I founded and am currently the Executive Director of the Grassroots Business Fund (GBF), a non-profit impact investment fund that provides investment capital and capacity building to high impact businesses in several developing countries across the globe.
I want to help create a new force in the fight against global poverty by creating sustainable, high-impact business models for grassroots development, models that can attract both public and private sector funders.
Prior to starting GBF, I worked at the International Finance Corporation (IFC), part of the World Bank Group, for over 30 years. I served as an investment officer in IFC's Latin America and Africa Departments; as manager for IFC Financial Planning and Policy; as a member of the task force that started the World Bank Group operations in the former Soviet Union; as manager of IFC’s Asia Department; and as director of IFC’s Central and Southern European Department. I helped fund and manage large IFC investment portfolios and played a major role in starting IFC’s microfinance and SME activities. I helped IFC move into a number of new approaches, geographic markets, products and services.
