Dipal Chandra Barua
Dipal Chandra Barua is the Deputy Managing Director of Grameen Bank and the Managing Director of the Grameen Shakti in Bangladesh. Mr. Barua has extensive experience in the field of poverty alleviation, microcredit, rural development and people’s participation as a result of being a core founder of Grameen Bank. He serves on the board of directors of 16 sister organizations of Grameen Bank including Grameen Phone, the largest cell phone company in South East Asia, and Project Enterprise, a micro lending program in New York. He also co-authored the book “The Poor Always Pay Back” (2006).
Eric Berman
Eric spent most of the past twenty years in the software industry, working at Microsoft and then Expedia before deciding to spend more time focusing on areas related to education, energy, and the environment. He has degrees in Electrical Engineering and Physics from MIT and Stanford. He has been part of several technology startups and is a member of Northwest Energy Angels.
Michael Lazarus
Michael directs the Seattle office of Stockholm Environmental Institute-US. His current research focuses on energy and international climate change policy, and on state and local energy and climate change initiatives within the US. He brings over 20 years of professional experience in energy and environmental analysis and capacity building. He has worked throughout North America, Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Europe with support from government agencies, development banks, foundations, utilities, and non-profit groups. Since 2002, he has been a member of the Methodology Panel of the Clean Development Mechanism, the project-based emission reduction trading program of the Kyoto Protocol. During the 2005-2006 academic year, he is a visiting researcher at the Energy Policy and Economics Institute at the University of Grenoble, France.
Michael received an M.S. in Energy and Resources from the University of California, Berkeley in 1984.
Craig Nakagawa
Craig began his career in global health and economic development at the investment bank Lehman Brothers, where he was a member of the firm’s global pharmaceuticals practice. From Lehman Brothers in Tokyo, Craig focused primarily on Japanese pharma companies, but also covered drug, food, and nutrition companies throughout Asia. Craig’s investment banking experience centered on fundamental company analysis, corporate finance, and derivative finance.
In 1999, Craig joined Teledesic, a global satellite venture started by Craig McCaw and Bill Gates, to bridge the digital divide by enabling broadband communications anywhere in the world. Beyond his daytime duties of strategy and corporate development at Teledesic, Craig helped his colleague Blaise Judja-Sato with his vision of bringing essential health services to the poor in Africa and beyond. By 2000, the vision developed into VillageReach, which Craig joined full time in 2001.
At VillageReach, Craig has functioned in every capacity from paper filer to Acting President. He is currently VillageReach’s Chief Financial Officer and Director of Social Business. Craig has an MBA from the University of Chicago and a BA from the Jackson School of International Studies at the University of Washington. He holds the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation.
Elisabeth Rhyne
Elisabeth Rhyne is the Managing Director of the Center for Financial Inclusion (www.centerforfinancialinclusion.org). The Center is a focal point for collaboration among the microfinance industry and private sector on industry-wide challenges, including client protection, among others. As senior vice president of ACCION International from 2000-2008, Ms. Rhyne led ACCION’s initial entry into Africa and India and directed the organization’s research efforts to develop new financial products and managed ACCION’s publications and educational activities.
Ms. Rhyne has published numerous articles and books on microfinance, including her new book, Microfinance for Bankers and Investors (McGraw-Hill, 2009).. She was also co-editor of The New World of Microenterprise Finance (Kumarian, 1994), which provided the introduction to microfinance for many of the field’s current professionals.
Ms. Rhyne was director of the Office of Microenterprise Development at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) from 1994 to 1998, where she developed and led USAID’s Microenterprise Initiative. Ms. Rhyne’s experience includes eight years living in Africa (Kenya and Mozambique), consulting on microfinance policy and operations for governments, international organizations and microfinance institutions.
Ms. Rhyne holds a master’s and Ph.D. in public policy from Harvard University. She earned a bachelor’s degree in history and humanities from Stanford University.
Charles Tomberg
Charles Tomberg is the director of the Tomberg Family Philanthropies, and founder of the Philip and Helen Brecher Charitable Fund
Mr. Tomberg worked in the computer industry for many years at Oracle, Scient and a few other companies. More recently, he has volunteered on several projects with the Grameen Foundation. In 2000, Mr. Tomberg founded the Philip and Helen Brecher Charitable Fund in honor of his grandparents. He is currently the director of The Tomberg Family Philanthropies, and also serves on the Advisory Board of the Micro Energy Credits Corporation.
Mr. Tomberg holds a MA in Computer Science from Boston University, and a BA in Political Science from Brandeis University.
