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BOARD OF DIRECTORS


Anne-Marie Chidzero (Chair), Independent

Ms. Chidzero is an independent consultant working Edge Development Strategists. She is currently the Theme Champion on Financial Policy and Regulation for the DFID project called FinMark Trust in South Africa, whose mandate is making financial markets work for the poor. She has fourteen years experience in private sector development, specifically financial sector, microfinance and SME development throughout Africa and was formally a Senior Consultant associated with ICC, where she developed consulting and training services in microfinance and general financial sector development. Prior to joining ICC, Ms. Chidzero worked as a Private Sector Development Specialist for the World Bank in Washington DC as part of the team that launched the Consultative Group to Assist the Poorest, a multi-donor microfinance facility. Ms. Chidzero has a Bachelors Degree in Psychology from the McGill University, Montreal, Canada, and a Masters Degree in Economics from University of Toronto, Toronto Canada.

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MIChael MUrai (Alternate), Accion

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Lars-Olof Hellgren (director), AfriCap Sweden / Nordic Microcap Investments

Lars-Olof Hellgren is a business economist with over 20 years experience in microfinance. Lars was the initiator of AfriCap Sweden and also initiated Nordic Microcap Investment, where private investors are shareholders. Lars is currently the Managing director of Nordic Microcap.

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Jean Philippe de Schrevel (director), Blue Orchard

Jean-Philippe de Schrevel founded BlueOrchard Capital and BlueOrchard Private Equity Fund beginning of 2008 and co-founded BlueOrchard Finance in 2001 where he is now a member of the Executive Committee of its Board. He has worked a Field Consultant in microfinance for a Belgian non-governmental organization in Tanzania and Guatemala and as an Operations Director of a private microfinance foundation in Argentina. He has also served as a Consultant for the United Nations Conference for Trade and Development (UNCTAD) Microfinance Unit in Geneva. Jean-Philippe de Schrevel holds a MA in Economics from the University of Notre-Dame de la Paix in Namur, Belgium, and a MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, USA.

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Ernst Brugger (Alternate), Blue Orchard

Ernst A. Brugger is a founding partner and the President of BHP - Brugger and Partners Ltd, a consulting firm specializing in sustainability strategies for private and public organizations. He is also chairman of Sustainable Performance Group, member of the executive committee of the International Committee of the Red Cross, Vice-President of the board of Henry Dunant Center for Humanitarian Dialogue, and Professor at Zurich University. Over the past 20 years he carried out numerous consultancy tasks for various Swiss and international companies and institutions in Europe, Latin America, Africa and Asia.

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Alex Silva (director), Calmeadow (Omtrix)

Alex is President and partner of Omtrix, Inc., a fund management and financial consulting company specializing in the provision of services to Micro Financial Intermediaries (MFIs). Funds under Management include the Emergency Liquidity Facility-ELF (a US$ 12 Millions Facility that acts as a lender of last resort for MFIs), Antares (a US$ 5.0 Millions fund that specializes in acquiring and selling shares of MFIs in the secondary market), and the Short Term Liquidity Facility-STLF (a US$ 5 Millions bridge loan facility). Alex also serves as Calmeadow Executive Director and as such acts as the representative of this Canadian NGO in the Board of AfriCap.

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Cyrille Arnould (alternate), EIB

Mr. Arnould is a Senior Officer in the European Investment Bank's African Caribbean and Pacific department where he specializes in financial sector operations. His other professional experience includes a post as Senior Investment Officer in the International Finance Corporation's SME department and also as IFC's Senior Investment Officer based in Moscow, Russia. Mr. Arnould graduated from the Institut d'Etudes Politiques, Université Robert Schuman. He also received a Masters in Law from Université Robert Schuman and holds an MBA from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.

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Edvardas Burmstein (DIRECTOR), EIB

Edvardas Bumsteinas is an investment officer responsible for microfinance in the Africa, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) region at the European Investment Bank (EIB). Before joining EIB in 2005, Edvardas worked as a microfinance and corporate finance consultant in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Uzbekistan and Russia. He is a member of investment committees at Advans, MicroCred and Rural Impulse Fund (observer). Edvardas is a member of the Board of the European Microfinance Platform. He holds BSc and MSc (Econ) degrees from the London School of Economics. In 2006, Edvardas was awarded the CFA charter and became a member of the CFA Institute.

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Peter Platan (Alternate), Finnfund

Mr. Peter Platan is an Investment Manager at Finnfund. Prior to joining Finnfund, Mr. Platan was a Corporate Finance Analyst at PCA Corporate Finance, Helsinki, and a Credit Analyst at LandesBank Kiel, Copenhagen. Mr. Platan has also served as a volunteer in Iquitos, Peru and a NATO peacekeeper in Kosovo. Mr. Platan holds a Master of Science in Business and Economics from the Lund University School of Economics and Management, Sweden.

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Emile Groot (Director), FMO

Mr Emile Groot started working with UNESCO at the National Polytechnic Institute in Mexico City and continued working for the ILO/Geneva at the Mexican National Labour Institute and later on as a private consultant. He was in charge of FMO's Micro and Small Enterprise Fund and represents FMO in several Boards of Directors in (Micro and SME) Financial Institutions in Latin America, Asia, Africa and Eastern Europe. Since 2005 he has worked as Financial Sector Specialist in the Asia Department and coordinated among others FMO's special Micro Credit Programme called "Access For All 2010".

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deepak malik, (director) nordfund

Deepak Malik is the Regional Director in Africa for Nordfund, based ion Johannesburg, South Africa. He is a qualified Chartered Accountant, with 30 years experience, covering financial and general management, private equity, audit, development banking and industry. He has over 20 years experience in Africa and is on the Board of Directors of various companies, including financial institutions and private equity funds.

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bhoomija juwaheer (alternate) for independent director clarel benoit

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Shobna juwaheer (alternate), for independent director richarrd arlove

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Oscar Carlsson (Alternate), Swedfund

Mr. Carlsson, a Swedish national, is Senior Analyst Investment Operations with Swedfund International AB. He is involved in the management of several of Swedfund's portfolio companies, including most current activities related to microfinance. Prior to joining Swedfund in 2007, he was a corporate finance adviser at the London office of Salomon Smith Barney, and later at Aros Securities and Hjalmarsson & Gunterberg in Stockholm, Sweden.

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Jacco Minaar (Alternate), Triodos

Jacco currently works as Senior Investment Officer at Triodos Investment Management, responsible for investments in financial institutions in Africa. He has 12 years of experience working with the financial sector in the Netherlands, Cambodia, Lao PDR, Vietnam and several African countries including Uganda, Rwanda, Ghana, the Gambia and Benin. Jacco holds a Master of Science degree in Industrial Engineering and Management Science and he is a candidate for the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation.

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Richard Arlove, Abacus Management Solutions

Richard is a Fellow member of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants of UK. He has worked for 10 years in the accounting profession in Mauritius and UK, mainly at Price Waterhouse, and was General Manager in manufacturing, marketing and distribution companies until 2001. Since then, he has joined the Global Business sector in Mauritius and is currently a Director and the Chief Executive Officer of management company Abacus Management Solutions.

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Clarel Benoit, Benoit Chambers

Clarel Benoit is a barrister of the Middle Temple, London, England. He read law at Emmanuel College, Cambridge. A former state counsel and magistrate, he was also a lecturer at the Law Faculty of the University of Mauritius and taught company law at the Council of Legal Education. He has developed an extensive practice in commercial law, offshore corporate structuring and taxation, mergers and acquisitions.

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Myriam Djari, (Alternate) Blue Orchard

Myriam joined BlueOrchard in 2007, after completing a voluntary assignment in India with the Bellwether Microfinance Fund, a venture capital fund investing equity in high potential MFIs in India. She was providing financial advice and assistance to 2 of the fund’s MFIs that are among the fastest growing start up MFIs in India, to build cash flows projections, a valuation model as well as write an information memorandum in order to help these MFIs raise additional capital. Previously, she spent several years in the Private Equity department of Goldman Sachs specialized in real estate direct investments.

There, she worked on large acquisitions in Europe and was directly involved in all the aspects of private equity investments including identification and evaluation of new investment opportunities, management of due diligence processes, structuring, negotiations and closing of deals. She was also part of the team managing existing investments in Northern Europe (>$1.5 billion) and as such worked closely with the management of the portfolio companies in defining and executing the strategy creating most value. Prior to that, she spent several years in the Private Wealth Management department of Goldman Sachs in London where she advised French and Swiss private clients (wealth >$10 million) on their investment strategies and managed multi-asset class discretionary portfolios.

Myriam holds a Master in Management from HEC-Paris and speaks French, English, Spanish and Chinese. Within BlueOrchard, Myriam is Investment Manager for BlueOrchard Private Equity Fund and is covering Africa, Middle East, China and South East Asia.

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