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  • MFX Board

    • Alex Silva, OMTRIX Principal Partner, President and Founder (Chair of MFX Inc. and MFX LLC)
      Alex Silva has more than 25 years of experience in international finance with expertise in the areas of evaluation of financial intermediaries, financial engineering, strategic planning and corporate finance. He has knowledge of the Latin American and Caribbean financial markets and maintains regular contact with several bi/multilateral institutions in the region. In addition, he has high-level contacts within the Latin American business community as well as financial institutions. Mr. Silva is manager of Antares Fund, a for-profit equity participation fund aiming to develop a secondary market for shares of microfinance institutions (MFIs), financial institutions specializing in servicing small and micro entrepreneurs. He is also Executive Director of Calmeadow and representative of this Canadian NGO in the Board of Africap, a fund specialized in providing equity and long-term funding to African MFIs. Prior to establishing Omtrix, Mr. Silva worked for the Inter-American Investment Corporation (IIC), a multilateral financial institution, as head of its Central American office. He was executive director of ProFund Internacional, where he was responsible for the management of a regional investment fund specializing in equity investments in MFIs in Latin America and the Caribbean. He has been a board member of numerous MFIs in countries such as Nicaragua, Haiti, Venezuela, Mexico, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia. Alex also sits on Habitat for Humanity's International Board.

    • Eliza Erikson, Portfolio Manager, Calvert Foundation (Board of MFX Inc.)
      Eliza M. Erikson is the Manager of the Microfinance Portfolio at the Calvert Social Investment Foundation in Bethesda, Maryland. The mission of the Calvert Foundation is to end poverty through investment in organizations creating wealth in low-income communities around the world. Ms. Erikson analyzes new institutions applying for investment capital and monitors the growing $170 million portfolio of 270 clients. She is specifically responsible for the management of the international microfinance portfolio, which she has grown from $10 million to $60 million in debt and equity investments outstanding to some 75 microfinance institutions all over the world. She has also worked with the Corporation for Enterprise Development and the US Agency for International Development, providing management consulting and investment services to development finance institutions in the US, Latin America, South Asia and North Africa. In addition, Ms. Erikson designed and launched a microfinance program at a community development corporation in the central highlands of Guatemala. Ms. Erikson received a B.A. in Politics from Princeton University and a Masters in Public Policy (M.P.P.) with concentrations in finance and program evaluation from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. She is a member of the Board of Directors of the I Do Foundation. She lives in the Columbia Heights neighborhood of Washington, D.C. with her husband and twin daughters.

    • Chris Bishko, Director, Investments, Omidyar Network (Board of MFX Inc. and MFX LLC.)
      Chris's expertise spans a variety of subsectors within the technology and financial services industries. At Omidyar Network, Chris brings his diverse experience to his role in making investments across the Access to Capital and Media, Markets & Transparency initiatives. Before joining Omidyar Network, Chris was an Executive Director with JPMorgan Chase & Co., where he began his career in 1992. During his 16 years in investment banking, Chris held a variety of positions across investment banking client coverage, equity capital markets, and private equity investing. As a private equity investment professional, Chris was a member of a team responsible for more than $450 million of investments. Chris received a BS from Duke University, where he graduated magna cum laude and majored in biomedical engineering and English literature.

    • Gary Mulhair, Chief Investment Officer, Global Partnerships (Board of MFX Inc.)
      As Chief Investment Officer at Global Partnerships, Gary directs investments in Latin American partner programs. His accomplishments at Global Partnerships include developing an investment fund model which has allowed Global to increase investments in MFIs from $300,000 to $30M in 2008/9; secured pro bono legal support in excess of $1 M from 2005-2008; has built a team 12 professionals (seven in Nicaragua and five in Seattle); developed strategic collaborations with other fund managers leading to Global Partnerships originating and servicing $25M in MFI loans on behalf of third parties; fund management activities have generated operating income totaling ~$1M in revenue in current year up from 0 in 2002. Gary is also the founder and principal of Calhoun Properties, a developer and operator of market based affordable housing in Seattle. Gary served as president and CEO of Community Wealth Ventures, Inc., a Washington, D.C.-based business consulting organization. He has many years of experience in the human services sector, as he spent 14 years as president and CEO of Pioneer Human Services, developing growth strategies and implementing new programs. An active community member, Mulhair served on many local boards of directors and advisory committees, including Governors Task Force on Food Banks, Pioneer Cooperative Affiliation, Vashon-Maury Health Services Center, Washington Community Corrections Association, South Seattle Community College and Global Partnerships. He currently is on the advisory committee for the Grameen Foundation's programs in Latin America and he is on the board of MFX, a micro finance industry initiative to provide viable local currency options.

    • Jeffrey Golden, Allen and Overy LLP (Board of MFX Inc.)
      Jeffrey Golden is Special US Counsel in the London office of international law firm Allen & Overy LLP, which he joined as a partner in 1994 after 15 years with leading Wall Street practice Cravath, Swaine & Moore. He was the founder partner of Allen & Overy's US law practice and senior partner in the firm's global derivatives practice and has extensive experience of a wide range of capital markets matters, including swaps and derivatives, international equity and debt offerings, US private placements and listings and mergers, acquisitions and joint ventures. He acts for the International Swaps and Derivatives Association, was a principal author of ISDA's Master Agreements, has appeared as an expert witness in several high profile derivatives cases and chaired the American Bar Association's working group on the rule of law and economic development. He is Past Chair of the ABA 's Section of International Law, co-chair of its Financial Engineering for Economic Development (FEED) and International Criminal Court task forces and a former co-chair of its International Securities and Capital Markets and U.S. Lawyers Practicing Abroad Committees and a Life Fellow of the American Bar Foundation. He also serves on the Commission on the World Justice Project , the Steering Committee of the ABA/UNDP International Legal Resource Center and the ABA Presidential Showcase Commission on Ethics 20/20 and as Section of International Law Liaison to the ABA Financial Markets Regulatory Reform task force and Trustee of the International Bar Association Foundation. He studied at Duke University, the London School of Economics and Political Science and Columbia University School of Law, from which he received his J.D. degree with honors in 1978.

    • Monica Brand, Principal Director, Frontier Investments, ACCION International (Board of MFX LLC)
      Monica Brand has spent her career in the financial services and social enterprise sectors, expanding and enhancing the value offered to the majority. Ms. Brand currently manages Frontier Investments, whose mandate is to invest in early stage companies with disruptive business models that catalyze breakthrough innovation in financial inclusion. Prior to assuming responsibility for managing this fund, Ms. Brand launched and ran ACCION's Marketing & Product Development Unit, where she oversaw the creation of new financial services to move the industry beyond microcredit. Ms. Brand received both a M.B.A. and a master's of education from Stanford University and her Bachelors of Arts degree in Economics from Williams College, where she graduated with honors. Ms Brand serves on numerous boards including Compartamos Bank in Mexico, Paralife Holdings (a Swiss micro-insurance company), MicroFinance Currency Risk (MFX) Solutions (currency hedging and other risk management instruments for MFIs) and the DC Employment Justice Center. Monica is half-Peruvian and lives with her husband and twin children in Washington DC.

    • Rita Van den Abbeel, Chief Financial Officer, Incofin (Board of MFX LLC.)
      Rita is in charge of the financial department at Incofin Investment Management, a Belgium-based specialized microfinance fund management company. Her team handles for both Incofin and currently 4 other funds under management the following: accounting, preparation of financial statements and general reporting risk monitoring including currency risk hedging, tax policy, liquidity management, ALM, MFI quality monitoring via the BRS reporting tool and the managing of the internal Management Information System. She started at Incofin in 2002 as investment manager for Africa. She is a master in agronomics, specialized in tropical agriculture, phytotechnics and economics. She worked for 12 years in Africa (Tanzania, Congo) in agricultural and agro-processing projects. From 1998 until 2001, she managed a microcredit fund in Tanzania. Rita Van den Abbeel is fluent in English, French, Dutch and Kiswahili.

    • Ruben de Haseth Senior Investment Officer, Triodos Investment Management BV(Board of MFX Inc. and MFX LLC)
      Ruben de Haseth works as a Senior Investment Officer at Triodos Bank, a fully licensed independent bank with branches in The Netherlands, United Kingdom, Belgium, Spain and Germany. Recoginition was given to the bank's pioneering role in the world of sustainable and transparent banking when the Financial Times named Triodos Bank the Sustainable Bank of the Year in 2009. Ruben works for the investment banking arm of Triodos Bank: Triodos Investment Management. Triodos Investment Management is a 100% subsidiary of Triodos Bank and is responsible for managing a number of internationally operating funds that invest both in developing countries and Europe. In his position, Ruben is responsible for investments (both debt and equity) in microfinance institutions in Latin America. Before joining Triodos Bank in March 2007, Ruben was a Director in ABN AMRO's structured finance group in London, focusing on international structured and project financing transactions in Russia, other FSU countries and the Middle East. He holds a Master of Science degree in Chemical Engineering from Delft University of Technology. Ruben is a Dutch citizen and speaks fluent English and Spanish.