PROFESSIONAL TEAM (SELECTIVE)
Raymond Abogonye is a consultant and member of SBI's Small Business finance practice. Working from one of SBI’s field based office in Nigeria, West Africa, Mr. Raymond currently provides consulting and project support for SBI MSME programs in West Africa. Prior to joining the SBI team, Raymond was a small business finance expert with Ecobank Nigerian from where he was seconded fully by Ecobank Transnational Incorporation to SBI. With a sound knowledge of the Nigerian SME market, Raymond currently serves as the Local Resident Advisor to the IFC African MSME finance project in Nigeria, providing support in the area of capacity building, mentoring and process re-engineering for both bank staff and SMEs. He holds an undergraduate degree from Ebonyi State University.
Rijarivelo M. Andriamamonjy works as an SBI Consultant. He is skilled in business valuation, accounting, and finance. Currently, he is a short term expert for the IFC AMSME Program in six countries within Ecobank Transnational Incorporated, where he is in charge of MIS and reporting tools improvement, credit scoring, training, market study, and support to the project management. Prior to this, he was engaged in SBI's project in Madagascar, the IFC Partial Credit Guarantee program, where he provided training to SME loan officers and credit analysts, supporting credit scoring implementation and loan portfolio monitoring. Mr. Andriamamonjy holds a DESCA (Equivalent to Master Degree - Major Finance and Accounting). He has 3 years management experience at a WorldBank development project in Madagascar (Privatization and Financial Sector reform) and nearly 5 years experience in banking and financial sector activities. He speaks English, French and Malagasy.
Leonie Arnoldi joined SBI’s Transaction Advisory Services team in May 2011 and has since worked on various capital mobilization and corporate advisory projects. Prior to joining SBI Ms. Arnoldi spent most of her career with Morgan Stanley, London, first in its investment banking division and then mainly in its securitization group. There she structured and executed large financial asset and whole business securitizations in Italy, Germany and the UK. In 2005 she worked in private equity for one year with Cinven in Frankfurt, before re-joining Morgan Stanley’s securitization team in London on the commercial real estate side. The role involved client coverage of German real estate private equity houses, structuring and execution of loans, securitizations and syndications and assistance in the management of existing loan positions. During her time at Morgan Stanley Ms. Arnoldi also led the structuring of a microfinance CLO.
Aslam Aurangzeb is a Business Analyst. He graduated in 2009 with an MSc in Corporate and Financial Risk Management and in 2006 with aa BSc in Accounting and Finance. Mr. Aurangzeb has studied at the University of London, and is based in Lahore, Pakistan.
Georgiana Balanescu is currently a Business Analyst and involved in both consulting and business development activities. She has worked on projects with banking institutions such as Millennium Bank, CEC Bank, Banca Transilvania, BCR, Banca Carpatica and OTP Bank in Romania - some within EU/EBRD SME Finance Facilities. Ms. Balanescu’s activities include supporting credit risk assessments for current portfolio and associated credit risk policies and procedures, loan restructuring, credit analysis, training development, preparation of adherent materials and evaluation, data mining, customer segmentation and strategy development. She holds a diploma in Finance and Banking and one in Business Administration, both from the Academy of Economic Studies in Bucharest, Romania.
Aurica Balmus, Associate Consultant, is based in SBI’s Washington DC office and is a member of the Small Business Finance (SBF) Practice team. Her activities include business development, project management, and technical assistance to SBI clients. She works with financial institutions to implement consulting assignments across a range of SBI’s regions and practice areas - small business finance, microfinance, housing finance, savings mobilization and alternative delivery channels. As part of SBF practice, she contributed to the development of a number of internal tools devised to standardize SBI small business finance projects, including the SBF Bank Diagnostic, Toolkit and Consulting Field Guide. Ms. Balmus plays a significant role in SBI’s business development efforts by providing technical writing for proposals, participating in due diligence missions, and managing the proposal production process. She holds a Masters in International Development from the University of Pittsburgh and is fluent in Romanian and Russian and proficient in Spanish.
Diana Bialus is a member of SBI’s international team, currently working as an Associate Consultant. Ms. Bialus’s activities include research and project work on consulting projects in SME lending and microfinance throughout the ECA region. More specific assignments include lending process review and improvement, credit scoring, customer segmentation and micro and SME strategy. More recently, Ms. Bialus is also coordinating the provision of MSE lending and risk management support to one Romanian MFI. Prior to joining SBI, Ms. Bialus worked on the USAID-funded Microfinance Coalition Project in Romania aimed at developing the microfinance sector in Romania. Her professional experience includes collaboration on EU funded projects for the development of the SME sector in Romania. Ms. Bialus holds a Master Degree in Financial Management from the European Academic Centre in Nancy, France and a BA in International Business from the Academy of Economic Studies in Bucharest, Romania. She is fluent in Romanian, English and French.
Phil Beavers leads SBI’s Small Business Finance Center of Excellence and is responsible for the development, systemization and quality delivery of the company’s small business finance projects. With 24 years international experience in commercial finance, his career has taken him to a number of transitional countries throughout Eastern Europe, Asia, and Africa. Areas of expertise include performing market reviews, strategic planning, development of profitable risk balanced micro, small and medium enterprise (MSME) business models, and the effective training and mentoring of staff at all levels. Past clients and partners include more than 25 global financial institutions, as well as the International Finance Corporation (IFC), European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), European Union (EU), United States Agency for International Development (USAID), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and Switzerland’s State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO). A graduate of Appalachian State University with a double major in Finance and Risk Management, Mr. Beavers is a seasoned expert with a reputation of applying international best practices to local realities in order to create unique solutions for SBI’s clients.
Qumbi Boro joined ShoreBank International’s Washington DC office as a staff accountant where she leads accounts payable, bank reconciliation and account receivable efforts. In her role, Ms. Boro supports the month end close and financial reporting for SBI and all subsidiaries and assists in company audits. Ms. Boro brings more than 10 years of experience in the field and holds Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and is currently finishing her Master’s Degree in Financial Management from University of Maryland University College.
Debra Boyer is a Senior Consultant at SBI. She brings nearly 20 years experience of work in transforming financial institutions in the former Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Middle-East, and nearly 20 years of banking experience in the United States. This rich depth of experience began with a specialization in bank operations, expanded to implementing microfinance and SME products in bank downscaling projects, and extended to work on strategic and business planning issues. Work with a broad range of financial institutions has given Debra an extensive knowledge in all aspects of bank and microfinance operations, and considerable experience in transitional and developing economies, helping organizations identify and address opportunities for growth and transformation.
Daniel Citbaj, is a Senior Consultant at ShoreBank International. Based in Milano, Italy, Daniel Citbaj has been involved in leading credit scoring initiatives, providing scoring technology and supporting consumer and MSME lending projects for various financial institutions, investment funds and donors in the United States, Central and Eastern Europe, Caucasus, Central Asia, Middle east, Sub-Saharan Africa, South Africa and Central America. He has been with SBI for over 7 years and worked on various EBRD projects for a total of 9 years. Mr. Citbaj graduated from the Slovak Technical University, scientific subjects included mathematics and statistics. He is fluent in Slovak and English, and understands Russian and German and is proficient in several programming languages.
Eric Daugherty is a Business Analyst in the DC office providing business development and project management support primarily to the Africa region. Prior to joining SBI in 2011, Eric spent two and a half years working in Cairo, Egypt in the fields of environmental, economic, and private sector development. Most recently, he worked for the First Microfinance Foundation – Egypt, the local subsidiary of the Aga Khan Agency for Microfinance, where he provided administrative, operational, and business development support to the CEO. He also provided project support to the USAID-funded Aswan Governorate Microfinance Program as well as the CIDA-funded Cairo Economic Livelihoods Project. Eric holds undergraduate degrees in International Studies and French from Bowling Green State University and speaks fluent French and basic Arabic.
Ann E. Dobbyn is Controller at SBI, where she oversees the financial and accounting management of the company. She directs the financial affairs of SBI, prepares financial analyses of operations, and is responsible for the company's financial plans and policies, its accounting practices, the conduct of its relationships with lending institutions and the financial community, the maintenance of its fiscal records, and the preparation of financial reports. She also monitors SBI field offices, which she visits for audit purposes. Ms. Dobbyn is a certified public accountant in the US and has over 20 years of experience in accounting and finance control. She is an Irish national and has extensive international experience, having traveled to over 40 countries. Ms. Dobbyn has an undergraduate degree from the University of Illinois and a graduate degree from DePaul University.
Ryan Falvey, Consultant, advises financial institutions on strategic issues related to capital allocation, new business opportunities and innovative technology. Since joining SBI in 2007, Ryan has developed strategies for banks in Mongolia, Malawi, South Africa, Cambodia, Palestine and Papua New Guinea. In addition, he is responsible for monitoring and reporting on the performance of the USD 68MM BRAC Africa Loan Fund in Uganda, Tanzania and Southern Sudan and is closely involved in developing SBI's technology and alternative delivery channel practice. Prior to SBI, Ryan gained significant operational experience taking offerings to market: he started his own small business, worked for a technology start-up, led the development of independent non-profit publication, and interned with an important financial regulator during the 2008 financial crisis. Ryan possesses an M.A. in International Relations from Yale University and an undergraduate degree from UCLA. He is based in San Francisco, CA.
Stéphanie García Van Gool joined SBI in February 2012. Previously she was deputy CFO at the BBVA Microfinance Foundation covering the expansion strategy of the group. She participated in several M&A deals in Colombia, Peru, Chile, Brasil amongst other LAC countries. Prior to joining FMBBVA, she worked in the Corporate Advisory Group at UBS. Ms. García assisted Spanish high net worth clients with corporate needs, mainly the selling of family businesses or investment in high growth start-ups. Ms. García graduated in economics from the University of Navarre, received a Master in Finance and Law from the Centro de Estudios Garrigues and an executive master of INSEAD in Corporate Financial Strategy in Global Markets.
Daniel Gies is a Senior Consultant for SBI where he serves as Program Manager to various EU/EBRD SME Finance Facility projects designed to increase equipment leasing in rural areas. Over the past four years he has managed numerous EBRD-funded technical assistance programmes for Societe Générale and Raiffeisen Landesbank affiliates, as well as other leasing and SME finance assignments in Mongolia, Pakistan and Afghanistan. He is active in corporate governance issues and serves on a number of supervisory boards of major microfinance and business-education institutions in the Balkans. Mr. Gies has an MBA Degree from Thunderbird, a bachelor’s degree from the State University of New York, and speaks fluent English, German and Serbo-Croatian, as well as proficient Russian and French.
Ali Gross is a Senior Business Analyst based in the Washington DC office, where she supports the Microfinance Practice on business development and project execution, with a specific focus on integration points with the ADC Practice. Her work focuses on conducting research and writing proposals and project deliverables across multiple geographies, as well as supporting the delivery of technical consulting services. Prior to joining SBI, Ali worked for the City of Charleston as an Economic Development Project Assistant. She later spent time in Peru working on a microfinance initiative for a local NGO where she also provided training as well as sales and marketing support to artisans. Ali holds a Master’s degree in International Relations and International Economics from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) and Bachelor’s degrees in Economics and Spanish from the College of Charleston in South Carolina. She is fluent in Spanish and proficient in Portuguese.
Lloyd Guzha-Chanetsa is our Consultant/ Resident Advisor at Ecobank, Nigeria, on the IFC funded Africa MSME programme. The project seeks to grow the asset and liability sides of the host financial institution’s SME banking portfolio. Lloyd successfully carried out similar assignments with CHF International in Liberia and Khula Enterprise Finance in South Africa. He has 18 years banking experience in retail, corporate, merchant and SME banking, gained from Zimbank in Zimbabwe. Since 2001, Lloyd has been working as an independent SME banking consultant. Through Southern Africa Development Community (SADC)’s Development Finance Resource Centre (DFRC), Lloyd has provided SME lending skills to senior managers drawn from Tanzania, Rwanda, Namibia, Malawi, Burundi, Kenya, Lesotho, Botswana, Mauritius and Angola. Outside banking, Lloyd has conducted training programmes for South African conglomerates such as Nampak, Vodacom, Sasol and MTN, specializing in the provision of Financial Management skills to Non-Financial managers. Lloyd holds an MBA degree, specializing in Banking and Finance, from the University of Manchester, UK.
Mustafa Hussain is the Deputy Project Manager for the Gates-funded UBL mobile banking project in Karachi, Pakistan. Mr. Hussain has extensive experience, developing and selling alternative delivery for deposit side banking customers and in consumer research and client service for FMCG, retail, automotive and financial services. He graduated with an MBA and a bachelors degree in finance from the Lahore School of Economics.
Aline Mingotti Johnson serves as Human Resources & Contracts Associate based in SBI’s Chicago office, working with systems and processes related to recruiting and contracting. Aline has 8 years of experience in Human Resource management, including most recently with an environmental consulting company in Florianopolis, Brazil, where she managed financial and human resources processes like recruiting and orientation of new hires, benefits administration and payroll. Previously she spent four years as Adminsitrative Manager and Quality Coordinator for an entrepreneurial real estate development company in Florianopolis. She has implemented procedures and policies to increase efficiency of day-to-day operations in the finance and human resource departments. She has also been responsible for managing contracts with clients and partners, and presenting monthly HR and finance reports to Executive/Senior level. Aline is graduated in Business Administration with focus on HR Management from the Estacio de Sa University, Brazil. She is a native Portuguese speaker, fluent in English and basic Spanish.
Mansur Khan is the project manager for the rural development project with the State Bank of Pakistan. He worked as the acting Managing Director in Khartoum for the World Bank, multi-donor funded first apex/wholesale microfinance facility in Sudan. Prior to that, he was the Managing Director of the Punjab Small Industries Corporation, which promoted small and microbusiness cottage industries in the Punjab. He earned an MBA from Pace University, in New York.
Veena Krishnamoorthy is working as Deputy Project Manager for the South Asia Micro Savings project based in Hyderabad. Prior to joining SBI, Veena was working with Friends of Women's World Banking and also worked as a consultant for several donors in India. Prior to that, Veena has worked with Retail banks like Deutsche Bank, ABN Amro Bank, UTI Bank and Citi Financial Services. Veena has about 9 years of work experience and has MBA and a Bachelor of Commerce Degree.
Gerard Mariotte is a Consultant at SBI, where he has since September 2009 been Resident Advisor at Ecobank Cameroon as part of the overall IFC Africa MSME/Ecobank Small and Medium Sized Lending Project. The objective of the project is to develop credit for SME’s. The mission provides technical assistance in the various aspects of the credit process. Gerard Mariotte worked 12 years at Credit Agricole in France in different positions as commercial, risk management, international development, human resources and staff management, and has been particularly focused on SMEs’ and agricultural corporates. Specializing in both Micro Finance and SME lending, Gerard Mariotte has a DEA (PhD Equivalent) Economics Politics and Analysis and a Master in Bank and Finance.
Mitch Medigovich is a regular SBI housing practice consultant as well as President of Cattlemen’s Mortgage and Investment Corp. and Chief Executive Officer of Investors Trustee Services Inc. Medigovich has been in the mortgage lending industry since 1976, and has held positions of Loan Production Manager, Loan Servicing Manager, Collections and Foreclosure Manager, Loan Officer, and Secondary Marketing Manager. He has served the mortgage brokers association since 1984 and has held numerous positions including President of the Arizona Association of Mortgage Brokers. Medigovich is also an international banking consultant that has worked in the former Soviet States of Ukraine, Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, as well as Egypt, Mexico and Bulgaria, assisting those countries in banking reform, commercial and mortgage lending.
Oswaldo Mendoza is a LAC Region Consultant at SBI. He works in different projects in Mexico and Central America, ranging from implementing best practices in Small Business and Housing Finance at Financial Institutions, to participating in Capital Mobilization projects. Oswaldo has been working with ShoreBank International since September 2002, when SBI advised the Inter-American Development Bank in the launch of an $8 million investment fund targeting small and medium-sized businesses in Mexico, where he served as the Investment Officer. Oswaldo holds a bachelors degree in Public Accounting and Finances from the Technological Institute of Superior Studies of Monterrey, Mexico. He is fluent in Spanish and English.
Matt Michel is a Business Analyst based in SBI’s Washington DC office. Mr. Michel provides support to the Small Business Finance team. He assists in the production of technical proposals and reports, while also contributing to the development of research and marketing materials. He has an undergraduate degree in Economics and Public Policy from Duke University. His previous work experience includes microfinance research in Peru and Washington, DC. Mr. Michel is fluent in English, French, German and Spanish.
Imraan Mohammed joined SBI’s Transaction Advisory Services team in June 2012, as a Senior Consultant on M&A and Fundraising transactions. He has close to 10 years of professional experience within the Investment Banking and Private Equity spheres, and brings with him considerable experience of leading teams on a number of completed transactions. With a strong emerging markets focus throughout his career, Imraan has spent the last 3.5 years as a Director at the Visor Group – one of the most established private equity players in Central Asia – where he was responsible for the execution of portfolio investments and exits. In addition, he acted as interim CEO for the Group’s renewable energy business, during which time he built a wind farm development stage portfolio of close to 200 MW. Prior to this, Imraan was an Investment banker in London for 6 years focusing on emerging market and oil & gas transactions whilst with Elara Capital, Tristone Capital and Harrison Lovegrove & Co. Imraan holds a BA in Economics from Cambridge University, and prior to his career in the city, was a professional cricketer with Gloucestershire C.C.C. in England, and the Pakistan Customs.
Meenu Mynam is the Project Coordinator for the Sub-K Branchless Banking Project and supports the Shore International India team, which is based out of Hyderabad. Prior to joining SBI, Meenu worked with the risk management team of a stock brokerage. Earlier, she completed a summer internship on credit cycle and loan appraisal with Tata Capital, a major housing finance company, and worked as a software programmer for projects under the Energy and Utilities vertical of Wipro Technologies. Meenu has an MBA in Finance and Information Technology and an undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering.
Anton Naber, CPA is a Financial Services Advisor at SBI where he currently provides oversight to three microfinance institutions and MFIs Network in Palestine. In this role, he provides and supervises a wide variety of technical assistance including credit scoring, financial rating, human resource development, planning, and technology and capacity building in credit evaluation and internal auditing. Previously, Mr. Naber was a Senior Auditor at Deloitte & Touch (ME) testing and attestation services department where he worked for more than six years and audited different industries that included auditing the financial statements of UNRWA Microfinance Microenterprise Program, Auditing Hospitality Industries, NGOs, Utility Companies and others. Mr. Naber has a BA degree in Accounting and Minor in Business Administration from Bethlehem University and is also a certified public accountant of the state board of Colorado.
Vijesh Nair is an Associate Consultant based on SBI's Washington, DC office where he works primarily with the Transaction Advisory Services and Alternative Delivery Channels practices developing financial models, assisting with data mining, and servicing the BRAC Africa Loan Fund. Earlier as an intern at SBI, Mr. Nair worked on various development finance consulting projects, key of which were helping two mobile banking ventures raise money from impact investors by creating financial models and assisting in the Business Plan development process. He has seven years of experience in fields as varied as venture capital consulting, equity research, banking (factoring) and advertising. Prior to earning his MBA, he was a Senior Research Analyst at CRISIL (a S&P company). At CRISIL, he worked as an offshore venture capital consultant for a California-based client, and as an analyst for Deutsche Bank’s equity research wing. Mr. Nair has also worked at Tata Consultancy Services as a Team Lead for the factoring operations of its client, Barclays Bank, and has managed the migration of several Finance and Accounting processes from their on-site operations to their back office units in India for clients such as Deutsche Bank and Home Depot. Vijesh holds an MBA from George Washington University and an undergraduate degree in Economics from the University of Madras, India.
Khalid Nawaz is serving as Chief Operations Officer with SBI Pakistan. Core to his responsibilities are business development, client relationship management, project management on short term assignments and leading the support functions within SBI Pakistan. He has been instrumental in achieving a number of strategic assignments with some of the leading institutions in the microfinance sector in Pakistan. These include institutional assessments, product development, research and impact studies, strategic and business planning, and microfinance systems and policies development. Mr. Nawaz has over 10 years of experience in project management, providing technical assistance to the microfinance sector. Mr. Nawaz has a Masters degree in business administration from the Institute of Management Studies, University of Peshawar.
Paul Pacea, Consultant, is completing his tenure as SBI’s long-term local credit expert for the EBRD SME and Rural Finance Facility projects with CEC Bank in Romania. He is currently the project manager for the EBRD Rural Finance Facility and has been involved in several SBI projects with Millennium Bank, Banca Transilvania, BCR and OTP Bank. The projects’ activities were mainly focused on providing specialized training to bank personnel, optimizing the lending process, improving monitoring and collecting procedures for loan portfolio, coordinating and assisting bank personnel in loan structuring and non-performing loans management, participating in portfolio risk assessment. Prior to working for SBI, Mr. Pacea was a loan officer for a small and medium loan program of the Romanian–American Enterprise Fund at Banca Romaneasca. Mr. Pacea graduated in Finance and Banking with a Bachelor’s degree in Economics, followed by an M.A.
Lara McCoy Pawlak is Manager of Global Talent Resourcing for ShoreBank International, based out of the Chicago office. Prior to joining SBI in 2008, Ms. Pawlak had fourteen years of experience in project management, business development and business technical assistance, working in diverse private and nonprofit organizations devoted to international development assistance, consulting, and database analytics for financial services firms. In the early 1990s, she worked at a small business fund in St. Petersburg, Russia, supporting the due diligence process for equity investments. She received her BA in International Studies, with a focus on International Development, from American University in Washington, DC and completed her MBA in Finance at the University of Kentucky. At SBI, Ms. Pawlak is responsible for strategic recruitment, project staffing, human capital planning and systems for talent management.
Youn-Mi Rim is a Project Accountant at SBI where she works on foreign project accounting and reporting, billing, and leads accounts receivable efforts for work with several of the company's clients, primarily on USAID. Ms. Rim joined SBI in November 2011 and works along with the full accounting team at the company's headquarters in Washington DC.
Kelly Robbins serves as Executive Assistant to SBI's President & CEO, and Special Projects Manager. In this role she performs a variety of tasks, including operations and company relations, research, report editing and marketing materials updates, and logistical support of the Senior Management team and Transaction Advisory Services team. Prior to joining SBI, Kelly spent two years working with illegal immigrants in Greece. Kelly holds a Master's in Philosophy (Legal Theory: Gender and Education Law) from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and has worked in a number of fields including university-level teaching, publications, EFL language tutoring, organic farming, and welding.
Wasim Salfiti, Senior Business Analyst, joined SBI in June 2010. Mr. Salfiti focuses on business development and project implementation for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Before joining SBI, he served as Advisor to Jordan’s Minister of Industry and Trade, where he liaised between the minister and World Bank officials to improve Jordan’s ranking in the annual cross-country Doing Business report. He has an MA in International Economics from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), and a BA in Economics and History from Columbia University. Mr. Salfiti speaks fluent English, Arabic and Hebrew and has a working knowledge of French.
Shital Shah is a Consultant based in Ahmedabad, India and is a core member of the Alternative Delivery Channels practice. Shah focuses primarily on the Strategy & Execution Group, where her duties include project management, strategy development, client relationship management, and business development. Since joining SBI in 2010, she assisted managing a Gates Foundation initiative on microsavings in South Asia, and is involved with developing branchless banking projects in Bangladesh, Pakistan and India. She has also been involved in strategy mandates for clients in Romania, Mexico, Peru, and Ethiopia. She has worked in different capacities with a variety of international development organizations, including the United Nations, Oxfam International, the World Bank, and Acumen Fund. She also spent a year as an Indicorps fellow in India. Prior to SBI, Ms. Shah worked as a management consultant to federal government clients. Ms. Shah holds an MPA from the New York University Wagner School of Public Service and has an undergraduate degree from Northwestern University.
Khurram Sikander is Senior ADC Lead with ShoreBank International, where he manages projects and provides technical assistance to SBI partners on branchless banking initiatives. Mr. Sikander also currently serves as Project Director to United Bank Limited's Omni and Khushhali Micro-Finance Banks branchless banking projects in Pakistan. He has over 13 years of experience working in both technology and financial organizations in the USA and Pakistan. Prior to joining SBI, he headed Branchless and Mobile business for Faysal Bank and Alternative Distribution and E-Banking for The Royal Bank of Pakistan and ABN AMRO bank respectively. He played an instrumental role in setting up the largest shared electronic financial gateway in Pakistan known as 1LINK (Guarantee) Ltd., which led to ground breaking services and 24/7 account accessibility for banking customers. He managed multi-institution implementations, creating linkages with Visa and Mobile operators. Mr. Sikander has a BSc in Business and Information Systems from University of Texas, USA and BCom from University of Karachi, Pakistan.
Santhosh Kumar Thiruthimana joined Shore International India as the Senior Technical Lead for the Sub-K branchless banking project. Prior to joining SII, Mr. Thiruthimana was the Regional Payments Specialist for South Asia at IFC and led IFC’s retail payments advisory team in the region. Previously, he was Head of South Asia and led the Alternate Delivery Channels practice team at SBI. At SBI, he was responsible for designing and implementing key mobile money projects in South Asia, including bKash mobile money project in Bangladesh and UBL Omni mobile money project in Pakistan. For SBI, he has managed/ worked on inclusive banking projects in various geographies including India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Mangolia, Bosnia, Palestine, Papua New Guinea, Cambodia and Afghanistan. Mr. Thiruthimana also has several years of banking and rural development experience in India. He holds a master’s degree in public policy from Duke university, NC and a degree in Agriculture from Kerala Agricultural University.
Debbie Watkins is Project Manager for the Gates-funded program with bKash Mobile Money in Bangladesh. She has over 25 years’ experience in business development, implementation, management and advisory roles in both the corporate and developing world. Her career in the UK included Operations Director for an ERP solutions provider and Head of Deployment for a commercial bank-enabled smart card-based electronic cash service, before a desire to “make a difference” took her to Cambodia where she founded two social enterprises. She has lived in Asia since 2000 and worked throughout Africa - specialising in ICT for microfinance and innovative technology platforms centred around increasing access to finance amongst the unbanked. Her byline is “innovation with a healthy dose of business reality” – ensuring that solutions are appropriate to their environment, fulfill market needs and are ultimately profitable for the implementing partner.
Vanina Vincensini is a Consultant at SBI and represents the company in Brazil. Her most recent consulting work has focused on advising MFIs and banks in: housing finance, microfinance, credit scoring, and strategic planning advisory projects in Latin America, Eastern Europe, and Asia. Interested in international and local economic development, Ms. Vincensini also works as an advisor to the World Bank. She has experience working in the French administration on diplomatic affairs and economic support for small businesses. A Fulbright Scholar, Ms. Vincensini holds a Master of Public Policy from the University of Chicago and a Master in Public Administration from the Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris, France. She is a native French speaker and is fluent in English, Portuguese, and Spanish.