mexico Business Weekly.

 

Luz Urrutia

Full speaker bio coming soon

Claudia Viek

Claudia Viek is the CEO of CAMEO, the California Association for Micro Enterprise Opportunity, a statewide network of 130 organizations and individuals committed to promoting economic opportunity and community well-being through Micro Enterprise Development. CAMEO’s members served 25,000 businesses in 2008 with training, business assistance and micro loans.

Claudia has been a pioneer in both the Micro Enterprise and business incubation fields in California. She was the former Executive Director of the Renaissance Entrepreneurship Center in San Francisco for 14 years. Renaissance is an award winning training, financing and business incubation program. Claudia served on the Board of the National Business Incubation Assoc. and founded the Pacific Incubation Network of business incubators from Baja to Alaska.

Claudia is the past President of the San Francisco Bay Area Chapter of NAWBO and has served on numerous nonprofit boards in her community.

She has a BA from William Smith College, has five sons and a large extended family, including eight grandchildren.

Julia Vindasius

Julia Vindasius served as the founding Executive Director for the Good Faith Fund in Arkansas from 1988-1995. The Good Faith Fund applied the Grameen Bank’s peer-group lending model to this early, rural microcredit program, headquartered in Pine Bluff, Arkansas. As a result of her work with the Good Faith Fund, was honored as the Financial Services Advocate of the Year by the Small Business Administration in 1993. Prior to starting up the Good Faith Fund, Ms. Vindasius worked at ShoreBank in Chicago. After serving in Washington, DC as a White House Fellow in 1995-1996, she worked at the Department of the Treasury to help implement the Bank Enterprise Act (BEA) and the Presidential Excellence in Microenterprise Development Award programs for the new Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) legislation. A graduate of the University of California at Berkeley in Development Studies, Vindasius received a Master of City Planning degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1986 with a specialization in international and regional development. She was a founding director of the Association for Enterprise Opportunity, and served on the boards of the National Association of Community Development Loan Funds (now National Community Capital), and more recently Community Resource Group.
 

Eric Weaver

Eric Weaver, founder and CEO of Opportunity Fund, has combined his background as a community organizer with an education from Stanford Business School to develop an innovative not-for-profit financial institution that uses market principles to effect systemic change.

Under his leadership, Opportunity Fund has grown into one of the nation's largest and most effective microfinance institutions, with an emphasis on both savings and credit. Opportunity Fund operates one of the nation's largest Individual Development Account (IDA) program, and is the largest provider of micro-loans to low-income entrepreneurs in California.

In 2006, Eric was named one of the first seven recipients of the James Irvine Foundation Leadership Award, awarded to individuals who are successfully tackling some of California's most challenging problems. In addition, the Skoll Foundation has twice selected Opportunity Fund for the Skoll Award for Innovation in Silicon Valley; and the Small Business Administration named Eric Weaver its Financial Services Advocate of the Year in 2006. Eric is also the founding board chair of Net Impact.
 

Kim Wilson

Kim Wilson is a lecturer at The Fletcher School and a Fellow with the Center for Emerging Market Enterprises and the Feinstein International Center at Tufts University. Spending time in India beginning in 2001 through 2005, she worked closely with savings groups, connecting them to banks with a particular focus on tribal areas. She has worked for Catholic Relief Services heading their Microfinance Unit, and in that tenure, spearheaded CRS' shift from focusing on credit to the poor to savings of the poor. In 1991, she started Boston Working Capital under the direction of Jeffrey Ashe, the founder of Working Capital.

Kimberly Wright-Violich

Kimberly Wright-Violich is President of Schwab Charitable™, a leading national provider of philanthropic services. Ms. Wright-Violich has guided the organization’s growth from a six-month old non-profit start-up to the largest charity in California and one of the top 10 charities in the US. She has introduced numerous innovative programs to facilitate grant making and charitable asset management, resulting in over $4 billion dollars in contributions. Most recently, she pioneered the Schwab Charitable Microfinance Program—the first program of its kind. It allows donors to use charitable assets in their accounts twice: first to guarantee small business loans to the world’s poor, and then after the guarantee period, for granting to other charities.

Ms. Wright-Violich is a sought-after thought leader on the topic of charitable giving. She is published and widely quoted, including in The Wall Street Journal, BusinessWeek, CNBC, Investment News, Stanford Social Innovation Review and Trust and Estates Magazine. Ms. Wright-Violich has been the recipient of many awards and recognitions including: being named one of San Francisco Bay Area’s 100 Most Influential Women in Business by the San Francisco Business Times (2006, 2007 and 2008), receiving a WATCH award (Women at the Center of Leadership and Vision) from the Junior League of San Francisco, and being named one of the 50 most influential women in the US in wealth management by Wealth Manager magazine.

Since beginning her career in 1989 in San Francisco, California, Ms. Wright-Violich has held a series of leadership positions at major non-profit organizations in Northern California, including on the Board of Directors of Northern California Public Broadcasting, Inc. (2007-2009), the Non-Profit and Public Management Program of the Haas School of Business, University of California Berkeley (2006-present), World Affairs Council Bay Area (2009-present), Volunteer Center of San Francisco (1992-97), Marin Youth in Arts (1990-96), and President of the Junior League of San Francisco (1993-1994). She received an undergraduate degree in Human Biology from Stanford University, did post-graduate work at the Mass Media Institute at Stanford University, and completed the Business School Executive Program at Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Anne Haines Yatskowitz

Anne co-founded ACCION New Mexico • Arizona • Colorado in 1994. She is responsible for overall program oversight, staff supervision, fiscal management and board development, among other duties. Prior to founding ACCION New Mexico • Arizona • Colorado, Anne served as the marketing and program director for the Micro Industry Credit Rural Organization of Project PPEP in Arizona.

Among the many honors she has received, the New Mexico Business Weekly named Anne among the state's top ten Women of Influence in 2006 and one of the state's top Power Brokers in 2005. She is a past recipient of the Minority Business Advocate of the Year Award from the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Minority Business Development Agency for an 11-state region. She was also named the U.S. Small Business Administration's Financial Services Advocate of the Year in 1996.

Anne received her bachelor's degree from Wesleyan University in Connecticut and a master's degree in management from the Atkinson Graduate School of Management at Willamette University in Oregon.

Steve Zuckerman

Steve Zuckerman is the founder and managing director of Self-Help’s California operations. Self-Help is one of the nation’s leading non-profit Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) committed to creating and protecting ownership and economic opportunity for people of color, women, rural residents, and low-wealth families and communities. Over its 30-year history, Self-Help has used market-based financial products to provide $5.5 billion in financing to more than 60,000 borrowers, and Self-Help’s affiliated credit unions now serve more than 50,000 mostly low-income members in California and North Carolina.

After working for Self-Help shortly after its founding (1984-85) and serving on its board for most of the next 20 years, Steve rejoined Self-Help in 2006 to launch its California operations in Oakland. In 2008, he led the formation of the Self-Help Federal Credit Union which, through four mergers and the launch of an innovative “micro-branch” model, now serves 25,000 members through 9 branches in California. Over the next several years, Self-Help Federal aims to fundamentally change the way low-income communities are served and bring hundreds of thousands of unbanked Californians into the financial mainstream.

Steve spent much of his career in the private/financial sector, including 15 years in the private equity industry with McCown De Leeuw & Co., a middle market leveraged buyout firm based in Menlo Park, CA. His experience prior to that includes consulting with Bain & Company and investment banking with Morgan Stanley. Steve earned an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and a BA in economics and mathematics from Yale University.