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MicroVest Capital Management : The MicroVest Team

Gil Crawford - Chief Executive Officer

Mr. Crawford has over 20 years experience with microfinance institutions and capital markets, and has worked extensively in Latin America and Africa, as well as in Asia.

Previously, Mr. Crawford worked for the Latin American Financial Markets Division at the International Finance Corporation (IFC), and focused on investments in microfinance institutions. Prior to joining IFC, Mr. Crawford created and ran Seed Capital Development Fund, a US based non-profit firm, involved in creating financial instruments and attracting funds to capitalize microfinance institutions, primarily in Latin America, Asia and Africa. Specific projects included: Latin American Challenge Investment Fund (LA-CIF), a US$ 20 million loan fund for microfinance institutions in Latin America; DEVCAP, a "shared return mutual fund" whose total assets reached over US$ 27 million dollars. Mr. Crawford has also been a Member of ProFund's Investment Committee and alternate member to the Board of Directors for many years.

Before founding SCDF, Mr. Crawford was the Assistant Project Director for Africa Venture Capital Project, a $7.1 million USAID contract designed to create risk capital firms in Africa. Mr. Crawford received his bank training at Chase Manhattan Bank in the mid-80's after working in Africa for the Red Cross and State Department. He graduated from SAIS at Johns Hopkins University in 1983 and Bates College in 1980.

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Candace Smith - Chief Financial Officer

Ms. Smith's experience in development finance makes her an ideal addition to the MicroVest team. As an independent consultant she has advised clients like MIF, Calvert Foundation, and Corporacion para el Financiamiento de Infraestructura among others on due diligence, credit evaluation and other matters. As Chief Operating Officer for Triodos PV Partners, she oversaw a $50 million joint business development and equity investment program to promote solar electric service enterprises in developing countries. 

Ms. Smith's professional journey also includes nine years with the Inter-American Investment Corporation where she served as Senior Credit Officer. While there, she was responsible for developing and maintaining corporate credit risk guidelines and credit policy guidance. Concurrently, as Senior Portfolio Officer, her responsibilities included evaluation and oversight of a US$400 million portfolio of project loans and equity investments throughout Latin America and the Caribbean. Smith began her career in finance as a corporate lending officer with the former Continental Illinois National Bank prior to joining the IIC as an investment officer.

She holds a Masters in International Management from The American Graduate School of International Management at Glendale, AZ and a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. While at Chapel Hill, Smith double majored in Political Science and Spanish and joined the Chapel Hill Chapter of the Phi Beta Kappa and Phi Eta Sigma honorary societies. Smith is fluent in Spanish and conversant in Portuguese.

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Lori Atwood - Director of Business Development

Lori Atwood is responsible for the development of new initiatives and financing facilities as well as all capital markets transactions at MicroVest. She brings over 13 years of international finance and fund structuring experience. Ms. Atwood previously served as Senior Consultant for ShoreBank Corporation, advising clients on the establishment, structure and launch of emerging markets funds in microfinance, housing, fair trade and small business.

Ms. Atwood's prior experience also includes investment management in a partnership that managed over a half a billion of assets in socially responsible investments at Piper Jaffray and six years in Europe in investment banking working on mergers & acquisitions, privatizations, and capital markets in the Central and Eastern Europe. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Cognitive Science from the University of Pennsylvania and a Masters of Public Policy from Georgetown University. She is active in a number of professional and political organizations including the National Security Network.

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Rita Bettiol - Director of Investments

Ms. Bettiol comes to MicroVest from the Inter-American Investment Corporation's Financial Intermediaries Division in Washington, DC where she enjoyed working for nearly ten years. Most recently she was responsible for developing new business and providing innovative and flexible financial structures for complex transactions. She also pioneered the development of the first local currency financing in Colombia, for which she received the 2006 IDB Outstanding Team Award.

Previously, Ms. Bettiol worked as the Assistant Vice President of the International Banking Department of Hamilton Bank in Miami, Florida. She also assisted the Capital Markets Group in the negotiation, structuring and preparation of documentation for securities transactions.

Ms. Bettiol moved to Miami in 1992 from Caracas, Venezuela, where she held numerous commercial finance positions including Vice President and Head of Marketing and Distribution of Confianzas Mercado de Capitales, Mutual Fund Manager of Inverunion, and Manager and Head of the Workout and Collections Department of Credito Union. She received her MBA from Universidad Catolica Andres Bello in Caracas, Venezuela and is fluent in English, Spanish and Italian.

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Ms. Beirne supports MicroVest's Business Development and Investment Teams in the areas of risk management, financial transparancy, and compliance matters. Ms. Beirne has two decades of finance experience, most recently as Vice President at Financial Security Assurance Inc. where she managed a $6 billion portfolio of mortgage backed securities (with responsibilities including monitoring of performance trends, projecting losses for reserve analyses, and conducting due diligence of loan servicing operations), and previously as a senior manager at Deloitte and Touche. Prior to a career in finance, Ms. Beirne was a secondary school mathematics teacher.

Ms. Beirne completed the Boulder Microfinance Training Course in Turin, Italy in 2006, and has volunteered on projects in India and the Dominican Republic. She is active in professional organizations having served on the board of the Financial Women's Association (managing their mentoring and scholarship programs for young women) and is an active member of Women Advancing Microfinance.

Ms Beirne received an MBA from Baruch College of the City University of New York, an MA in Mathematics Education from San Francisco State College and a BA in Mathematics from Hunter College.

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Moya Connelly - Investment Officer

Ms. Connelly is an Investment Officer at MicroVest, focused regionally on Eastern Europe and Africa. She has worked in microfinance for over five years. Prior to working as an Investment Officer, Moya represented MicroVest on the board of EDPYME Edyficar in Peru and was the CFO of MicroVest until 2005. Her prior experience in microfinance includes working as an Associate at the Microcredit Summit Campaign, a microfinance advocacy organization. Prior to microfinance, Moya had a career in fund management, working for Brown Brothers Harriman, Evergreen Funds and Scudder Stevens & Clark. Moya has an MBA from the University of Virginia and a Bachelors of Arts in Economics from Smith College. She is fluent in Spanish and is also the Treasurer and a Board member of Seed Capital Development Fund, a microfinance NGO.

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Iris Korovesi - Investment Analyst

Ms. Korovesi supports MicroVest's Investment Team to analyze MFI investments in Africa, Eastern Europe and Asia. She recently completed a graduate degree in international business and development economics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. Through her studies she focused on microfinance and wrote her master thesis on commercial banks' downscaling strategies in Southeast Europe and Turkey. Prior to MicroVest she worked with Accion International, conducting research on the microfinance industry in West Africa and Latin America. She also spent three months in India as an intern at the Center of Microfinance Research, analyzing staff incentive schemes in Indian MFIs.

Ms. Korovesi received her bachelor degree in operational research and marketing from Athens University of Economics and Business. She speaks Greek, English, German, Italian and French.

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  Chris Laurent- Investment Associate

Mr. Laurent is the newest addition to MicroVest’s Investment Team and will be focusing on the Latin American region.  Mr. Laurent brings with him over 14 years of finance-related experience in international and domestic settings, most recently working in rural Bolivia to develop the strategic and operational functions of a small microfinance institution.  Prior to entering the microfinance sector, Mr. Laurent served for six years as Vice President of Finance and Administration with Everdream Corporation in Silicon Valley.  There he supervised all finance, accounting, HR, and administration operations and served on the senior management team of the $60 million international services enterprise.  Previously, he served over three years as Vice President with FleetBoston Capital where he worked in business development, underwriting, credit, and administration capacities.  Mr. Laurent also worked as a Senior In-Charge Auditor with Arthur Andersen for four years, where he was responsible for three international, SEC engagements, including their international due diligence efforts. 

 Mr. Laurent earned his Masters in Accounting and B.S. in Business Administration from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and is a Certified Public Accountant.

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Bradford Martin - Investment Officer

Mr. Martin joined MicroVest's Investment Team and focuses on the countries of the Newly Independent States. He brings with him over seven years of experience in banking and microfinance, including five years of managing and advising microfinance institutions in Central Asia and the Caucasus.

Prior to joining MicroVest, Mr. Martin worked for Mercy Corps in Tajikistan, where he assisted the transformation and development of three MFIs. Prior to joining Mercy Corps he worked for World Vision International as the Director of AzerCredit in Azerbaijan, where he focused on transforming AzerCredit into a Limited Liability Company, implementing a new financial management information system, and developing the upper management team. Previously Mr. Martin worked as a commercial lender for Comerica Bank and as an intern for the Overseas Private Investment Corporation.

Mr. Martin received his Masters degree from SAIS at Johns Hopkins University and his Bachelor's degree in Philosophy and History from Gordon College. He has lived and worked in Germany, Egypt, Azerbaijan and Tajikistan and speaks German, Arabic and Russian.

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Sasidhar Thumuluri- Investment Associate

Mr. Thumuluri is involved in analyzing investment proposals, conducting due diligence and performing portfolio reviews of the clients in Asia and Eastern Europe. He has over five years experience managing microfinance and economic development projects in India. Mr. Thumuluri was among the early team of BASIX, one of the India’s most innovative and leading MFIs, where he was instrumental in developing new products and services, launching green-field ventures in some of the poorest regions of the country and negotiating several funding deals. As an intern with CARE USA he studied and analyzed the transformation processes of CARE’s microfinance programs in Peru, Philippines and India.

 Mr. Thumuluri received his Masters degree in Public Affairs from the Woodrow Wilson School, Princeton University. He earned his bachelors degree in agricultural sciences from Acharya N G Ranga Agricultural University and postgraduate diploma in management from Indian Institute of Forest Management, both in India.  He is fluent in Hindi and Telugu.

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Douglas Young - Investment Officer

Prior to joining MicroVest, Mr. Young worked as a senior manager with the Ernst & Young Capital Markets Group in Santiago, Chile, where he managed Chilean cross-border transactions.  He also has experience analyzing microfinance investments for the Rockefeller Foundations Program Venture Investments (ProVenEx). 

Mr. Young received an MBA from the University of California - Berkeley, Haas School of Business. While pursuing his graduate studies, he initiated a student-led microfinance speaker series.  He won the Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship's Best MBA Paper in 2005.  Mr. Young has long been interested in volunteer work and participated in student volunteer efforts in his hometown of Baltimore, Mexico, the Appalachians, and in Atlanta, Georgia with the Jesuit Volunteer Corps where he helped the homeless for a year after graduating college.  Mr. Young is a CPA and earned his Bachelor's degree in accounting at Loyola College in Maryland where he graduated Magna Cum Laude.  He is fluent in Spanish.

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Lauren Clark - Communications Manager

Ms. Clark coordinates the marketing, public relations, investor relations and web publications for MicroVest. Previously Ms. Clark interned for FINCA International, supporting operations at their headquarters in Washington DC and assisting their branch office in Haiti with the hiring and training of loan officers as well as various financial analyses. Ms. Clark also spent time researching the local microfinance industry and credit unions in the North of Cameroon. Additionally, she has provided professional conference and event planning services to several East Coast NGOs. She actively serves on the Steering Committee for the Washington DC chapter of Women Advancing Microfinance (WAM).

Ms. Clark graduated from Tufts University with a BA in Economics and International Relations, regionally focused in Africa. She is fluent in French and speaks several African languages.

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Monica Slovik - Executive Assistant to the CEO

Ms. Slovik is an alumna of Dickinson College and holds a Bachelor of Arts in International Business & Management and Spanish.  She spent a year living and studying in Malaga, Spain, and completed a semester internship under the direction of a local Spanish consulting firm.  She also received an award in the undergraduate competition for the Central Pennsylvania College Venture Challenge and served as a tutor for students in micro-, macro-, and managerial economics.

Prior to joining MicroVest, Ms. Slovik was the Marketing Coordinator for a homeland security business solutions firm in Washington DC.  She has experience in management, business development, and event planning.

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 Susan Wilkus - Investor Outreach Manager

Ms. Wilkus brings to MicroVest more than 20 years experience in business management and entrepreneurship.  Over eight of those years she founded, developed and managed an accounting and computer services firm employing working mothers.  She later served as Vice President of Operations and Controller for a client, administering operations and accounting flow in a marketing and manufacturer's representative company for more than six years.  In 1996, her entrepreneurial interests drew her to co-found and co-develop a marketing firm specializing in Internet sales of hand-crafted American fine arts and crafts.  More recently, she served as Director of Operations and Chief Financial Officer for a company conducting nationwide engineering and environmental property assessments for the investment banking community.  Most of her work experiences have been with entrepreneurial companies.

Ms. Wilkus has a BA in psychology from the State University College at Oswego, New York, and a bachelor's degree in accounting from the University of Maryland, where she was inducted into Beta Alpha Psi, the international accounting and finance honorary organization.

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Daniel Yawitz- Business Development Associate

Mr. Yawitz supports MicroVest's business development initiatives to create new financing facilities. He recently completed a graduate degree in international development and finance at the Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). His previous microfinance experience includes work with CHF International's Office of Development Finance as well as IT investment analysis for an MFI in Kyrgyzstan. Prior to joining MicroVest and pursuing his graduate degree, he served as a Peace Corps volunteer in rural Honduras where he worked with microcredit clients to create local markets.

Additionally, Mr. Yawitz brings several years of professional IT experience in database and web application programming. He received a B.A. from the Colorado College in mathematics and computer science. He is fluent in Spanish.

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Tiffany Yep- Finance and Administrative Associate

Ms. Yep supports the Chief Financial Officer through the accounting of all financial transactions for the company and funds under management in addition to servicing portfolio investments and facilitating administrative operations. She recently completed Masters in Latin American Development at the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University. Prior to working at MicroVest, Ms.Yep completed a fellowship at CGAP (the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor) where she conducted research on pro-poor MFIs. She continued this research through the POWG (Poverty Outreach Working Group). She has also studied abroad in Peru and Chile during her professional studies.

Ms. Yep received a B.A. in Political Science and International Affairs from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. She is fluent in Spanish.

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Caroline Norton- Investment Intern

Ms. Norton supports MicroVest's Investment Team and Portfolio Monitoring Group, analyzing MFI investments in Africa, Eastern Europe and Asia. Prior to joining MicroVest and pursuing her graduate degree, she worked for three years in Lehman Brothers' Investment Banking Division, first in its energy practice and then in its division-wide strategy group. During her first year of graduate school, Ms. Norton interned at a variety of organizations, including the Trickle Up program, a non-profit that provides funding for poor microentrepreneurs, OPIC's Small and Medium Enterprises Finance Group and the Scowcroft Group, an international business consulting group. Ms. Norton is currently studying at the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University, where she is pursuing a graduate degree in international affairs. She graduated from Williams College in 2003 with a B.A. in History and is proficient in French.

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Tzyy Ming Yeh- Investment Intern

Mr. Yeh supports Microvest's Investment Team in portfolio monitoring and management. Before joining Microvest, he worked as an investment associate in the Quantitative Equity Research and Trading Groups at Putnam Investment and as a marketing associate at Gottex Fund Management. Additionally, Mr. Yeh recently returned from Peru, where he served as a Peace Corps volunteer in the Small Business Development program to help rural farmers develop sustainable income-generating projects. Mr. Yeh graduated from Harvard University with a degree in Applied Mathematics and Biology. He is currently a dual degree candidate at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies ( SAIS) and the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. He is pursuing degrees in International Development and International Finance and Management. Mr. Yeh is fluent in Spanish and Mandarin, and plans to study Arabic.

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