MICROFINANCE EVENT: A Discussion of the Women's World Banking Study "Stemming the Tide of Mission Drift"

THE IMPACT OF COMMERCIALIZATION ON WOMEN MICROFINANCE CLIENTS

JUNE 24, 2008, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES

Women Advancing Microfinance – New York (WAM-NY) and Women’s World Banking (WWB) are hosting this opportunity to learn about and discuss the findings of WWB’s “landmark” study of mission drift among microfinance institutions that transform from NGOs into regulated financial institutions.

Panelists will include:

Christina Frank, Senior Associate at Capital Markets Group and author of the study “Stemming the Tide of Mission Drift: Microfinance Transformations and the Double Bottom Line“
Mary Ellen Iskenderian, WWB President and CEO
Inez Murray, Vice President Technical Assistance & Programs

The event will held from 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm at White & Case, 1155 Avenue of the Americas (at 44th St), New York, New York. For security reasons, RSVP is required via Sarah Leshner at sleshner@wharton.upenn.edu no later than 10 am on June 24.

Two recent TIME magazine articles have discussed the study:

Mary Ellen Iskenderian is President and CEO of Women’s World Banking (WWB), the world’s largest network of microfinance institutions and banks. Ms. Iskenderian has more than 20 years of experience in building global financial systems throughout the developing world. Ms. Iskenderian has become a leading voice for women’s leadership and participation in microfinance and a strong advocate for the role of capital markets in the sector. She has spoken widely on microfinance at Harvard, Yale, Wharton Business School and at numerous industry and banking forums including the Singapore Conference on Savings, Assets and Financial Inclusion; the Inter-American Development Bank and FELABAN Seminar on Banking Regulation and Supervision in El Salvador and the ResponsAbility Microfinance Conference in Zurich, Switzerland. She is frequently quoted in the media, including The Wall Street Journal, BBC News, Voice of America, the Miami Herald, the Philadelphia Inquirer, Dallas Morning News and other major international outlets. Prior to WWB, Ms. Iskenderian worked for 17 years in senior management at the International Finance Corporation, the private sector arm of the World Bank, where her numerous leadership positions included Director of Partnership Development, Director of the Global Financial Markets Portfolio and Director of the South Asia Regional Department. Previously, she worked for the investment bank, Lehman Brothers. Ms. Iskenderian currently sits on the advisory boards of the Dignity Fund and Kiva. Before joining WWB, she was a director on many corporate boards, including ShoreCap International, an important equity and loan fund for microfinance. She holds an MBA from the Yale School of Organization and Management and a Bachelor of Science in International Economics from the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service.

Inez Murray is Senior Manager of WWB’s Strategy and Customer Insight Team, which conducts market and client research to enable network members to improve their products and services by better understanding what their clients need and value. Inez’s team uses quantitative techniques such as statistically significant surveys and qualitative techniques such as focus group discussions. Her team also helps MFIs build the capacity necessary to institutionalize customer feedback mechanisms and develop market research skills. Prior to taking this position, Inez served as the WWB Organizational Strategy and Effectiveness Coordinator. Working with regional teams, she coordinated the delivery of a range of technical services that dealt with competitive strategy and organizational change. She also led innovative initiatives in the area of business development services. Before joining WWB in 1996, Inez worked as a Senior Consultant in the strategy practice of Booz, Allen, Hamilton, a leading global consulting firm in New York and as a Business Analyst for Management Horizons, a management consulting company based in London. She has also worked on short-term consultancies for various NGOs, including conducting a program evaluation of Trickle Up in Calcutta and developing for-profit businesses for Puntos de Encuentro in Managua. Inez holds a Master’s degree in International Affairs from Columbia University where she specialized in economic and political development and a Bachelor’s degree in Economics and Business Studies from Trinity College, Dublin. She is a native of Ireland and has a working knowledge of Spanish.

Christina Frank is a Senior Associate in Women’s World Banking’s Capital Markets Group. In this role she assists members of the WWB network with accessing debt & equity financing from local and international funders, advises microfinance institutions on capital markets transactions, and instructs MFIs on financial risk management and the implementation of risk management systems. Prior to joining WWB in April of 2006, Christina spent four years as an Investment Banker in New York. She served as an Associate in the Media & Communications group at Jefferies & Company, where she executed a variety of debt, equity and M&A transactions for small and mid-cap companies. Previously, Christina worked as a Senior Analyst in the Media & Communications group at SG Cowen & Co. and as an Analyst in the Latin American Investment Banking Group at Deutsche Bank. Christina graduated with high honors from Princeton University with a major in History and a concentration in Latin American Studies.

MICROFINANCE EVENT: A Discussion of the Women’s World Banking Study “Stemming the Tide of Mission Drift”

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