Julia was appointed General Manager of Grameen-Jameel Microfinance Ltd., the Grameen Foundation and Abdul Latif Jameel Group joint venture, in July 2009. Julia brings eight years of senior banking experience to the position, most recently serving as Deputy General Manager and Head of Network & Sales in BNP Paribas Egypt. Julia has worked in various roles in Retail Banking, product development, credit risk, branch management and consumer finance at Barclay’s Bank Egypt & South Africa as well as BNP Paribas Egypt. Julia has a Bachelor’s in business administration with a focus in finance and economics and is a qualified investment advisor. Since 2001, Julia established a fast growing career in Retail Banking working in different countries in Africa & the Middle East, being based out of Egypt and South Africa.
Senior Staff
Elizabeth leads Grameen Foundation Technology Center’s efforts to transform the microfinance sector by providing solutions for mobile phone-based financial services. Grameen Foundation’s work in this space has been so successful that the organization recently won an award from the Marketplace for Innovative Financial Solutions for Development for its work providing mobile-money solutions in Kenya. Prior to working at Grameen Foundation, Elizabeth worked in various roles in corporate finance, strategic planning, negotiations and consulting in the United States, China, and France. She holds a Master’s in International Management from Thunderbird, the Garvin School of International Management, and a B.A in marketing from the University of Southern California. She is a member of the advisory council for Youth Assets, a non-profit organization that works to empower disadvantaged youth in Swaziland with information through technology, and is a founding member and co-chair for Women Advancing Microfinance – Pacific Northwest Chapter.
Kate Druschel Griffin is a microfinance professional with regional experience in Asia. She currently leads GF’s initiative to reach the world’s poorest people with access to reliable business opportunities and financial management tools. She has also overseen programs in the Philippines, East Timor, and Indonesia, and led GF’s strategic expansion into China. She is currently an adjunct faculty member at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and is a board member of Women Advancing Microfinance International. Previously, Kate focused on microfinance policy and poverty measurement tools at the IRIS Center at the University of Maryland. A Mandarin Chinese speaker, Kate holds an MA in International Development from American University and a BA from Kenyon College.
Beverly has served as the Director of Human Resources for Grameen Foundation since 2006. During her tenure with Grameen Foundation, Beverly has led various human resources initiatives in support of Grameen Foundation’s mission. Beverly’s human resources career reaches over 25 years in the public sector where she managed benefits, employee relations, payroll and talent management initiatives for large heath care institutions. She received her Master’s Degree in Human Resources Development from Towson University.
With more than 15 years of experience in nonprofit management and volunteer mobilization, Shannon Maynard joined Grameen Foundation in February 2009 as Director of Bankers without Borders®. She previously was the Executive Director of the President’s Council on Service and Civic Participation and managed strategic initiatives for the federal agency the Corporation for National and Community Service. Her work has been featured in the Stanford Social Innovation Review, Nonprofit Quarterly and the Chronicle of Philanthropy. A former AmeriCorps VISTA volunteer, Shannon received an MBA from Johns Hopkins University and a B.A. in journalism and political science from the University of Richmond.
Peg Ross is director of the Human Capital Center (HCC) at Grameen Foundation. Prior to joining GF, she served as the human resources lead on microfinance teams in Bangladesh and Bhutan. Peg has held senior HR leadership positions in the private sector, most recently as vice president of HR for Fortune 500 industry leader Equity Office Properties Trust, where she led the people side of three precedent-setting mergers, valued at over $16 billion.
Peg received her M.S. in Organization Development with high dean’s honors from Loyola University of Chicago, and a B.A. in Cultural Anthropology from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. She is certified as a Senior Professional in Human Resources.
Emily has more than seven years of experience in the technology sector, most recently at Amazon.com, where she oversaw product development, marketing and strategic planning for the used-product ("marketplace") business, which achieved $81M of sales in the first year of operations. Before to that, she worked at Wired Digital (the online division of Wired magazine), where she was the Senior Producer of Wired News.
Emily has long been interested in India. She graduated Magna Cum Laude from Harvard University with a degree in Comparative Religion and South Asian traditions, and spent her junior year of college studying at Banaras Hindu University in Varanasi, India.
Tim specializes in applying information technology to address the problems of poverty and health in developing countries. After 12 years at Microsoft working on software development, Tim spent two years consulting with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation analyzing the intersection of Information Technology and Global Health. He joined the Grameen Foundation Technology Center in 2002 and pioneered replication of the Grameen Village Phone program, launching sustainable initiatives in Uganda and Rwanda. As Director of Mobile Health Innovation, Tim has led the creation of the OpenSource MOTECH (Mobile Technology for Community Health) Platform that is currently serving pregnant women and community health workers in rural Ghana and is soon to be deployed in India with HIV/AIDS patients. Tim received a B.A. in Political Science from Stanford University.
Heather leads the AppLab Indonesia program, the Community Knowledge Worker Initiative in Uganda, and advises on other Uganda-based ICT-Innovation programs. Prior to Grameen, Heather spent nearly 6 years at Microsoft in strategy, product management, and operational leadership roles, including work focused on emerging markets consumers, in the Windows, Microsoft Research and Mobile divisions. Prior to Microsoft, she was an associate with McKinsey & Company, started her own outdoor gear company, worked in Russia for a Moscow-based investment bank, and for NASA on the US-Russian space program. She received BA degrees in Russian Language and Political Science from University of Washington, and an MBA from Wharton.
As Grameen Foundation's Director of Regional Development, based in Seattle, Robyn MacIntire brings more than 20 years of experience in fundraising, donor relations, client development, and strategic planning to the organization. Before joining Grameen, Robyn was Director of Development at the University of Washington's Henry Art Gallery, where she was a key member of their leadership team. She has also served as the Major Gifts Officer at the Seattle Art Museum, and the Associate Director of Major Gifts at the Seattle Symphony.
Earlier in her career, Robyn was an Investment Representative for Bank of America Investment Services and Prudential Securities, advising clients with assets up to $10 million. Robyn earned a Bachelor's degree in Business Administration & Arts Management from Principia College in Elsah, IL, and has studied at the University of Glasgow, Royal Scottish Academy of Dramatic Arts, and the Chinese Institute of National Minorities in Beijing, China.
Steve has worked for more than 15 years at the intersection of technology and education. Before joining Grameen Foundation in August 2010, he served for a number of years as the Director of Innovation and Technology at Salesforce.com Foundation. While there, he established himself as a thought leader in the social metrics space through extensive experience working with organizations such as the Acumen Fund, GIIN (Global Impact Investing Network) and members of ANDE (Aspen Network for Development Entrepreneurs).
Steve also a long background as a high school administrator and classroom teacher, and started his career in the Peace Corps. In 1990, while teaching at Pasadena High School, he became interested in the role that electronic communications could play to promote and facilitate interactions between students in underserved communities and the rest of the world. Today, Steve’s work concentrates on helping microfinance institutions and other development organizations measure and manage their social performance using the Progress out of Poverty Index™.
Kari Hammett-Caster creates and implements online and direct mail fundraising campaigns for current and prospective donors, and leads efforts to increase visibility through online promotions, corporate giving campaigns, events, and e-mail. Kari brings more than 10 years of experience in nonprofit development and corporate giving, and a passion for helping donors change the world.
Before joining the Grameen Foundation team, Kari was Manager of Donor Relations at Unitus, where she led its involvement in workplace giving campaigns, supporter stewardship, donor-related trips and events, and volunteer programs. Kari also spent three years on the Community Affairs team at Microsoft, driving their employee giving campaign (covering 40,000 employees) and their matching-gifts program, and four years in development at Rainier Christian Schools. She holds a Bachelors in Communications from Trinity Western University in British Columbia.
Sean has overall responsibility for Grameen Foundation’s operations and programs in Uganda, ensuring the ongoing delivery of impact, while scaling and developing sustainable business models for the CKW initiative and new AppLab Uganda initiatives.
Sean came to Grameen Foundation with over 11 years of ICT experience, including extensive work in the African context. From 2008-2010, Sean served as Head of Emerging Market Services, Middle East and Africa, at Nokia, where he and his team developed mobile services such as Nokia Ovi’s Life Tools, aimed at supporting poor farmers and their families with mobile services in agriculture, education, and health. In addition, Sean previously served as Deputy Head of Nokia’s EU office, and held the role of secretary of the EU Africa Business Forum. He has served in various roles in strategy, marketing, product, and business development throughout his career.
Jacqui Moller Larsen joined Grameen Foundation as Country Director for Ghana with twenty years of experience in public health, organizational development and program/project management both in the UK and developing countries. Jacqui has a wide range of experience working with a number of development partners and government agencies including the Ministry of Women and Children’s Affairs and DANIDA in Bangladesh helping initiate community support systems as part of a programme of one stop multi-disciplinary center’s for women and children experiencing violence. More recently she has worked in Ghana with AED/USAID as Chief of Party of a large social marketing and behavior change communication project on HIV/AIDS, malaria, family planning and maternal and child health. She has supported the Ministry of Health to redesign their biannual Health Summits to become highly participative and consultative events, and supported UNICEF and the Ghana Health Service develop a national C4D - Communication for Development Strategy and design and implement a national infrastructure within the GHS to coordinate health promotion efforts.
Khuloud Odeh brings to Grameen Foundation 15 years of IT experience from the private, public, nonprofit and international development sectors. In the recent years of her career and academic research, she has focused on sustainability and the enabling role of information and communication technology (ICT) in sustainable development. For more than five years as Chief Information Officer of CHF International, an international development NGO, Khuloud led the organization’s IT functions and strategy during a period of rapid and challenging international growth. Most recently, she served as a Senior Strategic IT adviser to JHPIEGO, an international health organization affiliated with Johns Hopkins University, and as a senior advisor to the Multinational Development of Women in Technology (MDWIT). In her earlier career, Khuloud held several senior software-development and management positions in the Middle East, Canada and the US.
She is a PhD candidate at the Volgenau School of IT and Engineering at George Mason University, and recently received a Master’s degree in Strategic Leadership toward Sustainability (MSLS) from Blekinge Institute of Technology, Karlskrona, Sweden. She holds a B.S. from the University of Jordan in Amman, Jordan and Master’s degree in Computer Science from American University in Washington, DC. Through working in the international development sector, Khuloud got her deeper understanding of sustainable development principles and managed to combine two of her greatest passions: the love for innovative use of IT, and the passion for helping people. Though she currently lives in Washington, DC, Khuloud is originally from Palestine and is a native Arabic speaker.
Matthew Speh is responsible for Grameen Foundation's investment strategy involving microfinance institutions (MFIs) and social enterprises. In directing the Capital Markets group, he oversees Grameen Foundation’s $35 million Growth Guarantee program, which helps more established MFIs gain access to financing in local currency, as well as the $7 million Pioneer Fund, which helps provide financing to less established MFIs. He has more than 15 years of capital markets and consulting experience in microfinance, corporate banking, private equity, portfolio management, and loan work-out.
Matthew joined Grameen Foundation in 2009, after consulting with the shareholders of Bank Andara in Indonesia to enable a local retail bank to offer wholesale correspondent banking services to MFIs throughout the country. He previously served as Director of Investments at MicroVest Capital Management LLC, where he directed the origination, structuring and asset allocation of more than $60 million in debt and equity microfinance investments. Before entering the microfinance sector, Matthew gained more than six years of capital markets experience at Bank of America within the private equity, relationship banking and distressed-assets management areas of the bank.
Matthew received a BA degree in International Affairs, cum laude, from James Madison University, and an MBA from the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University.
Ria is responsible for managing the day-to-day activities of the finance department, including the budget process, financial reporting, grant reporting, field office accounting, annual audit, and centralized payroll and accounting for our offices in the US and overseas. She joined Grameen Foundation in September 2007 after spending nearly 10 years in finance, accounting and consulting.
Previously, Ria lived in England for four years where she instructed advanced accounting and finance courses for an MBA program at Lakenheath. She also spent four years at Arthur Andersen, providing financial and business consulting and auditing services to companies in a variety of industries. At Andersen, she provided guidance regarding federal regulatory compliance, risk assessment, business process reengineering, and accounting and reporting of financial transactions. Ria also worked as a financial analyst at Enron Capital and Trade Resources, and at SBC Communications.
She is a board member of Asian American LEAD, a non-profit that works to provide educational enrichment and development programs to underserved Asian American youth in the Washington, D.C., metro area. She holds an MS in Accountancy and a BS in Accounting and Finance from Trinity University. She has traveled the world extensively and speaks Hindi, Gujarati and Spanish.
Christopher (“Happy”) Tan is Grameen Foundation’s regional director for East and Southeast Asia. He is responsible for defining and executing Grameen Foundation’s long-term strategy, and overseeing its various investments and technical assistance projects, in the region. He has almost 15 years of experience in development finance, nonprofit management and public interest law, having worked for ShoreBank Advisory Services (SAS), the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC/Chicago) and SALIGAN in the Philippines. He holds an MPP from The University of Chicago and a JD from the Ateneo de Manila University.
Sean DeWitt is passionate about unlocking human potential through innovation in social entrepreneurship, mobile technology and microfinance. At Grameen Foundation, Sean first worked on our Village Phone initiative, collaborating with microfranchise companies in Uganda and Rwanda, then moved to Indonesia to help launch a social enterprise (PT Ruma), working with our Application Laboratory team to develop and deliver a suite of mobile applications that enable new microfranchise business opportunities for the poor and poorest.
Sean joined Grameen Foundation with 10 years of experience in the public, nonprofit and private sectors. He led the development of an open-source solution for small businesses for a New York City-based foundation, optimized supply chains and logistics for Intel Corporation and the Walt Disney Company, helped design and implement the first two releases of the SAP mobile sales-force solution with Fortune 500 clients in Europe and the Americas as a management consultant with PricewaterhouseCoopers, and led technology projects with local partners in Africa, Asia and the Caribbean with the U.S. Department of State to help build online trading opportunities. Sean holds a Bachelor’s degree in Engineering from Purdue University and a Master’s in Development Finance from the University of London.
Steve Wardle is Grameen Foundation’s Africa Director, based in Nairobi, and responsible for setting strategy and providing oversight to operations in Sub-Saharan Africa. Steve was previously the Manager of Investments for Grameen Foundation, directing approximately $50 million in capital through two investment facilities that provide credit enhancements, loans and equity investments to poverty-focused microfinance institutions and other innovative social enterprises serving clients at the “base of the pyramid” across Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia and the Americas.
Steve has worked in the microfinance sector since 2005 at the network and practitioner level. During his tenure at Grameen Foundation, he has focused on technical assistance and capital-markets activities across Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, the Americas and the Middle East. He also spent a year as Acting CFO of Sevis Finansye Fonkoze (SFF), Haiti’s largest microfinance institution.
Before joining Grameen Foundation, Steve worked in commercial and investment banking, focusing on corporate acquisitions, restructurings and raising capital for mid-sized U.S. companies.
Take Action
Sign Up for microfinance news, updates & analysis from Grameen Foundation each month.
FOLLOW US ONLINE
Notice:If you have received an email pretending to be from Grameen Foundation offering loans or grants to individuals, this is a fraudulent email.
- Grameen Foundation
-
1101 15th St. NW, 3rd Floor
-
Washington, DC 20005
- Phone: +1 202-628-3560
- Fax: +1 202-628-3880
- Grameen Foundation Technology Center
- 2101 4th Ave, Suite 1550
- Seattle, WA 98121
- Phone: +1 206-325-6690
- Fax: +1 206-325-0634
- Worldwide Offices>>
