MDI-NH Faculty Bios
Mr. Allen has worked in development since 1970, focussing for most of the last 15 years on microfinance and technology-based market development activities. For 13 years he worked for CARE and was their Chief Technical Advisor for Small Economic Activity Development in Africa. He is the founder of VSL Associates, a consulting company that deals exclusively with the promotion of self-managed community-based micro-finance. He is firmly of the view that new approaches are needed to bring microfinance to the very poor and, since 1999, has worked exclusively to promote the adoption of community-based microfinance by multi-sectoral development agencies and southern NGOs. He is on the faculty of the Boulder Microfinance Training Program and the World Vision Summer School and is the author of 3 books: 2 on small scale technology and 1 on the establishment and management of Village Savings and Loan programmes.
Jeffrey Ashe
Jeffrey Ashe is the Manager of Community Finance at Oxfam America where he and his team launched the Saving for Change Initiative with plans to organize 1,000,000 poor women into self-help groups over the next ten years. He also teaches microfinance at Brandeis and Columbia Universities.
Prior to coming to Oxfam, Mr. Ashe founded Working Capital and served as its Executive Director. Working Capital was for several years the largest microfinance program in the United States and franchised its model in eight states and Russia. Working Capital received the first Presidential Award for Excellence for microfinance at a celebration at the White House.
Before starting Working Capital, Mr. Ashe was Director of the "PISCES Project," the first worldwide investigation of programs reaching the smallest economic activities of the poor. PISCES laid the groundwork for the best practice work that has followed over the past two decades. As Senior Associate Director at ACCION International, he assisted in the dissemination of peer group lending throughout Latin America. After he left ACCION, Mr. Ashe designed, assisted and evaluated microfinance programs in thirty-five countries in Asia, Africa, Latin America and Eastern Europe.
Mr. Ashe has published extensively in the micro-enterprise field and is the author of several books and articles on the topic. He holds a BA in Political Science from the University of California, Berkley, and an MA in Sociology from Boston University.
Christine Clamp
Dr. Clamp is a professor in the National and doctoral programs. Ph.D., M.A. Boston College. B.A. Friends World College. Currently she is chair of the board of directors of the ICA Group (Boston), vice president of the Allston/Brighton Community Development Corporation (Boston) and member of the Board of National Cooperative Business Association. She is a Senior Research Fellow at the Applied Research Center in CED. Formerly, she was a member of the board of directors of Childspace Development and Training Institute, and a member of the Council of Overseers for the Friends World Program at Long Island University. She is a former associate of the Harvard University Program on Non-Violence Sanctions and Civilian Defense. She is a specialist in Cooperatives, Training of Trainers, Curriculum Development and Women's Economic Development.
Alejandro Escobar
Alejandro Escobar has over 15 years of experience in the field of enterprise development. For almost ten years, Alejandro worked with MEDA, where he started several ventures in Bolivia and Peru, linking small producers and small enterprises with export markets. He also initiated investment activities for the Sarona Global Investment Fund, assisting early stage companies with working capital. While living in Bolivia, Alejandro also worked in the area of rural finance, assisting cooperatives and farmer associations in the development and expansion of rural microfinance programs. Alejandro has worked and traveled throughout Latin America providing consulting services to various organizations in the areas of SME and microenterprise development. Back in the United States, Alejandro worked in the private sector, within the supply chain group of a fortune 500 company, Du Pont. There, Alejandro worked directly with management in tracking, reporting and assisting in decision making on the use of global manufacturing facilities, operations and sales. Alejandro introduced various business reporting and information systems and led in the deployment and training of these programs in Europe and the US. More recently, Alejandro joined the Inter American Development Bank, where he is a Specialist for the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise Division. Alejandro oversees 5 countries of the Latin America region, identifying, structuring and financing projects in value chain, microfinance and SME development.
Kadry Furany
Mr. Furany has over 14 years of experience in the microfinance field. His experience includes establishing and strengthening the performance of Microfinance institutions by improving the human resources capacity, establishing appropriate systems, (MIS, accounting and internal control, monitoring and evaluation, credit policies and procedure, HR and Admin), developing or assist in developing business plans and designing appropriate financial and non-financial products. He led the establishment and/or building the capacity of several Microfinance institutions in Africa. He is currently he is currently Vice-President of CARE Canada.
Peter Greer
Mr. Greer is President at HOPE International, a not-for-profit organization supporting microfinance institutions in Eastern Europe, Africa, and Asia. Prior to HOPE, he spent three years as the Managing Director of URWEGO, the largest microfinance institution in Rwanda. While in Rwanda, Peter helped create the Rwanda Microfinance Forum and served as the Vice-President for over two years. Peter has also worked as a Microfinance Technical Advisor in Cambodia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ukraine, and Zimbabwe. Peter received a master's degree in Public Policy at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government, concentrating in Political and Economic Development. While at Harvard, he was the co-President of the International Development Finance and Policy Council at the Kennedy School.
Dr. Malcolm Harper
Malcolm Harper was educated at Oxford University, the Harvard Business School and the University of Nairobi. He worked for nine years in a medium-sized household hardware manufacturing business in England, mainly in marketing. He then taught in Nairobi, from 1970 to 1974, before coming to Cranfield School of Management, where he was Professor of Enterprise Development. Since 1995 he has worked independently, mainly in India. He has published some twenty books and numerous articles on various aspects of self-employment, enterprise development and micro-finance. His research and consultancy work has been supported by a wide range of national, international and non-government development agencies.
He has advised and evaluated a number of enterprise development and micro-finance programmes and institutions in India and in East and West Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, the Middle East and Gulf area, South and South East Asia, as well as in the United Kingdom. He is Chairman of Basix Finance of Hyderabad, a leading ‘new generation’ micro-finance institution, and a Director of M-CRIL of New Delhi, the pioneer of micro-finance credit rating in Asia. He was also the founding Editor-in-chief of the journal Small Enterprise Development, and is a director and trustee of a number of other institutions, including, EDA (UK) Limited, APT Enterprise Development and Intermediate Technology Publications in the United Kingdom.
William Harrington
Mr. Harrington is a senior microfinance consultant with specialties in capital-raising, business planning and governance issues. He has more than twenty years of experience in business development and has consulted with microfinance institutions in Latin America, Africa, Central Asia and Eastern Europe. He has been responsible for the identification of microfinance investment candidates, due diligence evaluations, and negotiation and satisfaction of investment terms and conditions. Since 2003, he has worked for Mennonite Economic Development Associates (MEDA). MEDA is a faith-based, North American NGO which has developed business opportunities to create jobs and improve living conditions for the poor in developing countries for over 50 years.
During most of the 1990s, Mr. Harrington was executive vice president of a non-profit organization in the US that helps advanced technology businesses to start and grow. In that position he had responsibility for five specialized investment funds with a portfolio of more than 200 companies. Together with staff and consultants, he reviewed more than 250 business plans, conducted approximately 200 due diligence reviews each year and provided technical assistance to many of the portfolio companies.
Mr. Harrington has a degree in mechanical engineering from Lafayette College and a master’s degree in city planning from the University of Pennsylvania. He has served as a judge of the business plan competition for the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania since its inception. He is a co-facilitator of the Investment Readiness Working Group of the SEEP Network.
Linda Jones
Linda Jones is an independent consultant who specializes in capacity building and pro-poor development of enterprises, value chains and subsectors / industries. Linda’s technical expertise is in: private sector development; program strategy, design and planning; subsector and value chain analysis; programming for marginalized populations including low-income women; and the development and implementation of tools and techniques for effective market research and analysis. Jones was previously Technical Director for MEDA, an International NGO, where she was responsible for new program development, industry trends, technical advice on program design and implementation, and training. Jones is the Pro-Poor Enterprise Development track coordinator for the Microenterprise Development Institute at Southern New Hampshire University, a member of the Editorial Board of the Enterprise Development and Microfinance Journal (formerly SED), the past Chair of the Board of Directors of the SEEP Network, and a regular contributor to conferences, seminars and workshops. Jones holds a Ph.D. in Anthropology, managed a university research centre, and was a successful entrepreneur for over ten years. Email: psdjones@gmail.com
Fiona Macaulay
Ms. Macaulay is the Founder and President of Making Cents International, a consulting firm that works to strengthen the capacity of organizations to provide innovative and effective educational services to youth and, micro and small entrepreneurs (MSME). She has more than ten years of experience in the field of youth microenterprise. Ms. Macaulay’s expertise ranges from designing training programs, training materials, developing and delivering training of trainer courses and conducting evaluations. She has experience working with a wide variety of youth microenterprise programs including those targeting youth in various settings including in school, out of school and as in technical training programs. Ms. Macaulay’s regional experience includes Africa, Europe, the Middle East, Latin America and the Caribbean, the Pacific Rim and North America. Ms. Macaulay recently initiated the Global Youth Entrepreneurship Practitioners’ conference, a learning- event designed to encourage members of the youth micro enterprise community to exchange experiences and become a more cohesive group. Presently residing in Washington DC, Ms. Macaulay is a Canadian and British citizen.
Chris Mburu
Mr. Mburu is an international human rights lawyer from Kenya currently serving as a Human Rights Officer with the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva, Switzerland, focusing on anti-discrimination work. A graduate of University of Nairobi (LL.B) and Harvard Law School (LL.M), Mr Mburu has worked on human rights, peace and conflict resolution issues for over 15 years and has served in many conflict-ravaged communities in countries such as Congo, Sierra Leone, Uganda, Ethiopia and Eritrea. He recently served as Advisor on Democracy for the UN Regional Center for Human Rights and Democracy in Yaounde, Cameroon. He has previously worked with leading human rights organizations and think-tanks, including Global Rights, the International Crisis Group and Amnesty International.
Timothy Nourse – Academy for Educational Development
Mr. Nourse has been supporting the development of best practice microfinance and enterprise development programming for more than ten years in Africa, the Middle East and Europe. Tim began his career with Catholic Relief Services, working mostly in developing countries to build the capacity of local microfinance institutions. However, his work soon took him to more conflict and disaster affected countries, including Afghanistan, Bosnia, Croatia, the West Bank and Gaza, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Turkey, Sri Lanka, Uganda and Liberia, where he has created new microfinance institutions in post-conflict environments, developed savings led finance programs or designed enterprise development programs using value chain analysis tools. From 2002-2005, Tim led American Refugee Committee’s Microenterprise Development programs that served refugees, internally displaced persons (IDP), and other conflict affected entrepreneurs in East and West Africa, pioneering approaches to providing cross-border microfinance services, utilizing for-profit structures to advance microfinance in conflict environments, and developing support programs for vulnerable clients to help them qualify for microfinance loans. Tim currently works for the Academy for Educational Development, serving as the headquarters manager for the ARIES program, a rural finance program in Afghanistan that marks USAID’s largest rural finance program ever, and contributing to the learning agenda for AED’s microenterprise development activities overall. He has published papers on Microfinance and Conflict with USAID, UNCDF, the Journal of Humanitarian Practice and the Forced Migration Review.
Monica Onyango
I am a lecturer at Boston University (School of Public Health), Department of International Health (DIH). My responsibilities include teaching, research and community service. I have worked for more than six years with international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in relief and development in Southern Sudan, Kenya and Angola. My work with various NGOs included starting and managing community based health programs for war affected communities, developing curriculums for and training health workers. Before joining relief work I served in the Kenya Ministry of Health for ten years as a nursing officer in management positions at two hospitals, and as a lecturer at the Nairobi Medical Training College - School of Nursing. My interests include reproductive health, maternal and child health, community economic development in relation to HIV/AIDS and health care among populations affected by disasters. I am also interested on issues affecting nurses in developing countries and the nursing profession globally.
Dr. Martin O’Reilly
Dr. O'Reilly is currently associate professor at Uganda Martyrs University, Uganda. He has worked in Africa for 24 years and was formerly on the staff of St. Paul’s University, Liberia and the Catholic University of East Africa, Kenya. For the past six years he has been director of the Centre for Extra-Mural Studies, Uganda Martyrs University, with special responsibility for developing their current associate degree programme in microfinance and community economic development. In addition to his university teaching, he has worked extensively with microfinance institutions in Uganda and elsewhere - in assisting them to broaden their understanding of their social mission, as well as their ability to respond adeptly to the changing landscape of the demand for credit. He is the editor of the forthcoming book ‘Rural Microfinancing’, to be published by Marianum Press, Uganda, later this year.
Catherine Rielly
Dr. Rielly is associate professor and chair of the International M.S. in CED program and a Senior Research Fellow at the Applied Research Center in CED. Ph.D., MPA, Harvard University; B.A., Stanford University. A political economist, she has conducted research, training, and technical assistance on public policy, economics, democratization and governance, gender and HIV/AIDS for the following organizations: the Harvard Institute for International Development, UNIFEM, UNFPA, UNDP, the Asian Development Bank, USAID, the governments of Mali, Zambia, and Uganda, and the Kennedy School of Government. Rielly has conducted comparative research and written journal articles on policy processes in more than 20 countries. Her key research focuses on the economic empowerment of women as a mechanism for fighting HIV/AIDS in Africa.
Jolan Rivera
Dr. Rivera is an Assistant Professor at the School of Community Economic Development (CED), Southern New Hampshire University. He teaches graduate-level courses in Project Design and Management, Principles and Practice of CED, Economics and CED, Development Economics, Organizational Analysis, and Research and Statistics. He shares his knowledge and experience in using the logic model as a framework for planning, monitoring and evaluation through formal classroom instruction, training of community organizations, and consulting work.His previous work experience includes teaching college-level Economics courses at the University of the Philippines - Baguio. He also worked with a number of national and international NGOs in the Philippines, undertaking tasks that include program/project design, grants writing and management, strategic planning, and program/project implementation, monitoring and evaluation, staff and community training, youth development, and consultancy.In the United States, he was an adjunct instructor/teaching assistant at the School of CED from 2002 to August 2006. He has recently conducted collaborative academic and action research, participatory planning, organizational analysis and program evaluation on topics that include cooperative housing, asset accumulation for people with disabilities, responsible parenthood, and community-based crime prevention. He was the Manager of the School of CED’s Applied Research Center from June to December 2005.He received his Bachelor of Arts in the Social Sciences (double-major in Economics and Psychology) from the University of the Philippines – Baguio in 1987. He received his Master of Science in International CED and Master of Arts in CED Policy in 2000 and 2005, respectively, both from the School of CED. He completed his Ph.D. in CED in May 2006.
Alexandra Snelgrove
Alexandra joined MEDA’s Production and Marketing Linkages Group in 2004. In her current capacity as Senior Consultant/Project Manager, she contributes to projects focussed on enterprise development, sub-sector analysis, and value chain enhancement including a fruit and vegetable subsector development program in Ethiopia and Zambia and a project linking homebound rural embroiderers into higher value markets in Pakistan. Alex also manages a project centered on technology dissemination for horticulture producers in Ethiopia and Zambia. Alex frequently consults with other organizations and institutions in the areas of private sector development, value chain and sub-sector analysis, and program design and development. Before joining MEDA, Alexandra completed her Masters in Economic Development at Columbia University in New York City. Alexandra’s previous consulting experience includes analysis of the vegetable subsector and initial needs assessment in Cambodia, participation on a research team analyzing global cashew consumption and possible marketing strategies for cashew processors, and strategic planning for a start-up microenterprise development organization. Prior to entering the international development field, Alex worked in trade promotion in Malaysia in both the private and public sectors.
Michael Spingler
Michael Spingler is the Senior Institutional Development Specialist for the USAID Egypt Microenterprise Finance project. The project, which he joined in December, 2006, supports 11 NGO and bank MFI partners with an outreach of over 600,000 clients in their technical assistance and training needs. These include governance, strategic and business planning, human resource management, product development, marketing, accounting, and financial and information systems.
Prior to this position, Mr Spingler spent three and a half years as the Director for the Catholic Relief Services Southeast Asia LINKS Learning Center for Microfinance in the Philippines. This program used a comprehensive, partnership-based approach for capacity building and institutional learning for policy, procedure and system development in governance, management, and operations within its 50 MFI partner and affiliated organizations.
Mr. Spingler was the Chief Operating Officer of Thaneakea Phum Cambodia, a wholly owned limited liability company of Catholic Relief Services in Cambodia serving over 50,000 clients through a ten branch network. Over the course of the seven years he worked in Cambodia, Mr. Spingler assisted in the planning and management of TPC’s client and human resource growth, and its transformation into a licensed MFI.
Prior to CRS, he worked with the Credit Union Association of Ghana for two years as a trainer and technical advisor. Mr. Spingler has a master's degree in Business Administration from Northeastern University.
Michael Swack -
Dr. Swack has over 20 years of experience in the field of development finance and development banking and is considered a pioneer in the field of community development lending and investment. He is Dean of the School of Community Economic Development at Southern New Hampshire University where he is teaches courses in finance, economic development and negotiations. Dr. Swack is also President of the Center for Community Economic Development. Dr. Swack has also been involved in the design, implementation and management of a number of community lending and investment institutions, and has been a founding member of five Community Development Financial Institutions. He received his masters degree from Harvard University and his doctorate from Columbia University.