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Steering Committee

The SPTF is governed by a 16 member steering committee with members from every region, and a fixed number of elected representatives from each of the major stakeholder categories:

  • 2 donors
  • 2 investors
  • 2 MFIs: 1 NGO and 1 NBFI or bank
  • 3 MFI Associations: 1 Global, 1 Regional and 1 National
  • 2 support organizations
  • 2 audit/rating/information services
  • 2 appointed members to ensure regional diversity
  • SPTF Coordinator is an ex-officio member

As of July 2011, the Steering Committee has 13 members and two empty seats in the Associations category, which will be filled according to member vote this summer.  In the meantime, Steering Committee composition is as follows:

Donors

Social Investors

Direct Microfinance Providers

Associations

Support Organizations

Rating/Auditing/Information Services

SPTF Coordinator (ex-officio member)

Frank DeGiovanni
Frank DeGiovanni is Ford Foundation's director of Financial Assets. He leads the foundation's worldwide efforts to build financial assets for disadvantaged people with support through grants and Program-Related Investments (PRIs). His team makes grants through a focused set of initiatives on savings, individual asset development, Social Security reform, rural livelihood development and consumer financial services.

Prior to assuming his current position, Frank was the foundation's deputy director of Program-Related Investments, where he was responsible for creating and monitoring a diverse loan portfolio of organizations promoting community and economic development in the United States and internationally.

Before joining the Ford Foundation in 1991, Frank was associate professor and senior research associate at the New School for Social Research in New York City, where he researched and taught graduate-level courses in housing and community development, urban political economy and policy analysis. From 1985 to 1987, he was chairman of the Pratt Institute's Department of City and Regional Planning in Brooklyn, where he also taught and consulted on projects in housing and community development.

Frank has a Ph.D. and a master's in regional planning, both from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

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Antonique Koning
Antonique Koning coordinates the European Union/African, Caribbean, Pacific States Microfinance Framework Program—a capacity-building program for microfinance actors in sub-Saharan Africa, the Caribbean, and the Pacific. As a member of CGAP's Donors & Investors Team, Antonique is based in Brussels and works closely with the European Commission and other funders to help them improve the quality of their funding for microfinance. Before joining CGAP, she worked with the World Savings Banks Institute. Koning has a master’s degree in international trade management and policy from the University of Birmingham. She speaks English, Spanish, French, and Dutch.

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David Dewez
David Dewez is the Regional Director of Incofin Investment Management and is based out of Colombia. As a regional Director, is in charge of supervising all the investment portfolio of Incofin (debt and equity) in Latin America and the Caribbean with a team of 5 investment officers. Mr Dewez us an active member of different Board of Directors including Banco Fie (Bolivia), ACME (Haiti), Crezcamos (Colombia) and Contactar (Colombia). Prior to Incofin, David worked for 6 years as a Senior Director at ACCION International. In this function, he provided technical assistance to MFIs in various countries including Bolivia, Haiti, Ecuador, Peru, Uganda, El Salvador, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago. His expertise include methodological auditing, microfinance product design, market research, training ,and the development of a social performance tool (ACCION Social). David was also Coordinator of the Acción Network, a leading Microfinance network of 21 MFIs members. Prior to joining ACCION, he worked as a microfinance researcher at International Development Research Center (IDRC), a Canadian research center, and is the author of various microfinance related topics publications. David holds a MA in Economics from Laval University (Canada). He is fluent in Spanish, French and English.

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Ging Ledesma
Ging Ledesma leads the Social Performance Unit of Oikcoredit, a leading financier of microfinance in over 60 countries. Prior to moving to the Netherlands, Ging was Regional Manager of Oikocredit’s operations in the Philippines. As Regional Manager she initiated Oikocredit’s operations in Cambodia. Prior to joining Oikocredit in 1999, Ging was Project Officer at the Asia Partnership for Human Development based in Hong Kong from where she focused on the evaluation and monitoring of projects supported by the Partnership in South and East Asia.

Ging’s current focus is on improving and deepening Oikocredit’s social performance management practice and in facilitating and providing support to Oikocredit partners in their efforts to do the same.

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Anne Hastings
Anne Hastings is the CEO of SFF. Anne served as the Director of Fonkoze, the foundation, since May 1996 and served as a founder and Board member of SFF since 2004. Anne is the recipient of many prestigious international awards recognizing her work in microfinance and in Haiti. 

Before coming to Haiti thirteen years ago, Anne had fifteen years of experience in providing strategic management services to executives as Senior Partner and Managing Director of Scanlon and Hastings, a management consulting company in Washington DC. Anne holds a PhD from the University of Virginia and an Honorary Doctorate in Business Leadership from Duquesne University. She completed research fellowships at the Brookings Institute and the Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations, both in Washington, DC.

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Carmen Velasco
Carmen Velasco, Co-founder and Director of Pro Mujer in Latin America, spent the first part of her career teaching at the Bolivian Catholic University before she teamed up with Lynne Patterson to develop training programs for women. Carmen was the co-founder of Pro Mujer in Bolivia, which has been fully sustainable since 1998, and she has also been responsible for providing technical assistance to Pro Mujer’s microfinance institutions in Argentina, Mexico, Nicaragua and Peru. Under her leadership, Pro Mujer in Bolivia, has achieved a world-wide reputation for excellence. Recently, Carmen assumed her new role as the Co-Director of Pro Mujer International. Based in Pro Mujer’s new regional office in Bolivia, she is responsible for supporting operations, for new product development, and for implementation of all network systems in each of the 5 countries where Pro Mujer is established. Carmen has a Bachelor’s degree in Educational Psychology from the University of Chile.

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Sharon D'Onofrio
Sharon D'Onofrio is the Executive Director of The SEEP Network. Prior to taking on this role, Sharon supported many of SEEP's members as a consultant specializing in organizational assessments, planning, and training. She also held the lead facilitator role in SEEP's Association Development Community of Practice. In this position, Sharon provided strategic direction to SEEP's global association development activities and oversaw the creation of a suite of association development tools. Prior to her consulting positions, Sharon worked with SEEP member Catholic Relief Services (CRS) as the senior technical advisor for microfinance. At CRS, Sharon led the creation of a new microfinance institution in El Salvador and served as its first executive director; she also led training activities and advised CRS microfinance programs throughout Latin America.

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Katarzyna Pawlak
Katarzyna Pawlak is the deputy director of the Microfinance Centre, a regional network for Europe and Asia. She has an MBA with ten years of practical experience in microfinance related to organizational management, program design and implementation. Since 2001 Katarzyna has been actively engaged in advancing Social Performance Management in ECA and globally through implementation of global and regional programs, engagement in a wide range of promotional activities, leadership and participation in various Social Performance related initiatives. She’s been a member of the Task Force since its inception, sits on the Imp-Act Consortium Management Committee and is actively involved in the SEEP Working Group on Social Performance. She authored or co-authored various publications, tools and training courses related to Social Performance Management including the Imp-Act/MFC Social Performance Management Guidelines and From Mission to Action Management Series promoting Strategic Management for Double-bottom Line and Quality Audit Tools.

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Zahra Khalid
Zahra Khalid is a Social Analyst at Pakistan Microfinance Network (PMN), where she has been working since 2009. She is responsible for the overall strategy formulation as well as the management of the day-to-day activities for PMN's various Responsible Finance initiatives for the microfinance industry in Pakistan. These include Social Performance, Client Protection and Financial Education initiatives. From 2011 to date, Zahra is also serving as regional facilitator for Asia in the SEEP Network’s Social Performance Working Group (for Microfinance Associations), playing a key role in organizing and managing the region’s efforts towards advancing a Social Performance agenda with support from other members. Zahra has a research background, primarily on the microfinance sector in Pakistan. She holds a BSc. (Hons.) in Business with majors in International Finance and Investments from the National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST) in Pakistan. Her professional interests include development research and education.

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Jeff Toohig
Jeff Toohig is the Deputy Director of the Social Performance Management Centrer at Grameen Foundation. He joined the Grameen Foundation in January of 2006 and is focused on strategy, planning, design and operationalization of Grameen Foundation’s poverty assessment tool “The Progress out of Poverty Index.” He is currently in charge of Grameen Foundation’s global PPI Deployment effort, supervising a team working in Asia, Latin America/ Caribbean, Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East/ North Africa region. Prior to joining Grameen Foundation Jeff spent 5 years in equity research. Jeff transitioned into development finance by way of Pro Mujer Bolivia in La Paz where he worked to adjust messaging from a focus on donors to one including socially responsible investors. The time spent analyzing the social return on investment possible made by Pro Mujer led to a natural fit with Grameen Foundation’s Social Performance Management Team. Jeff graduated with a BS dual degree in Comparative Literature and History from Fordham University.

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Anton Simanowitz
Anton Simanowitz is based at the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, UK, and is a member of the Vulnerability and Poverty reduction team. His work focuses on understanding and supporting practice to make microfinance more effective in reducing poverty.

His work includes working on social performance at an international level through the Imp-Act Consortium and contracts with organisations such as the IFC, Micro-insurance network, and the MiX. Anton led the formation of the Imp-Act Consortium and was Director until March 2010. Imp-Act supports and promotes the management of social performance in microfinance, providing practical lessons for practice and public policy. The Consortium’s Practice Guide, Putting the ‘Social’ into performance management’ has been downloaded more than 35,000 times since its launch in December 2008, and is currently being translated into Spanish, French, Russian and Arabic.

Anton also works directly with microfinance organisations and support organisations, including a long term commitment to the Small Enterprise Foundation, the largest developmental microfinance organization in South Africa. His work with SEF focuses on improving efficiency and effectiveness through strengthening performance management and systems to balance social and financial performance.

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Jack Burga
Jack Burga is the Director of the MISION II Project for Catholic Relief Services (CRS) and is the Director of the MISION Program in Latin America. The program specializes in helping to develop the social performance management of MFIs in Latin America. He is also a university lecturer and advisor in micro, small, and rural business, small business management, and social performance management at Peruvian Catholic University, San Marcos First National University, and La Molina Agricultural University.

Jack has spoken at national and international events on topics related to small and micro business, and at the 7th, 8th, and 9th, InterAmerican Forum on Micro-business, organized by the IDB.He holds degrees in Chemical Engineering and Business Administration from the University of Lima, Peru.

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Micol Pistelli
Micol Pistelli is the manager of the Social Performance Standards Program at MIX. Micol started to work in international development for the Department of Development Cooperation at the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. She has worked as microfinance consultant at the Italian Embassy in Egypt, at Fundacion Paraguaya in Paraguay and at the Microfinance Management Institute (MFMI) in Washington DC.

She earned her B.A. in Political Science from the University of Bologna in Italy and her M.A. in International Economics and International Development from SAIS-Johns Hopkins University in Washington DC.

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Cécile Lapenu
Cécile Lapenu, a citizen of France, is the executive director of CERISE, a microfinance knowledge exchange network (http://www.cerise-microfinance.org). CERISE has developed tools and organized studies and seminars mainly on social performance and impact, rural and agricultural finance and governance. Cécile Lapenu is member of the steering committee of the Social Performance Task Force and deputy chair-woman of the Board of the European microfinance platform (e-MFP). Before joining CERISE in January 2001, Cécile Lapenu was a post-doctoral fellow at IFPRI (International Food Policy Research Institute, Washington DC, USA). From 1993 to 1997, she worked as a researcher at the Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement (CIRAD).

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Laura Foose
Laura Foose has been the Coordinator of the Social Performance Task Force since 2005. She has seventeen years of experience in policy design and advocacy promoting microfinance development and poverty alleviation in developing and transitional countries. She has also designed microfinance projects and conducted evaluations of MFIs. As Secretariat of the Microenterprise Coalition for five years, Ms. Foose represented microenterprise practitioner and advocacy organizations to donor agencies, the U.S. Administration, and members of Congress.  For 6 years, Ms. Foose was a working group facilitator for the SEEP Network and worked extensively in the areas of poverty assessment/outreach. Ms. Foose is a professor of microfinance at Georgetown University; a co-founder of Woman Advancing Microfinance; on the Taxonomy Committee of “The Impact Reporting and Investment Standards (IRIS) project” of The Global Impact and Investing Network; on the Management Board of The Rating Initiative; and on the Advisory Committee of the Governance Initiative of the World Microfinance Forum. Ms. Foose holds an M.S. in Foreign Service from Georgetown University, with specializations in international economics and business, and a B.A. from Brown University, where she graduated in 1990 with a double major in economics and international relations. She speaks German and is based in Washington, DC.

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