~Microfinance Simulcast - A Speakers Series ~

Topic: Managing and Working at an MFI - compensation, structure

* Management challenges of MFIs
* What can go wrong within microfinance institutions?
* Scale issues, strategy drift, and sustainability

Guest Speaker: Monica Brand, Director, Frontier Investment Group, ACCION
- For detailed Biography, please see below

Time: Nov. 8, 7-9 pm

Location: Lubrano Room at Tuck School of Business (Downstairs from Byrne Hall)

Readings:
* Case Study: "Controlling Growth at a Mexican Microfinance Start-Up," Cases for  
Management Education.
http://emdapcasebook.iie.org/pdfs/4.3%20Controlling%20Growth%20MFI%20Startup-Mexico.pdf

* Article: "Designing Staff Incentive Schemes," Martin Holtmann, MicroSave
Briefing Note #15.
http://www.microfinancegateway.org/p/site/m//template.rc/1.9.26843

If you have any questions, please blitz SEEDS

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Biography:
Monica Brand, Director, Frontier Investment Group, ACCION

Monica Brand has spent her career in the financial services and social enterprise  
sectors,
expanding and enhancing the value offered to the majority. Ms. Brand currently  
manages
Frontier Investments, whose mandate is to invest in early stage companies with  
disruptive
business models that catalyze breakthrough innovation in financial inclusion.  
Prior to assuming
responsibility for managing this fund, Ms. Brand launched and ran ACCION's Marketing  
&
Product Development Unit, where she oversaw the creation of new financial services  
to move
the industry beyond microcredit.
Before joining ACCION, Ms. Brand worked in Cape Town, South Africa, where she  
founded
Anthuri Catalysts to help prepare portfolio companies for investment from its  
sister venture
capital firm, Anthuri Ventures. Ms. Brand began her career in financial services  
in California
where she worked as a commercial loan officer and helped launch a $50 million  
statewide
8
lending intermediary to finance small business and community facilities. Ms. Brand's
professional experience also includes training and teaching at all levels, including  
working with
female entrepreneurs at the Women's Initiative for Self-Employment (WISE) as a  
trainer and
second-year MBAs at Harvard Business School as a case-writer. Ms. Brand currently  
serves as
an adjunct professor at the John Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies  
(SAIS) of a
masters-level course on impact investing.
Ms. Brand received both a M.B.A. and a master's of education from Stanford University  
and her
Bachelor of Arts degree in economics from Williams College, where she graduated  
with honors.
Ms. Brand serves on numerous boards including Compartamos Bank in Mexico, Paralife
Holdings (a Swiss micro-insurance company), MicroFinance Currency Risk (MFX) Solutions
(currency hedging and other risk management instruments for MFIs) and the D.C.  
Employment
Justice Center. Ms. Brand is half-Peruvian and lives with her husband and twin  
children in
Washington D.C.