Investor Profile:
Diedra Wager
Executive Vice President, Starbucks

When Starbuck's recruited Deidra Wager to be Chief Retail Officer of Starbuck's Japan, they could not have predicted the chain would surge in that country from 50 to 300 stores in just three years.

"Having experience in operations development, I saw a real need for systemic solutions to make a great cup of coffee as accessible in Japan (the land of green tea) as it was in the U.S." explains Wager, who has been with Starbuck's since 1992.

Now back in the States and executive vice president, Wager is currently "on loan" to CARE, the international poverty-fighting organization and a MicroVest founding partner. As Starbuck's liaison, Wager "helped CARE define and develop an efficient and effective program for managing corporate alliances." At the same time, she helped Starbuck's define and develop a strategy for corporate social investment. To do that, Wager traveled to Guatemala to visit some of the communities CARE benefits as well as to meet with coffee growers who sell to Starbuck's.

"I saw a lot of CARE village banking programs," recalls Wager. "I even met with the board of directors of one village bank - a group of women who met in a circle on the ground and discussed in their native language whether any members had defaulted on their loans and what to do about it."

Wager says observations like these helped convince her that microfinance has intangible benefits well beyond the infusion of capital. "As the women learned how to access and manage money, their confidence increased and they became role models for their communities by developing dynamic leadership skills."

When evaluating her social investment portfolio, investing in MicroVest was a no-brainer. "My financial advisors actually recommended against investing in microfinance because they felt that I could get better financial returns in other funds," says Wager. "But I had been fortunate enough to have first-hand experience of the powerful development impacts that resulted from effective microfinance, and that weighed heavily on my decision."

Wager is invested in MicroVest as an individual investor and not on behalf of Starbuck's. She considers MicroVest One to be one of the most valuable assets of her investment portfolio.

"Like anybody else, I want to make money on my investment," she says. "But I also really believe in how the provision of loans bring hope and incentive to overcome poverty, and other intangible benefits of motivating and supporting women."

Since MicroVest One was limited to accredited individuals, Wager is enthusiastic about the growth potential of the new mPower Investment Program. "Just as we're expanding the number of loans to entrepreneurs in developing countries, mPower expands microfinance investing opportunities to investors at all income levels."