Lead, Capital Access Lab at Kauffman Foundation

The Capital Access Lab is a a new initiative to spur the formation of new financing mechanisms that increase capital investment to underserved entrepreneurs who have been historically left behind, including due to their race, ethnicity, gender, socioeconomic class, and/or geographic location.



      Kauffman Foundation
  

Pursing a fellowship, supported by The Rockefeller Foundation, to increase knowledge and identify opportunities to drive value-driven investment to underserved areas in the United States.


About us

  The Rockefeller Foundation pioneered the frontier of global philanthropy and continues to foster solutions to many of the world's most intractable challenges. Today, the Foundation helps ensure that globalization's benefits are accessible to more people, more fully, in more places, affirming its mission, unchanged since 1913, to "promote the well-being"​ of humanity throughout the world.

The Foundation supports a portfolio of interconnected, mutually reinforcing initiatives. These include efforts to bolster resilience to the global climate crisis, assure access to affordable and high-quality health systems in developing countries, mobilize an agricultural revolution in sub-Saharan Africa, strengthen economic security for American workers, and inform more equitable, sustainable transportation policies in the United States.

The Rockefeller Foundation

About us

  For 50 years, the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) has developed practical solutions to the world’s greatest challenges. Today’s global landscape presents strategic opportunities that will define our future. As we celebrate this milestone, CSIS scholars are developing strategic insights and bipartisan policy solutions to help decision makers chart a course toward a better world.

CSIS is a bipartisan, nonprofit organization headquartered in Washington, D.C. The Center’s 220 full-time staff and large network of affiliated scholars conduct research and analysis and develop policy initiatives that look into the future and anticipate change.

Founded at the height of the Cold War by David M. Abshire and Admiral Arleigh Burke, CSIS was dedicated to finding ways to sustain American prominence and prosperity as a force for good in the world. Since 1962, CSIS has become one of the world’s preeminent international policy institutions. The Center’s work focuses on defense and security; regional stability; and transnational challenges ranging from energy and climate to global development and economic integration.

Former U.S. Senator Sam Nunn has chaired the CSIS Board of Trustees since 1999. John J. Hamre became the Center’s president and chief executive officer in April 2000.

Follow us @CSIS


      Center for Strategic and International Studies
  

CONVERGENCE is the global network for blended finance. We generate blended finance data, intelligence, and deal flow to increase private sector investment in developing countries.


Convergence Blended Finance

SEAF - Small Enterprise Assistance Funds is a pioneering emerging market private equity investment firm. Founded in 1989, SEAF manages impact-focused funds in over twenty emerging markets in Asia, Latin America, Africa, and Eastern Europe which provide growth capital and operational support for entrepreneur-backed companies. 


About us

  Small Enterprise Assistance Funds ("SEAF"​) is a global investment firm focused on providing growth capital and operational support to businesses in emerging markets and those underserved by traditional sources of capital. SEAF selectively makes structured debt and equity investments in locally owned enterprises with high growth potential. 

Based in Washington D.C., SEAF invests in more than 30 countries around the world through an international network of 19 offices in Central and Eastern Europe, Latin America, and Asia. Investors include a cross section of public and private institutions, including several of the international finance institutions, local pension funds, insurance companies, banks and family offices. 

Since its inception in 1989, SEAF’s successful expansion into a global organization stems from realizing attractive returns for our investors and building value in our portfolio companies. Central to SEAF’s ability to source opportunities and work with management is our on-the-ground presence in the economic regions of focus. As a global organization with a local presence, SEAF is uniquely able to provide management with hands-on operational support and provide businesses in emerging economies with the global “connections” that accelerate their growth and profitability.

The total funds under management is approx. USD 482 mn.


      SEAF
  

Established a new, innovative unit within USAID which draws on the agency's resources to catalyze private investment flows into key sectors in emerging markets.


Led the development and the private sector outreach of the Power Africa Initiative;   responsible for raising over $20 billion in investment commitments from US, European, and African corporations and investors to support energy projects on the continent.Created and launched Beyond the Grid, a partnership with impact investors to catalyze support for distributed energy solutions.
    
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Launched a new group within USAID, focused on catalyzing greater commercial investment to the continent; led establishment of a network of commercial investors and donor partners to help the agency further leverage its resources.



      USAID
  

Co-founder of the Grassroots Business Fund (GBF), an impact investing organization whose mission is to help build and support High-Impact Businesses that provide sustainable economic opportunities to millions of people living at the base of the economic pyramid;  fully responsible for design, implementation, and direction of the newly formed fund.
    
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      Grassroots Business Fund
  

Managed all operations of the Grassroots Business Initiative (GBI) which aimed to create more efficient and scaleable businesses out of organizations that bring economic empowerment to poor and marginalized people ; managed all aspects of the project cycle for investments in various industries, ranging from agribusiness to microfinance, and across three geographic regions.
    
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IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, is the largest global development institution focused exclusively on the private sector in developing countries.

We utilize and leverage our products and services—as well as products and services of other institutions in the World Bank Group—to provide development solutions customized to meet clients’ needs. We apply our financial resources, technical expertise, global experience, and innovative thinking to help our partners overcome financial, operational, and political challenges.

Clients view IFC as a provider and mobilizer of scarce capital, knowledge, and long-term partnerships that can help address critical constraints in areas such as finance, infrastructure, employee skills, and the regulatory environment.

IFC is also a leading mobilizer of third-party resources for its projects. Our willingness to engage in difficult environments and our leadership in crowding-in private finance enable us to extend our footprint and have a development impact well beyond our direct resources.

For more information, visit www.ifc.org.


      IFC - International Finance Corporation
  

Investment team member of one of the first private equity funds targeting investment opportunities in Central & Eastern Europe; responsible for origination, assessment, negotiation, execution and monitoring of investments in different industry sectors across the region.


Working directly with the President, was part of the founding team of the organization; responsible for coordination of headquarters’ operations; directly involved in the fund raising process.


Georgetown University - The McDonough School of Business

The George Washington University, an independent academic institution chartered by the Congress of the United States in 1821, dedicates itself to furthering human well-being. The University values a dynamic, student-focused community stimulated by cultural and intellectual diversity and built upon a foundation of integrity, creativity, and openness to the exploration of new ideas.

The George Washington University, centered in the national and international crossroads of Washington, D.C., commits itself to excellence in the creation, dissemination, and application of knowledge.

To promote the process of lifelong learning from both global and integrative perspectives, the University provides a stimulating intellectual environment for its diverse students and faculty. By fostering excellence in teaching, the University offers outstanding learning experiences for full-time and part-time students in undergraduate, graduate, and professional programs in Washington, D.C., the nation, and abroad. As a center for intellectual inquiry and research, the University emphasizes the linkage between basic and applied scholarship, insisting that the practical be grounded in knowledge and theory. The University acts as a catalyst for creativity in the arts, the sciences, and professions by encouraging interaction among its students, faculty, staff, alumni, and the communities it serves.

The George Washington University draws upon the rich array of resources from the National Capital Area to enhance its educational endeavors. In return, the University, through its students, faculty, staff, and alumni, contributes talent and knowledge to improve the quality of life in metropolitan Washington, D.C.

Lead, Capital Access Lab at Kauffman Foundation

Kauffman Foundation

Lead, Capital Access Lab

The Rockefeller Foundation

Fellow

Center for Strategic and International Studies

Senior Associate

Convergence Blended Finance

Member Of The Funding Committee

SEAF

Member of the Board

USAID, Office of Private Capital and Microenterprise

Director

Power Africa, USAID

Head of Private Sector Engagement

USAID

Director

Grassroots Business Fund

Chief Operating Officer

IFC - International Finance Corporation

Program Manager

AIG New Europe Fund

Investment Associate

SEAF

Program Officer

Georgetown University - The McDonough School of Business

MBA

The George Washington University

International Relations

BA