Professional Team

Dear Colleagues,

It is with great pleasure that I present our core team at SBI; consultants and staff working together to expand access to capital to small businesses, entrepreneurs and households in transitional and developing markets. This core team is supplemented by our extensive and growing network of consultants engaged for particular projects either because of special skill sets or geographic and linguistic capabilities. Our unique and diverse team can be found in all parts of the world but at the same time are connected by the SBI mission.

Sincerely,


Laurie J. Spengler
President



Jamil Ahmad is the Senior Technical Advisor for the USAID sponsored project in Pakistan for Advancing Microfinance for Post-disaster Economic Reconstruction in the earthquake affected region of Azad Jammu & Kashmir. Mr. Jamil has 12 years of experience in the microfinance industry. He worked in operations, alliances, training and development with leading microfinance institutions of Pakistan. Mr. Jamil specializes in policy development and implementation, operations management, process reengineering, product development, training module development and financial modeling and financial analysis. Mr. Jamil is a Cost and Management Accountant and Certified Financial Consultant. He is a certified microfinance trainer and was a Boulder Graduate in 2006. He speaks Pashto and basic level of Persian.

Agil Abdullayev is Senior Attorney with SOA Kredit (previously named Shore Overseas Azerbaijan), an SBI owned and operated non-bank finance company which provides microfinance and real estate loans to small businesses and entrepreneurs in Azerbaijan. Prior to joining SOA Kredit in 2005, Agil was an attorney at BSS, a local law firm, and served as outside legal counsel for SOA. Mr. Abdullayev graduated from Baku State University and is expected to have his master's degree in law in summer of 2007.

Michael Alcorn is a Senior Advisor for ShoreBank International. Michael has worked for SBI on a variety of assignments in Central Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. Most recently, these projects have included support to the EBRD Multibank Framework Facility for Mongolia as well as the USAID funded Agriculture Rural Investment and Enterprise Strengthening (ARIES) project in Afghanistan. Based in California he holds a BS in International Relations from the University of Southern California and an MBA from the Thunderbird School of Global Management.

Manuel Alegre is Senior Consultant working for ShoreBank's Real Estate Department in Chicago doing business development and providing multifamily loans to Latino developers in the city of Chicago and as Project Manager for the IFC Mortgage SOFOLes Project in Mexico where a team of SBI consultants is providing Technical Assistance in the implementation of mortgage lending best practices to a group of small mortgage companies. Previously he was the Fund Manager of Fondo Capital Guanajuato (FOCAP) in Leon, Mexico when SBI advised the Inter-American Development Bank in the launch of an $8 million investment fund targeting small and medium-sized businesses in Mexico. Mr. Alegre is a banking and finance specialist and brings to SBI over 12 years of experience both in consulting recommending and implementing best business practices and in the banking and investment fund industry conducting financial analyses, risk assessment and the structuring and disbursing of short, medium and long-term loans, quasi-equity and equity for SMEs, corporate enterprises and real estate developers. Mr. Alegre has an MBA from the Universidad de Piura in Peru and an MIM (Master of International Management) with a specialization in International Development from Thunderbird School of Global Management in Arizona. He is a Peruvian national fluent in Spanish, English and conversant in French.

Azhdar Aliyev is Credit Team Manager at SOA Kredit. His responsibilities include management of two credit teams, SME and Real Estate lending groups, their performance oversight, control over portfolio quality and marketing activities. Azhdar joined SOA in 1999 as Loan Administrator and has built up his career with the company being promoted to Loan Officer, then to Senior Loan Officer and finally to Deputy Director /Credit Team Manger positions. He received his CFA charter in 2006. He also holds a Master of Science in International Finance degree from University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign and MBA from Western University, Baku.

Amjad Arbab serves as Head, SBI Pakistan, where he is charged with overall responsibility for ShoreBank's technical and business development operations across the country, as well as within the broader region on a strategic basis. Mr. Abab is a long-standing friend and colleague to many at SBI, most recently in his role as CEO of the Microfinance Investment Facility for Afghanistan (MISFA), which has set the global standard for best-practice in developing an effective "capital plus" wholesale and technical assistance facility in the microfinance and SME arenas for post-conflict reconstruction. Prior to this role, Mr. Arbab was a founding member of the executive management team of the Bank of Khyber (BOK), where he also served in several executive roles including as strategic architect and Head of BOK's microfinance division in the mid-late 1990's. Mr. Arbab has also served in senior positions with the Agha Khan Rural Support Programme and the Agricultural Development Bank of Pakistan, and holds a Masters in International Relations from Johns Hopkins/SAIS as well as a Masters in Political Science from the University of Peshawar.

Maricela Arroyo is a Project Accountant at SBI where she works on foreign project accounting and reporting, billing, and leads accounts receivable efforts for work with several of the company's clients, primarily on USAID. Ms. Arroyo works along with the full accounting team at the company's headquarters in Chicago. Ms. Arroyo is an accountant by trade and brings more than 10 years of experience in the field. Ms. Arroyo holds an Associate Degree in Applied Science from Northwestern Business College, Chicago, IL, and a Bachelor Degree in Applied Science from Kendall College, Chicago, IL. Ms. Arroyo is fluent in Spanish.

Aurica Balmus, Business Analyst for ShoreBank International coordinates all organizational aspects of SBI's new project development process, conducts focused research and writing. Ms. Balmus also supports the field teams by assisting with project management, market research and production of project deliverables. She provided project support to the FMO Low Income Housing Roundtable in Vietnam, assisted with coordinating the event in Hanoi and with the production of deliverables. She also assisted with backstopping the Feasibility Study on Microfinance Housing in the East Africa Region: Market Assessment, Proposed Financing Mechanisms, and Technical Assistance. Ms. Balmus has a background in program management, project implementation and, design of monitoring and evaluation systems. Ms. Balmus holds a Masters in International Development from University of Pittsburgh and is fluent in Romanian, Russian and proficient in Spanish.

Sonya Bearden is the Executive Assistant and Strategy Analyst in SBI's Chicago office. Her responsibilities include conducting research on emerging markets and financial institutions, preparing various written reports and proposals, and providing business development and administrative support for the Office of the President. Since joining SBI in November of 2007, she has served as a member of the BRAC Africa team, providing research and administrative support. Prior to joining SBI, Ms. Bearden interned with ShoreBank, working in Cleveland with Stephanie McHenry to develop the Minority Business Enterprise (MBE) Initiative, and in Chicago with Lynn Railsback on numerous projects, including the Latino Strategy. Ms. Bearden holds an undergraduate degree from Cornell University in Urban and Regional Studies and South Asian Studies and is conversant in Arabic and Hindi.

Diana Bialus is a member of the SBI International team, currently working as Analyst within the credit scoring practice, ensuring support for the team in both general and technical issues. Ms. Bialus is based in Bucharest, Romania. Her activities include research and project work on credit scoring approaches, as well as business development activities for the credit scoring practice. Prior to joining the credit scoring team, Ms. Bialus worked with SBI on the USAID-funded Microfinance Coalition Project in Bucharest. Her professional experience includes collaboration on EU-funded projects aimed at the development of the microfinance sector in Romania. Ms. Bialus holds a Masters Degree in European Financial Management Practice from the European Academic Centre in Nancy, France and a BA in International Business from the Academy of Economic Studies in Bucharest, Romania. She is fluent in Romanian, English and French.

Bridget Burkhardt is Senior Consultant based in SBI's Chicago office. Since joining SBI in September 2006 she has worked on a variety of projects ranging from the feasibility study for a housing fund to the launch of a USAID project to develop the rural lending industry in Afghanistan. Her responsibilities include the provision of financial modeling and analysis support to SBI projects, the creation of financial and other analyses to support internal SBI business decisions, and general participation as a consultant on SBI projects, particularly in a strategic advisory or funds development capacity. Ms. Burkhardt is a private equity specialist with a general corporate finance background. Prior to joining SBI she spent two years as a financial analyst in investment banking and six years as an investment professional with private equity funds in New York, London and Chicago, including three years with community development venture capital funds. Ms. Burkhardt holds an undergraduate degree from Brown University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Pam Champagne, an independent consultant, began her association with SBI in 2002, through the then SBI Advisory Services. After 20 years commercial banking experience, most of which as an Internal Auditor, in Maine, Mrs. Champagne began a new life overseas, beginning as a volunteer through the Trickle Up Program assisting women's groups in Uganda to start and grow small businesses, and continuing that program under the auspices of the United Nations Volunteer program, before moving into the consulting field in bank and microfinance audit and operations in Uganda, Tanzania and Eritrea. With SBI Advisory Services, and now through ShoreCap Exchange, Mrs. Champagne has continued to focus on strengthening internal control and risk management practices in microfinance institutions and banks in Cambodia, India, South Africa, Kenya, and most recently, The Gambia. Through SBI in partnership with MicroSave, Mrs. Champagne has co-authored the initial versions of toolkits for Institutional and Product Development Risk Analysis, Process Mapping, and Individual Lending for Credit Managers. Mrs. Champagne has a BA from Colby College, achieved the Certified Internal Auditor designation, and speaks basic French.

Gregory Chen, Head, South Asia, the SBI branch office in Pakistan managing a $5 million microfinance technical assistance project on behalf of USAID. His responsibilities include engagement management with seven financial institutions and managing a team of twelve professional staff. In addition to overseeing a range of technical assistance engagements in Pakistan, Mr. Chen is a regular advisor to the Central Bank, the national wholesale apex fund for microfinance, the national association and international donor agencies on development finance. Mr. Chen's has over 13 years of experience in microfinance holding positions with CGAP, with the Aga Khan Development Network and the Pakistan Microfinance Network. He has substantial experience working with development finance institutions on: institutional assessments, technical assistance needs identification, strategic planning, financial modelling, individual small business lending, portfolio reviews, credit risk management and NGO/Bank transformation. In addition to his extensive international microfinance experience, Mr. Chen also has worked as a commercial banker with Bank of America in the United States. Mr. Chen holds an undergraduate degree in Economics from Wesleyan University, a Masters in Public Policy from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard and speaks basic level Urdu.

Daniel Citbaj is credit scoring expert at SBI and is currently involved in providing scoring technology for consumer and small business lenders in Slovak Rep., Romania, Czech Rep., Poland, Manchester and Georgia. He's been with SBI for over 3 years and worked on various EBRD projects for a total of six years; he is experienced in MSE lending, training of MSE lending and has some experience in conducting performance evaluations of financial institutions. Mr. Citbaj graduated at Slovak Technical University; scientific subjects included mathematics and statistics. Mr. Citbaj is fluent in Slovak and English; understands Russian, German and has proficient expertise in several programming languages.

John David Crouch is a Consultant at SBI working as an SME Advisor on the USAID-funded ARIES project in Afghanistan. As an SME Advisor, he works with partner banks such as First Microfinance Bank and Afghanistan International Bank to build their SME lending capacity. Mr. Crouch holds a BA in Liberal Arts from the College of Charleston and completed his graduate course work in International Relations at Georgia State University. Prior to joining SBI, Mr. Crouch worked at Emerging Markets Group and from 1997 - 1999 he served as Peace Corps Volunteer in Kazakhstan.

William Dewey is a Vice President of SBI based in the Chicago office. In his current position, Mr. Dewey oversees SBI's Chicago-based administrative and support functions. In addition, Mr. Dewey plays a leading role in business development with a principal focus on corporate and retail banking strategy, organization and governance, and credit risk management. His many years of experience as both a banker and a consultant, most of which involved overseas assignments, leaves Mr. Dewey with a deep understanding of issues attendant to financial sector reform and development in emerging markets. Following a banking career which began in 1974 in Singapore and later included assignments in Southeast Asia, Latin America, and North America, Mr. Dewey was assigned by the US Treasury Department to the Hungarian and Czech governments as a senior advisor in conjunction with those governments' financial sector reform efforts. Mr. Dewey now comes to SBI from A.T. Kearney where he built and managed the financial institutions practice in Central & Eastern Europe and later undertook a similar role in Beijing, China. A fluent speaker of Spanish, Mr. Dewey has a MA from The Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy, Tufts University, and an undergraduate degree from the University of Notre Dame.

Ann E. Dobbyn is Controller at SBI where she oversees the financial and accounting management of the company. She directs the financial affairs of SBI and prepares financial analyses of operations and is responsible for the company's financial plans and policies, its accounting practices, the conduct of its relationships with lending institutions and the financial community, the maintenance of its fiscal records, and the preparation of financial reports. She also monitors SBI field offices which she visits for audit purposes. Ms. Dobbyn is a certified public accountant in the US and has over 20 years of experience in accounting and finance control. She is an Irish national and has extensive international experience, having traveled to over 40 countries. Ms. Dobbyn has an undergraduate degree from the University of Illinois and a graduate degree from DePaul University.

Ryan Falvey, Associate Consultant, is a member of SBI's Strategy and Capital Mobilization practices. His duties include conducting external and internal assessments and financial modeling. Since joining SBI in 2008, Ryan has assisted in the development of a strategy for small business lending for a microfinance bank in Mongolia, created a business plan for a Greenfield lending institution in South Africa, and assessed the M&A strategy of a leading microfinance institution. While in graduate school, Ryan interned with the Capital Markets Bureau of the New York State Insurance Regulator where he conducted portfolio reviews and assisted in the regulators response to the global credit crisis. Prior to SBI, Ryan started a successful small business in Los Angeles and served as business development manager for a venture-backed start-up in San Francisco. Ryan possesses an M.A. in International Relations from Yale University and an undergraduate degree from UCLA.

Brandon Ferry serves as Business Analyst for SBI's Capital Mobilization practice and the BRAC Africa Loan Fund. Mr. Ferry supports business development, client relationship management, and the implementation of long-term projects. Before joining SBI, Brandon spent two years as a finance paralegal for Shearman & Sterling LLP in New York. There he gained substantial experience in the legal and administrative aspects of debt transactions for financial institutions, including experience with development finance organizations like Grameen Foundation. Following his two years in New York, Brandon spent a year working as a consultant for Lok Capital, a private equity firm focused on the Indian microfinance sector, in Hyderabad, India. Through this assignment he took on the role of business development manager within one of Lok's portfolio institutions, Spandana Microfinance. At Spandana, he assisted in the raising of equity and grant capital and the development of new products and services such as micro health insurance, mobile phone service, solar lanterns and water filters to be introduced to Spandana's client base. Mr. Ferry earned a BA with distinction from the University of Virginia.

Bryony Fitzjohn is a Business Analyst for SBI's subsidiary in the United Kingdom. Based in London, Ms. Fitzjohn's responsibilities include the management of accounts and billing from the UK. Ms. Fitzjohn provides critical support to the London office's proposal production, research, data gathering, knowledge management, business development, administrative support and marketing functions. She also maintains and updates the company website. Her field experience includes research in Aswan, Egypt and two years living in Japan where she taught English at elementary and high schools. Ms. Fitzjohn has an MA in Geography from The University of Glasgow. She is a British national and is conversant in French and Japanese.

Anna Fogel is a Business Analyst in SBI's Washington DC office. Prior to joining SBI, she was a Benjamin A. Trustman Traveling Fellow and studied low-income housing finance and development. She spent six months in India, working with a housing finance team at the Institute for Financial Management and Research, evaluating the potential for standardizing the financial relationship between banks and housing NGOs. She then worked in Israel for six months, studying mortgage repayment and foreclosure crises and researching community participation in housing production and development. She has focused on American housing policy and programs while working with a number of housing organizations in Washington D.C., Boston and New York. Ms. Fogel graduated from Harvard College cum laude and completed an honors thesis on the design and theories of a low-rise, high-density housing project in New York City.

Jesse Fripp is a Vice President for SBI, based in Washington, DC and leads SBI's Global Microfinance Community of Practice as well as managing the MENA and South Asia regional project portfolios. With nearly fourteen years of international experience in the Balkans, the Middle East, and South Asia, Mr. Fripp has designed and managed large-scale development finance and economic development programs including projects recognized for their innovations and impact in such forums as the World Bank's Global Development Network and elsewhere. In addition to his economic development experience, Mr. Fripp has designed and/or overseen Greenfield microfinance institution start-ups in four countries (Romania, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Iraq, and Afghanistan), including non-bank financial services companies, credit unions, and traditional MFIs, as well as MFI commercialization/transformation initiatives in Pakistan and Romania. He has directly managed and/or overseen micro & small enterprise, energy-efficiency, and housing loan portfolios ranging from $1 million to $25 million in size, and built operations processes and professional teams in challenging development and post-conflict environments. Mr. Fripp holds a Master's in Public Management with a concentration in International Economic Development from the University of Maryland at College Park.

Daniel Gies is a Consultant for SBI where he serves as programme manager to three EU/EBRD SME Finance Facility projects in support of leasing companies (two Société Générale affiliates and one Raiffeisen Landesbank affiliate) in the Czech Republic and Slovenia. Before this assignment he implemented a 12-month SBI assignment in the rural finance sector of Afghanistan, where he served on the credit committees as relationship manager for three financial institutions, including a leasing company and major international bank. He joined SBI from Croatia where he served as Chief of Party on a 3-year, $2.5 million USAID-funded program for SME development and microfinance. During the project he fund-raised, set-up and managed a microfinance organization, Delaware International, to provide micro-loans and technical assistance to agricultural producers in the rural, war-affected areas of Croatia. At the end of the project in 2005, he supervised the merger of this organization into a larger microfinance institution, remaining as board chairman in order to assist in its transformation into a licensed bank. Before assuming this position, Mr. Gies had founded and managed a Croatian start-up internet company, raising debt and equity to form Croatia's largest digital souvenir company. Mr. Gies has an MBA in International Business from Thunderbird, an undergraduate degree from the State University of New York, and speaks fluent English, German and Serbo-Croatian, and proficient Russian and French.

Pierre Hoessler is Consultant at SBI where he has since July 2007 been project manager for Bank of Africa -Mali in Bamako. The objective of the project is to develop credit for SME's .The mission provides technical assistance in the various aspects of the credit process. In addition to this, the project benefits from a risk sharing facility granted by IFC. SBI's contract is for two years. Pierre Hoessler worked 15 years at BNP Paribas in the corporate departments. He has been an independent consultant for emerging countries since 2000. He conducted missions of training and consulting in Mediterranean countries, Africa and Middle East. In particular, he took part in the launching of a new guarantee fund for SME's in Lebanon. Pierre Hoessler is graduate of the Ecole Supérieure de Commerce de Paris and of L'Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris.

Salim Jiwani is currently a Senior Consultant with SBI and Pakistan Project Director for the Advancing Microfinance for Post-disaster Economic Reconstruction project in partnership with USAID and NRSP. Mr. Jiwani is a policy planning and design, organizational structure, management, product development, product costing, institutional assessment, institutional transformation and auditing specialist with more than 14 years of hands-on experience in the microfinance industry. Mr. Jiwani has worked with several MFIs, local government, NGOs and multilateral organizations and made microfinance practices sustainable in Pakistan. Mr. Jiwani has extensive experience with USAID and World Bank projects, including coordination of multi-stakeholder initiatives. Mr. Jiwani has successfully led transformation of Pakistan's first NGO Microfinance Program operated by the Aga Khan Development Network into a country-wide licensed Microfinance Bank. Mr. Jiwani has over twenty-five years of operations management experience for development financial institutions in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Egypt, Syria and Tajikistan. Mr. Jiwani is a Chartered Accountant and speaks basic level Bengali and Hindi.

Valentin Kanev, CPA, CIA, is Assistant Controller at SBI where he works on the foreign subsidiaries financial statements consolidation, project accounting and reporting, billing, and leads accounts payable and accounts receivable effort for the company’s control department at headquarters in Chicago. Mr. Kanev is an accountant by trade and brings more than 10 years domestic and international experience in the field. Mr. Kanev has direct experience with financial systems development including management, operations and technology platforms. Mr. Kanev holds a master’s degree in Accounting from Loyola University Chicago and a master’s in Industrial Management from University of Economics Varna in Bulgaria. He is fluent in several languages including Bulgarian and Russian.

Roger Keighley is Head, Africa for ShoreBank International, where he oversees business development and provides project backstopping throughout the region, as well as managing client and partner relationships. For the last 29 years, Mr. Keighley has worked predominantly in Sub-Saharan Africa, working on projects encompassing development finance, SME leasing, bank privatisations, commercial and investment credit banking and treasury operations. He has also worked in the Balkans, undertaking an EU funded privatisation project, dealing with Socially Owned Enterprises in Kosovo. Experienced in working with international Development Finance Institutions, he has been involved in raising and managing lines of credit for a variety of projects. He lives in Cape Town, South Africa where he will continue to be based, with extensive travel across the continent. Mr. Keighley is an Associate of the UK Chartered Institute of Bankers and is studying for a Masters in Development Finance (MDF) with the University of Stellenbosch Business School.

Natalya Klimova is Senior Consultant and currently working for SBI on EBRD project to establish a greenfield MSME bank in Belarus. Prior to that Natalya worked as an SME Advisor under a DFID sponsored Technical Assistance Program at FINA Bank in Nairobi, Kenya. Ms. Klimova joined the company in 1995 when SBI launched the first EBRD funded Small Business Lending Program in Russia and has held positions from Interpreter to Loan Developer. Ms. Klimova worked as Manager of the regional Small Business Lending Program for the Eurasia Foundation in Saratov, Russia and was a Board Member of a local microfinance organization funded by the UN. She served as Manager of the IFC Real Estate Finance Program in the Caucasus, implementing a new credit product in Georgia from 2000 to 2002 and launched the first mortgage program for Shore Overseas Azerbaijan in 2003. As a Real Estate Advisor she helped to oversee the operations of Domenia Credit, the first specialized Mortgage Company established by SBI in Bucharest, Romania. She has ten years of lending experience in emerging markets as it relates to SME and housing lending in Russia, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Romania, Egypt and Kenya. Ms. Klimova earned a degree in English from the Teachers Training University in Tula, Russia and a Certificate from the Special Program for Urban and Regional Studies, MIT, Massachusetts. Ms. Klimova is a Russian national and is fluent in several languages including her native tongue, Russian.

Santhosh Kumar Thiruthimana currently works as a Consultant for Shore Bank International. Mr. Kumar is an expert practitioner in the area of development finance, especially micro, rural and community based finance. Most of Mr. Kumar's experience comes from the work he did for eight years as the Agricultural Extension Officer with Canara Bank, India at very diverse locations in Southern India. He has recorded tremendous success in promoting rural banking and agricultural finance, formation of women self help groups to access micro finance and establishing community development projects through the groups. Having worked with farmers at the rural level, he was involved in promoting new technologies for the improvement of their livelihoods. He was also actively engaged in community development activities of partner NGOs to promote gender equality and economic development. His efforts in the state of Kerala led to the successful formation of more than 500 SHGs comprising nearly 10,000 women. In addition to this work, he also led efforts to form five "Farmer's Cooperative Clubs" in the state of Kerala to spread new agricultural technologies and to promote rural and agricultural finance. In recognition of his work, he was adjudged one of the best rural bankers by NABARD, the apex agricultural finance institution in India. His tasks in commercial banking also included managing all aspects of a credit portfolio of $5 million in 4 branches. Mr. Kumar has completed his Masters in "International Development Policy" at the Duke Center for International Development, Duke University, NC, and BS in Agriculture from Kerala Agricultural University, Kerala state, India.

Ellen Lederman is Senior Consultant at SBI based in London, UK where she currently advises BIGinvest, a ?3.5 million loan fund in the UK focusing on social enterprises and CDFIs. Ms. Lederman is a finance specialist with over 15 years of practical international experience in capital raising, strategic advice, investments, fund design, fund management, financial institution assessment, and capacity building. Ms. Lederman is a member of the board, finance committee and credit committee of a UK CDFI; has conducted assessments of six microcredit organizations in Bosnia; led risk management assignments in Bosnia, Bangladesh and Uganda; and published guides and studies on financing social enterprises in the UK. Ms. Lederman also worked in investment banking at Drexel Burnham Lambert in NY and J.P. Morgan in London and Prague and with the IFC in Prague. Ms. Lederman has a MSM from MIT Sloan School of Management, a MPA from Princeton University Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and a BA Summa Cum Laude in Economics from Cornell University.

Guy Mallett is Senior Consultant at SBI where he is Project Coordinator for the six-country IFC Africa SME Access to Finance project with EcoBank, a leading African commercial bank. Prior to this Mr. Mallett led SBI's team in Madagascar, providing technical assistance to BFV Société Générale, one of the major targeted banks, under an IFC sponsored SME project for bank downscaling, capacity building, market entry and IT solutions. The project was one of several to be implemented by the Government to encourage the development of private sector economic activity. As a native bilingual English/French speaker, Mr. Mallett brings to SBI over twenty years of experience in commercial banking in emerging markets with particular emphasis on the SME sectors in Africa, central Asia and certain areas of Europe. Having served with both the Barclays and Fortis banking groups in junior and senior positions his experience and knowledge of emerging markets extends virtually across the entire African sub-Saharan region. Mr. Mallett is a graduate of the London School of Economics, having previously attended the Sorbonne and the Westminster School London.

Alan Martinez is Senior Manager at SBI where he provides strategic consulting, implementation support and investment advice to financial institutions. Mr. Martinez is currently based in Chicago and is involved in the design and management of client engagements with a focus on strengthening credit, investment and risk management decision making. In addition, Mr. Martinez leads SBI’s credit scoring practice which provides scoring technology to consumer and small business lenders. Over the last seven years - in Europe, Latin America and the United States -- Mr. Martinez has managed long-term projects with seven large scale commercial banks, conducted performance evaluations of 29 financial institutions, and advised two SME investment funds. Prior to joining SBI, Mr. Martinez worked as a small business lender in Chicago with ShoreBank. Mr. Martinez earned a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Philosophy from the University of Texas and a Master’s degree in Public Policy from Harvard University.

John Mayshak is Senior Consultant with SBI where he currently is Project Manager of an EU/EBRD SME Rural Finance Facility at BGZ in Warsaw, Poland. The 15.0 million Euro credit line and technical assistance package are aimed at strengthening the capacity of the bank in providing access to finance for farms and small enterprises in rural areas. Mr. Mayshak previously served as the Director/CEO of SOA Kredit, SBI’s non-bank finance company in Azerbaijan and the country’s first residential mortgage lender. Before joining SBI in 2004, he spent three years running LINK, a UNHCR funded rural micro loan program in Serbia. He was a community development lender with Bank One in Arizona, specializing in affordable multifamily housing and small business loans and investments. Mr. Mayshak managed a large portfolio of USAID capital markets development projects in Poland in the early Nineties. He has a proven track record in institution capacity building, operations and personnel management, portfolio risk management, MIS implementation, training program development, staff mentoring, and due diligence. Mr. Mayshak received a Bachelors Degree in Finance (specialization in Banking) from Arizona State University and an MBA from Thunderbird School of Global Management. Mr. Mayshak is fluent in Polish and conversant in German.

Oswaldo Mendoza is a Junior Consultant at SBI. As a Consultant, he works in different projects in Mexico and Central America, ranging from assessing current practices at Specialized Mortgage Financial Institutions in Mexico, to assessing the creation of a Mezzanine Fund in Central America from the Projected Financial point of view. Oswaldo Mendoza holds a bachelors degree in Public Accounting and Finances from the Technological Institute of Superior Studies of Monterrey, Mexico. Oswaldo Mendoza has been working with ShoreBank International since September 2002 when SBI advised the Inter-American Development Bank in the launch of an $8 million investment fund targeting small and medium-sized businesses in Mexico. Oswaldo Mendoza is fluent in Spanish and English.

Stephanie McKeiver is Head, Human Resources and Contracts Management. Ms. McKeiver manages the human resources function for SBI and participates in development of career development initiatives. In addition, Ms. McKeiver manages the processes related to SBI's contractual relationships, both with donors and clients (external) and contractors (internal). Finally, she oversees development and implementation of policies and procedures designed to ensure the security and safety of SBI personnel and contractors and serves as a liaison to ShoreBank Corporation's crisis management team. Ms. McKeiver has been employed by SBI for 10 years, and has an undergraduate degree from DePaul University.

Stefan Merjavy is a Senior Consultant at SBI with six years of lending and risk experience and extensive credit training experience from eight EBRD Finance Facility projects in Slovakia and Czech Republic. He was involved in various Strategic Planning processes and Credit Scoring development/testing. Mr. Merjavy has a BA in Economics and Information Technologies and has undergone several courses in Credit Risk, Accounting and Banking. Native Slovak, he is fluent in English and German, and has a moderate knowledge of Russian language

Tocher Mitchell is a Consultant for ShoreBank International where he is the long-term advisor to SBI's portion of the USAID-funded Southern Africa Financial Sector Program. Tocher brings more than thirty years of experience in commercial and development banking as a loan officer, manager, consultant and financial analyst, with SMEs, micro enterprises and municipalities. He also has extensive project management experience and strong credit skills, including certification as a US SBA SME lender. Prior to working as an independent consultant, Mr. Mitchell held senior positions at several banks, including Vice President of Chittenden Bank, Financial Analyst at the Asian Development Bank and Vice President and Manager of Credit at Chase Manhattan Bank. Mr. Mitchell's geographic experience includes work in the Slovak Republic, Czech Republic, Philippines, Mongolia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and South Africa. Mr. Mitchell holds a Masters in International Management from the Thunderbird School of Global Management and a BA from Lawrence University.

Nicholas Molodyko serves as Head, Practice Management and is assigned primary line management for SBI's intellectual capital (IC) development activities; capturing, storing and disseminating (internally and externally). Prior to joining SBI, he was involved in the start-up of SBI's sister company, ShoreCap Exchange, where he developed an approach for the procurement of consultants and operations policies and procedures. Before joining ShoreBank, Nicholas spent over a decade managing grant-funded international public health projects where he provided technical assistance, managed logistics and served as a institutional liaison to the United Nations, and Sub-Saharan African NGOs and government agencies. He has co-authored papers in the areas of adult learning and data collection methodology. He majored in music performance at the University of the Pacific Conservatory of Music and public health at the University of Alabama School Of Public Health. Currently, Mr. Molodyko also serves as Chief Editor for UPsides with the Nederlandse Financierings-Maatschappij voor Ontwikkelingslanden NV (FMO) and serves on the CGAP Steering Committee for Knowledge Management. He is conversant in French and Russian.

Lauren Moser, CFA, is Vice President at SBI and heads the company's Washington, DC office, where she leads the design and oversight of international development projects in Latin America, Asia, and Africa. Ms. Moser is a MSME and housing finance specialist and brings over 13 years of international finance experience, in which she has designed and managed funds in Mexico and Argentina, utilizing traditional debt and quasi-equity investment structures, as well as engaged in microfinance upscaling and commercial bank downscaling in the former Soviet Union, Asia, and Africa. She has also designed and currently oversees the Global Financial Innovations Project GDA with USAID, aimed at leveraging private sector funding towards generating slum improvement, and is currently assisting in leveraging DCA guarantees for pilot projects in South Africa. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Barnard College and holds a Masters from the Center of Eurasian, Russian and East European Studies of Georgetown University. Ms. Moser is a Chartered Financial Analyst and speaks fluent Russian and is proficient in Spanish.

Donna Nails is a Consultant for SBI. Ms. Nails provides consultative services on risk management to financial internationally including credit risk review of transforming MFI in Pakistan, risk assessments of a small business lending institution in Azerbaijan, developing the credit department of a bank in Kenya, and providing training to mortgage finance lenders in Egypt. Previously, Ms. Nails held the following positions at SBI Corporation: Special Projects Manager for the CFO, Deputy Director of the Corporate Risk Management Department. Ms. Nails began her career as a business lender at SBI. Prior to working at SBI, Donna Nails worked for USAID in Ukraine and was a Peace Corp Volunteer in Moldova. Ms. Nails holds a BA from the University of Illinois and a MBA from
DePaul University in Chicago.

Stephen Orlesky is a Senior Consultant at SBI and CEO of a Greenfield bank in Belarus - the Belarusian Bank for Small Business. Mr. Orlesky has over 10 years of developmental finance experience in the field - mainly in the former Soviet Union, Romania and Southeast Asia - coupled with 9 years of corporate and investing banking experience in North America. He is an MBA graduate from the University of Toronto and has a good working knowledge of Russian and Ukrainian and is also conversant in French and German.

Lara McCoy Pawlak is manager of Global Talent Resourcing for ShoreBank International, based out of the Chicago office. Prior to joining SBI, Ms. Pawlak had fourteen years of experience in project management, business development and business technical assistance, working in diverse private and nonprofit organizations devoted to international development assistance, consulting, and database analytics for financial services firms. In the early 1990s, Ms. Pawlak worked at a small business fund in St. Petersburg, Russia, supporting the due diligence process for equity investments. Ms. Pawlak received her BA in International Studies, with a focus on International Development, from American University in Washington, DC and completed her MBA at the University of Kentucky.

Jan Piercy is Executive Vice-President with SBI Corporation and is charged with fostering internal and external relationships relating to capital raising, business development and professional capacity for the three sister international companies (SBI, SCI and SCE) and SBI Corporation. Ms. Piercy also handles some senior executive searches for SBI and advises on recruiting, managerial development and the SBI intern and fellowships program. Ms. Piercy oversees the direction, operation and management of SBI's international group of companies. Ms. Piercy rejoined SBI in April, 2005 as Executive Vice President, where she had earlier been a Senior Vice President. In 2002, Ms. Piercy concluded a seven year term representing the United States on the Board of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development. At the World Bank, she chaired the Board Personnel Committee and the Committee on Development Effectiveness and served on the Board Audit Committee. She received the U.S. Treasury Medal of Honor in 2001 for her service at the World Bank. Prior to her nomination to the World Bank Board, Ms. Piercy was Deputy Assistant to President Clinton for Presidential Appointments in the White House. She graduated with honors from Wellesley College, and completed Stanford Business School's Senior Executives Management Training program. She serves on the Boards of the Global Health Council and Vital Voices, and the Advisory Councils of the Acumen Fund and the Global Philanthropy Forum. Ms. Piercy is a frequent speaker on economic development policy and issues.

Rupini Deepa Rajagopalan, International Development Associate is located at SBI's Chicago office. Prior to joining SBI, Ms.Rajagopalan worked in the Islamic wholesale banking division at Standard Chartered Bank in Malaysia where she was responsible in identifying, developing and managing its Islamic business/portfolio. She has experience in structuring term sheets, preparing business credit applications and managing product development. Ms Rajagopalan holds an undergraduate degree from Victoria University, Melbourne in Banking and Finance. She is a Malaysian national fluent in Malay, English, Bengali, conversant in Indonesian and speaks basic level Hindi.

Daniel Popa has worked in the Romanian banking sector for ten years in a variety of roles, most recently as an SBI Country Manager/ Project Manager for the EBRD SME Finance Facility project with CEC Bank Romania. In this role he successfully implements the SME Project for the bank and carries out staff training in SME finance. Previous to this he was involved in SBI's TA programmes for AlphaBank, BCR, and Banca Transilvania. Mr. Popa worked for SBI as a Financial Sector Specialist in Pakistan under a USAID-funded project to improve the access of Pakistani MSMEs to finance. In this capacity he has developed and implemented training courses for bank and MFI lenders throughout Pakistan, mentored Pakistani staff in small business lending techniques and managed relationships with partner financial institutions. He also had short-term international assignments in training (Kenya, Mali) and Portfolio Risk Assessment (Azerbaijan). Mr. Popa has an MBA from the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, a BA in Engineering and another one in Economics at Babes Bolyai University of Cluj- Napoca, Romania.

Hala Razian, a Business Analyst for ShoreBank International UK Ltd., is based in SBI's UK Office. Ms. Razian is responsible for project support on several Central and Eastern European and Former Soviet Union (CEE/FSU) small business lending capacity building and technical assistance projects. In addition, Ms. Razian supports Francophone and Anglophone business development and project management in Africa. Areas of specialization include small business lending and energy efficiency financing. Ms. Razian has three years experience in the public sector including at the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and United Nations Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) in Lebanon. She has served as the Corporate Social Responsibility Officer for UNDP, working towards institutionalizing legal reforms in support of socially responsible business as well as working with SMEs and larger corporations to develop sustainable public private partnerships for development between them. While acting as Program Assistant to UNICEF Lebanon's Greeting Cards and Women's Program Operations, Ms. Razian managed the strategy, budgeting, fund raising, statutory and regulatory reporting, and monitoring adherence to financial controls, tax planning and compliance to support the business lines of the UNICEF National Greeting cards sales campaign. She also provided support on assignments such as business valuations, feasibility studies, proposal writing, project administrative duties, workshop and seminar organizing, marketing and advertising, and any backstopping activities as necessary throughout her professional career. Ms. Razian speaks fluent English and Arabic and intermediate French and holds a First MSc in Development Studies from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, UK.

Arif Rizvi is Chief Operating Officer for SBI. Prior to joining our team, Mr. Rizvi was Vice President and Business Manager, Shared Services, at ABN AMRO. In that role, he created the vision of a comprehensive program for evaluating Operational and Financial performance for all of ABN's Consumer Operations and Operations control business units. He also developed strategy and tactics for implementation, and convened working teams of US Operations Heads / CFOs to present and implement programs, generated buy-in, and monitored impact and results. Mr. Rizvi is a senior executive experienced in Finance, Operations, and Corporate Governance having worked across Asia, Europe, and United States.

Magda Šestáková is a Credit and Risk Management Consultant with SBI, based in Prague, and has over five years experience as a team member of EU/EBRD SME Finance Facilities in Czech and Slovak Banks and Leasing companies. Ms. Šestáková serves a pivotal role in training and coaching loan officers and working with managers to develop processes and procedures for SME lending. She is fluent in several languages including her native tongue Czech, Slovak and Hebrew.

Afsheen Shakoor is a Senior Analyst/ Finance Officer at SBI, as a Senior Analyst she works in close coordination with company's clients to provide technical assistance services and as a finance officer she works on finance, accounting and reporting for Pakistan based projects. Ms. Shakoor holds Chartered Accountant (Finalist) degree from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Pakistan and she is also a Certified Internal Auditor from the Institute of Internal Auditors, Florida U.S.A. Ms. Shakoor brings more than 6 years of experience in the field. Ms. Shakoor is fluent in English, Urdu and Punjabi.

Laurie J. Spengler is President of SBI. Ms. Spengler leads the senior management team of SBI and is responsible for the strategic direction of the company. Having founded and managed a business solutions and legal services firm in Central Europe for the past 15 years, Ms. Spengler brings to SBI an entrepreneurial perspective and an understanding of the challenges and opportunities of working in transitional economies. Ms. Spengler has over 20 years of experience as a strategy and transaction services professional, with significant experience in capital raising, M&A, and private equity transactions. Over the past decade, she has developed a particular focus on access to capital for individual entrepreneurs and small businesses. Previously, Ms. Spengler worked as an attorney with the New York, Brussels and Prague offices of White & Case. Ms. Spengler has a JD from Harvard University and an undergraduate degree from Stanford University.

Paula Storch Tjossem is an individual lending, microfinance and SME specialist and possesses over 12 years of practical experience in developing and transitional economies of Africa, Eastern Europe, South Asia, and the former Soviet Union. She designed, created, managed, and operated two microfinance / SME financial institutions as well as has managed and operated loan funds. Micro and small business development skills include assessment; product design and development; execution and direct management of financial institutions; commercial lending; grant management; institutional development and capacity building; operational management; monitoring and evaluation; business development services; impact survey design and implementation; extensive practice in creation and presentation of trainings; and provision of technical expertise in formal and informal settings, rural and urban areas, and diverse political environments. Ms. Tjossem has also worked with refugee and internally displaced persons in war torn areas in the areas of income generation and sustainable livelihood in rural and urban settings. Prior to Ms. Tjossem's international experience, she worked in the U.S. banking corporate trust area. Ms. Tjossem holds a BS in finance from the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill and studied contemporary Economic Policy at the American University.

Frances Toomey is a Senior Manager at SBI where she currently provides oversight for a $15M SME Rural Investment Fund for Afghan financial institutions under the Agriculture, Rural Investment and Enterprise Strengthening (ARIES) program. Previously, Ms. Toomey was the Rural Finance Director for the Rebuilding Agricultural Markets Program (RAMP) in Afghanistan. Ms. Toomey is a banking and microfinance specialist and brings to SBI over 16 years of practical international experience managing and supporting the development of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises including commercial lending, grant management, business development services, institution capacity building and training in transitional economies of Southeast Asia, Africa, and the former Soviet Union. Ms. Toomey has direct experience with program development including personnel management, financial operations, program evaluations, logistics and security issues. Ms. Toomey also worked in sales management, market research and administration for five years in the U.S. private sector. Ms. Toomey has an MBA from the University of Cincinnati.

Vanina Vincensini is a Consultant at SBI. Based in Brazil, she oversees the collection of SBI’s lending and development output data. She is responsible for producing the various reports which summarize the company’s activity in the world. Before moving to Brazil, Ms. Vincensini was a fellow in the ShoreBank group in Chicago. There, she worked on growth plans and market assessments in the real estate lending department of the Bank as well as on various strategic issues at SBI. Interested in international and local economic development, Ms. Vincensini has also been advising the World Bank on a variety of topics, including municipal finance, social protection, and human development policies. She has experience working in the French administration on diplomatic affairs and economic support for small businesses. A Fulbright Scholar, Ms. Vincensini holds a Master of Public Policy from the University of Chicago and a Master in Public Administration from the Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris, France. She is a native French speaker and is fluent in English, Portuguese, and Spanish.

Kirsten Weiss is Senior Consultant at SBI where she currently works in both Pakistan and Afghanistan. Ms. Weiss is an SME and microfinance specialist and brings to SBI over 12 years of practical international experience managing and supporting the development of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises including commercial lending, grant management, business development services, institution capacity building and training in transitional economies of Central and Southeast Asia, and the former Soviet Union. Ms. Weiss has direct experience with program development including personnel management, financial operations, program evaluations, logistics and security issues. Ms. Weiss also worked in marketing, tourism development, and accounting in both the private and public sectors. Ms. Weiss has an MBA in International Management from Thunderbird, the Garvin School of International Management.

Thomas Welfle, a Consultant for SBI, currently works in Kenya with our partner K-Rep Bank on the Kenya Rural Enterprise Project. In 2002 he began his career with Internationale Projekt Consult GmbH (IPC) on the EBRD Kyrgyz Micro and Small Enterprise Finance Facility (MSFF), a $15.3 million facility to support the growth of Micro and Small Enterprises in the Kyrgyz Republic. Initially he worked on the expansion of the micro crediting activities in partner banks in Bishkek and Osh. As a member of various credit committees, Mr. Welfle has experience in the development and management of micro, small and medium-sized enterprise finance institutions. He has organized and carried out assessment centers for new loan officer recruitment, overseen loan officer training, daily crediting operation and implementation of efficient micro crediting procedures with partner banks. He advises small companies and bank management in the areas of organisational and operational structure, information management, human resource management, marketing, risk identification and risk control. Mr. Welfle holds a degree in Economics from Humboldt-University Berlin and speaks fluently German, English and Russian.

Stephanie Wescoat is a Project Accountant at SBI, based out of the Chicago office. She works on foreign project accounting and reporting, billing, and accounts receivable, primarily with ERBD. Being an accountant by trade, Ms. Wescoat brings over 5 years of experience in the field and plans on taking the CPA exam in 2009. She received a BS in Geography and an MBA with a concentration in Strategic Management from Central Michigan University. She also holds a post-graduate certificate from Davenport University specializing in Forensic Accounting.