Headquarters, New York

Henri Dommel, a French national, joined UNCDF as the Director of the Financial Inclusion Practice Area in 2007. Mr. Dommel started his career at Banque Paribas in New Delhi as well as in Paris at the bank's department for Africa and the Middle East. He joined the UN system in 1992, working as Programme Manager at UNCDF until 2001. Prior to joining UNCDF again, Mr. Dommel worked from 2001 to 2007 as Senior Technical Advisor for the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). Mr. Dommel holds a Master's degree in International Affairs from the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University, and a degree from the "Institut d'Études Politiques" of Paris, France.

John has 20 years’ experience working in financial services for the poor. He is the co-designer of the Global MicroStart Programme, recognized by the CGAP review of UNDP as the successful model in UNDP’s global portfolio. He co-designed UNCDF’s sector development approach, including the formulation of country programmes in many post-conflict countries. He also designed the global MicroLead programme, which has served as the model for UNCDF’s other global thematic initiatives for youth, clean energy and mobile money. Within UNCDF, Mr. Tucker is responsible for strengthening UNCDF’s operational performance, including participation in CGAP’s SMART Aid reviews. Prior to joining UNCDF, he worked for UNDP in Tanzania, where he was responsible for microfinance programming. He has a Master’s from Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in international economics, African studies and social change and development. 

Ms. Porter has two decades of experience in financial inclusion in 30 countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America. At UNCDF she provides policy guidance and support to the global team on financial inclusion. She previously directed an initiative at Making Cents International to build institutional capabilities in youth-inclusive financial services. As Vice President at Freedom from Hunger, Ms. Porter led program strategy and managed delivery of integrated microfinance services worldwide. Ms. Porter is on the boards of the SEEP Network, Bolivian MFI CRECER, SMART Campaign, Child and Youth Finance International, and YFS-Link, and was a founder of Women Advancing MicrofinanceInternational. Ms. Porter holds a Master's Degree from The Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and a Bachelor's degree from Stanford University.

Pamela Eser joined UNCDF in 2009 as manager of a US$51.5 million global initiative, MicroLead, which is co-financed by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and The MasterCard Foundation. MicroLead is available to microfinance market leaders to enable their expansion to underserved areas with savings-led initiatives. Prior to UNCDF, Ms. Eser worked for international NGOs from 1996 to 2009 as program officer, economic development director, and financial services director. She worked extensively with microfinance, microenterprise development, and development banking in post-conflict and transitional environments throughout Asia, Africa and the Balkans. Prior to work in microfinance, she was an investment banker in New York. Ms. Eser holds a Master's degree in Business Administration from the Anderson School at UCLA and a Bachelor of Science degree in civil engineering from Stanford University.

Hanadi joined UNCDF Financial Inclusion Practice Area (FIPA) in 2009. As a KM focal point for FIPA, she now works as Program Specialist for knowledge management and portfolio management. Hanadi has more than 15 years of experience in microfinance. Prior to joining UNCDF, Hanadi worked as the PlaNet Finance head of mission in Lebanon and conducted rating missions for Planet Rating in the MENA region and Africa. Moreover, she was a member of the senior management team of different MFIs in Lebanon and worked as full time consultant in charge of undertaking market studies and evaluating microfinance programs in the Middle East and Asia. Ms. Tutunji holds an MBA degree from the University of Paris IX, Dauphine and has carried out microfinance related work in the MENA region, Africa, Central Asia, and Southeast Asia.

Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific

Feisal leads the Inclusive Finance practice area in Asia. He is responsible for ensuring technical support to existing programmes, developing new sector-wide investment opportunities in LDCs, leading the development of new Inclusive Finance products to address the challenges of climate change, disaster risk, and market failures. He has 18 years of international development experience designing and implementing microfinance programmes as well as development programmes, providing microfinance technical advice to UN agencies, NGOs and upstream financial institutions; designing and managing policy research and advocacy programmes; leading and managing substantial country operations of one of the largest international NGOs; and driving fundraising strategies. Feisal has a substantial practical knowledge of microfinance across developing countries, in particular South Asia. Before joining the development sector, Feisal worked in the City of London in retail banking and in wealth management.

Regional Office for Southern and East Africa

Makarimi ADECHOUBOU, a Beninese national, joined UNCDF in 1995. He served as Regional Technical Manager for the joint UNDP/UNCDF programme named "Building Inclusive Financial Sectors in Africa (BIFSA)" for Southern and Eastern Africa. Since 2009, he leads and represents UNCDF in the region as Head of the Regional office for Southern and Eastern Africa. He has more than 20 years of experience in the field of finance and rural development. Prior to joining UNCDF, Makarimi has consulted for donor agencies in the areas of rural and informal finance while working as Director of the Network FECECAM-Benin. He is a Rural and Development Economist specialized in rural finance and international development (CIRES – Abidjan University), certified in microfinance and SME finance (Harvard, KSG). He also holds a certificate in Development Sociology (Abidjan University).

Issa Barro, a Senegalese national, joined UNCDF in 2008 as a Portfolio Technical Manager at the Regional Office for West and Central Africa before moving as a Regional Technical Advisor to the Regional Office for Southern and East Africa. Prior to joining UNCDF, he has worked for different organizations including IFC as a MSME Access to Finance Coordinator in Mali, the African Development Bank as a Task Manager at the Governance and Economic and Financial Reforms Division. He has also served as a consultant in SME development, microfinance and poverty reduction. Issa holds a DESS in Global Economic Diagnostic at the University Pierre Mendes-France (Grenoble), and a Certificate of Graduate Studies and Professional Development at Boston University Graduate School of Management. He is currently a Ph.D. candidate in International Management with the International School of Management (France).

Erick Sile joined UNCDF in November 2010. Mr. Sile is a 12+ years professional with extensive experience designing programs, developing products and building the capacity of financial institutions. As Program Manager and Project Director at the World Council of Credit Unions (WOCCU) for eight years, he has worked in several countries in Africa developing policies and procedures, implementing various methodologies of reaching out to the unbanked, and setting up the legislative framework in many countries. Prior to joining WOCCU, he worked as Senior Consultant at Arthur Andersen Business Consulting in the Advanced Technologies Practice Area in Atlanta, GA where he provided consulting services to Fortune 500 companies across the US and Europe. Mr. Sile holds an MBA in Finance and Information Systems from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, USA.

Regional Office for Western and Central Africa

Madina Assouman Diop, from Benin, earned a high master degree in International Economy from the University of Paris X – Nanterre (FRANCE). From 1999 to 2002, she worked for the International Labor Office microfinance Programme at the Central Bank for West African States (BCEAO). She continued her collaboration with ILO, from 2002 to 2005, in the framework of the "Start and Improve Your Business – SIYB" programme, aiming at the improvement of management capacities of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to facilitate their access to financial services. At the same time, she gave support to ILO Sub-Regional Office for the Sahel region for their microfinance activities. Since 2005, she has been within the UNCDF Regional Microfinance Unit for West and Central Africa as Inclusive Finance Specialist.

Ms Perdomo, a native Colombian, joined UNCDF in 2010 as the Programme Manager of YouthStart, a UNCDF Initiative that aims to bring youth financial inclusive services to more than 200,000 youth in Sub-Saharan Africa. Prior to joining UNCDF, she worked and consulted for several International NGOs (Reach Global, Freedom from Hunger, Microfinance Opportunities and OXFAM America) where she developed trainings and business models to enable different types of Financial Service Providers (FSPs) to offer in a sustainable manner integrated financial and non-financial services to their clients. Ms Perdomo holds a masters in International Affairs and Economic Development from Columbia University, a B.A in International Finance from Externado de Colombia University and a Certificate in International Studies from L'Institut de Sciences Politiques de Paris (Sciences-Po).

Comoros Islands

Houenou Comlanvi, Engineer, Development Economist, Post Graduate Diploma in Banking, has an experience of over 15 years in the field of microfinance. He was Central Director for ten years for the largest Federation of Cooperative Savings and Credit of Togo. His leadership has been to promote Togo and UEMOA microfinance as an Executive Director and Chairman of the Professional Association of MFIs. These seven years, he contributed as a member of the United Nations (UNDP and UNCDF) to support those involved in financial inclusion, particularly in the development and implementation of the National Microfinance Strategies. This was particularly the case in Togo as UNDP National Expert (2005-2006), Democratic Republic of Congo as UNCDF Resident Technical Advisor (2007-2009) and at the Comoros as UNCDF Senior Technical Advisor since September 2010.

Lao PDR

Jim Anderson has over fifteen years of development experience in the SME and Microfinance sector, in Central Asia, Mongolia and Vietnam, working with multilaterals and NGOs. As Regional Investment Officer- Central Asia for the IFC he oversaw an SME debt and equity portfolio and later was Country Manager Vietnam for an IFC managed SME technical assistance facility. In 2003, Jim was Senior Technical Advisor to XacBank, Mongolia, an innovator in microfinance worldwide where he was advisor to the senior management team and assisted the bank through a rapid growth phase. From 2005-2011 Jim was Financial Services Manager for Mercy Corps where he oversaw a network of nine Mercy Corps founded microfinance institutions where he focused on raising capital and capacity building.

Lesotho

Judith Aguga Acon is a Ugandan national and has 17 years of experience, working with local and International NGOs, private sector, Government and development partners in Uganda and Rwanda. The key organizations include: USAID projects, Stromme Foundation, DANIDA, and CARE International supporting Micro finance Institutions at operational and strategic levels. Judith has been working with partners, building capacities in planning, implementing and delivering microfinance services. She was also monitoring and evaluating projects and promoting different models of rural finance approaches. She is a holder of a Master Degree in Economic Policy and Planning and of a Bachelor's degree in Education from Makerere University Kampala.

Madagascar

Afi, a Togolese national, holds a DESS in Management of projects at the Senghor University in Alexandria (Egypt) and a Master's degree in Economics at the University of Lome (Togo). Prior to joining UNCDF, she worked as a Country Manager of OIKOCREDIT in Benin and Togo from 2009 to 2011. She also worked for UNDP and UNCDF as a National Expert on the joint UNDP-UNCDF Inclusive Program named PASNAM (Programme d'Appui à la Stratégie Nationale au Togo) from 2007 to 2009 in Togo. She has experience in MFI management, having worked as Managing Director of UMECTO (Union des Mutuelles d'Epargne et de Credit du Togo) and the Nevaeme Mutual from 2001 to 2007. Before her entry in the microfinance world, Afi worked for three years as a consultant for SAFECO and SAGEC in Togo.

Nepal

Ana has worked in microfinance and microinsurance since 1998. She worked in: Croatia, Bosnia, Kosovo, Romania, Zambia, Kenya, Uganda, Malawi, USA and Nepal. Prior to joining UNCDF, Ana has worked with the Global Financial Education program of Microfinance Opportunities. Her work focused on supporting organization's financial education and micro-insurance efforts in East Africa. She has led studies focusing on the demand for micro – insurance, customer satisfaction, financial literacy and microfinance impact. Ana holds a MS degree in International Community Economic Development and a MA Degree in Community Economic Development Policy both from the Southern New Hampshire University, School of Community Economic Development, USA. Ana is completing her doctoral research on impact of health micro-insurance on the economic vulnerability among microfinance clients in Kenya.

Papua New Guinea

Joep works for the Pacific Financial Inclusion Programme (PFIP). He is the person on the ground for all PFIP projects in PNG and the Solomon Islands. Thematically, Joep works across the Pacific region on all of PFIP's mobile money initiatives. A Dutch national, he joined PFIP from WING in Cambodia, a mobile money stat up that was part of the ANZ banking group.

Timor-Leste

Born and studied in France, Cedric holds an MBA from HEC Paris. He started his career in retail banking with HSBC France and later Accenture and worked as a Strategy Consultant for LCL (4th French retail bank). Cedric works in microfinance since 2003, first establishing a network of urban credit unions in Cambodia. As a Technical Advisor to Amret (2nd Cambodian MFI) he assisted the management in rolling-out a new delivery channel, offering greater flexibility to clients. From 2008-2012 he was as a microfinance expert for the Belgian Technical Cooperation to the Vietnamese Women's Union (VWU) and built a nationwide reporting system on the pro-poor credit delivery.
Now Chief Technical Advisor of the INFUSE program in Timor Leste, Cedric fosters financial inclusion through support to the Central Bank and pro-poor financial institutions while building capacities in the industry and among consumers.

FIPA team

Till Bruett is the Advisor and Programme Manager for UNCDF's Mobile Money for the Poor Initiative. he joined UNCDF in 2008 to start to the Pacific Financial Inclusion Programme (PFIP) which continues to bring branchless banking technologies and the necessary regulation to the Pacific. Before joining UNCDF, Till co-founded Alternative Credit Technologies (ACT) in 2000 and worked with FINCA International in the 1990s. He started his career at Chemical Bank's International Financial Institutions Group in New York.