~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 ------------------------------------------- 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.