Boulder Institute of Microfinance

The Boulder Institute Team

Robert Peck Christen
President
Board Member

Bob is the Director of Financial Services for the Poor at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.  Mr. Christen has over 25 years of experience in leading the development of the microfinance sector the aim of which is to increase the access of the poor to financial services.  He is recognized internationally for his leadership in advancing the microfinance sector as a global industry in a number of areas:  commercial innovations in microfinance operations, microfinance industry performance benchmarking, international professional training programs and policies in regulation and supervision.  Mr. Christen has worked in over 40 countries advising governments, banks, and microfinance service providers.  He has held a variety of management positions including  Senior Advisor to the Consultative Group to Assist the Poorest  (CGAP ) at the World Bank from 1998-2004; and has founded a number of important initiatives that serve the industry including: the MicroBanking Bulletin and subsequently the MicroFinance Information Exchange, the Microfinance Management Institute, the Boulder Institute of Microfinance. Mr. Christen holds a Masters Degree in Agricultural Economics and Development Finance from Ohio University which granted him the Distinguished Alumni Award in 2005.  He received his B.A. in Political Science from Beloit College.  Mr. Christen is the author of a large number of publications in microfinance:  Banking Services for the Poor: Managing for Financial Success, ACCION International, 1996, “Managing Risks and Designing products for Agricultural Microfinance:  Features of an Emerging Model,” with Doug Pearce, CGAP Occasional Paper No. 11, 2005; “The Rush to Regulate, Legal Frameworks for Microfinance” with Richard Rosenberg, CGAP Occasional Paper No. 4, 2000 later condensed versions were published in Journal of small Enterprise Development, Vol. 11, No. 4 December 2000 (condensed version by Claire Tawney); Financial Institutions with a “Double Bottom Line:  implications for the future of microfinance,” with Richard Rosenberg and Veena Jayadeva, CGAP Occasional Paper No. 8, 2004.

Consuelo Muñoz Araya
Vice President, Development
Board Member

Consuelo is one of the founding members of the Boulder Institute of Microfinance, and is engaged in generating new initiatives that respond to emerging issues related to microfinance as a tool for addressing a variety of social, economic and environmental goals.

During 2003, she served as Director of the Sustainable Development Program at Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado USA. For nine years, from 1991 through 2000, Consuelo served as the Senior Manager for the Unit on Environment and Natural Resources, National Environmental Commission (CONAMA) Santiago, Chile.

Consuelo was trained as a large animal veterinarian and animal science specialist before obtaining her advanced degree in wildlife zoology from Ohio State University. After leaving school, she worked for 10 years in the field of animal husbandry and rural and indigenous community development in Chile, Honduras, Dominican Republic, Ecuador and most recently in Guatemala.

While at CONAMA, Consuelo was the Coordinator of the National Biodiversity program, responsible for designing and conducting the Biodiversity Country Study and National Action Plan (CONAMA/USAID), acted as the Representative of Chile for the Convention on Biological Diversity; and was invited to become a member of Editorial, Advisory, and Expert Panels (UNEP, WRI, ICUN) in a series of international follow-up meetings to revise the Guidelines for the Preparation of Country Studies on Biological Diversity.

Also at CONAMA, Consuelo organized the “1st Regional Environmental Economic Valuation Workshop for Latin America and the Caribbean” (CONAMA/PNUMA/ CANADA), Santiago de Chile, May 1996, a Regional Genetic Resources and Bio-safety workshop (CONAMA/BID) with participants from the Southern Cone and North America, served as President of the Environment Committee for the Forestry Action Plan (PAF/FAO), and coordinated efforts on a number of other initiatives for the sustainable use of natural resources.

She has consulted on biodiversity matters with the governments of Uruguay, Guatemala and Peru.

Larry Reed
Vice President, Academic Affairs
Board Member

Is the former CEO of the Opportunity International Network, a coalition of microfinance organizations serving over three million clients with loans, savings and insurance. As CEO, Larry guided Opportunity's work to develop commercial financial institutions that focused on serving clients at the bottom end of the economic ladder. Larry has also served as Opportunity's Director for the African and Caribbean Region and as the Chair of the SEEP Network.

 

Sousan Urroz-Korori
Vice-President, Finance and Administration
Board Member

Sousan is Senior faculty in international finance development and executive administrator with over 20 years of experience in private and public sectors.

She has advised in macro/micro policy and worked as project director in many countries. Her research and consulting fields include microfinance, financial infrastructure and capital market development, financial crisis management, currency valuation-protection, monetary integration, and dollarization.

She has taught at graduate, undergraduate and community college levels.

She has designed and directed four separate masters degree programs and many professional development training seminars with focus on central banking issues, microfinance, financial crisis management, and financial development.

She has held executive level positions in for-profit and not-for-profit organizations, including educational institutions.

She is a multi-language and multicultural person who has lived and worked around the world.

Since 1998 – present: University of Colorado, Boulder/Denver, Colorado, Visiting Faculty, Leeds School of Business at Boulder.

Founder and Director of Center for Women Economics Advancement Through Entrepreneurship And Higher Education.

Her recent works has been concentrated on how to eliminate poverty especially for women in developing countries.

Jennifer McDonald

Jennifer McDonald has worked in microfinance for ten years. Prior to joining the Boulder Institute, she gained extensive experience as a bank advisor and micro-lending specialist with the IPC consulting group. While at IPC, Jennifer was a senior manager of leading microfinance institutions in the ProCredit network in Kosovo and Mozambique. She also carried out assignments as a credit expert in Ghana, Bolivia and Ecuador.

From 1996-99, Jennifer was Program Manager for the forerunner of today’s MIX, the MicroBanking Standards Project. Her analysis of the first 100 microfinance institutions to contribute data formed the foundation of today’s MIX database. In collaboration with Robert Christen, she established the templates for benchmarking the financial performance of microfinance institutions using peer groups. She contributed several articles on benchmarking to editions of the MicroBanking Bulletin.

Jennifer has an MA in Development Economics from the University of Sussex in the UK and a BA (Hons) in Economics and Political Science from Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada.

Over the last ten years, she has lived in Chile, Ghana, Kosovo and Mozambique. Jennifer speaks Portuguese, Spanish and conversational French, and is based in Montreal, Canada.

Submitted by jennifer on Thu, 2006-05-04 13:46.