Atish Babu, Director
Atish Babu is a co-founder and general partner at Omnivore Capital, based in Bombay, India. Omnivore is an early stage venture capital firm focused on rural development and environmental sustainability through investment in agriculture startups. Atish has spent many years working in venture capital in India and the United States. Additionally, Atish brings in depth knowledge of BoP makets in India, thereby supporting MEC’s activities in South Asia as well as providing perspective on companies and strategies for the BoP in India. Prior to co-founding Omnivore, Atish was a Vice President at Nexus Venture Partners, one of the leading early-stage venture capital firms in India. Earlier, he was one of the first employees and the Vice President of Corporate Development at Vonage as well as a Program Manager (General Manager) at BAE Systems. Atish began his career investing in early stage technology companies as an Analyst with Battery Ventures. He graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Harvard Business School (HBS).
Mike Galgon, Director
In 1997, Mike Galgon co-founded, and served until 1999 as President and General Manager, and from 2000 until 2007 as Chief Strategy Officer, of aQuantive, Inc. (formerly Avenue A), an Internet media company which went public in February of 2000. As aQuantive’s chief strategy officer, Mike oversaw the company’s strategic direction, including business development initiatives and marketing efforts. Mike served as Chief Advertising Strategist for Microsoft Corporation from August 2007 until January 2009. Prior to founding aQuantive, Mike served as a full-time volunteer with Volunteers In Service To America (VISTA) and an officer in the U.S. Navy from 1990 to 1994. He currently acts as a venture investor and director for a variety of private and public companies, including Market Leader, BuddyTV, Krux Digital, Buuteeq, and Energy Savvy, and for Global Partnerships, a Seattle-based microfinance organization. Mike brings this combination of entrepreneurial, non-profit and venture experiences to MEC and to impact investing more broadly. Mike holds an M.B.A. from the Harvard Business School and a bachelor’s degree in economics from Duke University.
James Dailey, Director
James Dailey is the co-founder and CTO of MicroEnergy Credits. In addition to his management role at MEC, James brings significant Board experience, having served for over 10 years on the Board of Directors of Climate Solutions, a regional non-profit focused on Climate Change. James worked at the Grameen Technology Center since its founding in 2001, and led the development of the Microfinance Open Source (Mifos) project. He holds a degree in MIS from the University of Notre Dame, and a Masters in international environmental policy from the University of Washington. He has worked on several business start ups, including Credit Bureaus for Microfinance and MicroFinance ClearingHouse. He started his career as a Peace Corps volunteer in West Africa, teaching mathematics.
April Allderdice, Director
April Allderdice is the co-founder and CEO of MicroEnergy Credits. In her role as CEO April has raised over $1.2 M in capital for MEC. She was previously an associate at McKinsey and Company, as well as a project manager at Dalberg GDA. She started her career at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory working on the Renewables for Village Power program. As a Fulbright scholar and Echoing Green fellow, April helped to start up Grameen Shakti, the renewable energy business of Grameen Bank in Bangladesh. She holds a Masters in Business Administration from Columbia University and a Bachelors Degree in Physics from Wesleyan University. She is the co-author with John Rogers of Renewable Energy for Microfinance
Dipal Chandra Barua, Advisor
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, Advisor
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, Advisor
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, Advisor
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, Advisor
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, Advisor
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.
