Board members

About MFCNY

The Microfinance Club of New York (MFCNY) was founded in 2003 with the goal of becoming a leading forum for the free exchange of information and ideas about microfinance, and to disseminate readily understandable, transparent and succinct information about microfinance. The MFCNY now has over 350 members. Most members are professionals with a background in financial services or microfinance; however, membership is open to anyone who supports the club's mission. The club has around 10 events per year on different topics currently relevant in microfinance. Events range from panel discussions to informal round table discussions.

Allison Lynch

Allison Lynch is currently Chief Operating Officer at the Brooklyn Cooperative Federal Credit Union, a community development credit union providing micro-enterprise lending, savings, homeownership, and other asset building programs in low-income communities in Brooklyn. She is also founded and directs the Incubator Program of New York Women Social Entrepreneurs. Her professional experience spans fifteen years in international and domestic economic development, including banking sector reform and small business development in the former Soviet Union and public-private partnership for statewide development with the Massachusetts Alliance for Economic Development. She has also been instrumental in launching and developing several non-profit organizations, both in the US and abroad. Allison understands the social determinants and impacts of poverty and marginalization from managing programs that introduce new models of health and social services in Russia and Ukraine. She received her masters in International Affairs with a concentration in International Finance and Business from Columbia University.

Allison is the MFCNY's Co-Treasurer.

Amy Bell

Amy Bell is currently an Associate in the Investment Bank’s Social Finance group at J.P. Morgan Securities Inc. Prior to this role, she was an Associate in the Mergers & Acquisitions group and an Analyst in the Consumer & Retail Industry Coverage group. Before J.P Morgan, Amy worked in the Financial Advisory Services group at Deloitte. She holds a Bachelors of Business Administration and Masters in Professional Accounting from The University of Texas at Austin and is fluent in Spanish. Amy maintains an active interest and involvement in the microfinance sector through memberships with the MFCNY, WAM and Net Impact Service Corps. 

Andrew Thornton

Andrew Thornton is a software engineer, currently working at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).  After spending about eight years working in the investment banking field, where he specialized in developing risk management and electronic trading systems, Andrew returned to university to study International Affairs.  During his studies, he worked on several microfinance projects and wrote his thesis on the appropriateness of microcredit in alleviating poverty for the poorest of the poor.  Andrew holds master's degrees in Software Engineering and International Affairs.  As well as being the technology co-chair for the Microfinance Club of New York, he holds two other voluntary positions as the technology director for The Mantle and architect and developer of Professor Richard D. Wolff's website.

Andrew is the MFCNY's Technology Co-Chair.

Bhavna Agnihotri

Bhavna Agnihotri, Esq. is a corporate attorney at Carter Ledyard & Milburn, LLP. Prior to joining Carter Ledyard & Milburn, LLP, she was in the Lending and Structured Finance Group in the Tokyo office of Jones Day. While at Harvard Law School, Bhavna externed with the Society for Promotion of Area Resource Centers (SPARC) in Mumbai placing their microfinance initiatives into a Human Rights context. Bhavna has attended Boston University, St. Anne's College at Oxford University, Boalt Hall School of Law at the University of California at Berkeley, University of Sao Paulo and Harvard Law School. She is fluent in English and conversant in Spanish and Hindi.

Bhavna is the MFCNY's Outreach Co-Chair.

Caroline Norton Vance

Caroline Norton Vance is an Associate in Deutsche Bank's Community Development Finance Group, focusing on the microfinance funds that the group manages.  Her clients include microfinance institutions in Central and Southeast Asia. Prior to joining Deutsche Bank, she was an analyst in Lehman Brothers’ Investment Banking Division in New York, within the bank’s Global Natural Resources group and also the Business Planning and Technology group.  She received an M.A. in International Affairs from the George Washington University and her B.A. with Honors from Williams College.  

CJ Juhasz

CJ Juhasz is manager of the Women's World Banking ("WWB") capital markets group. WWB provides support, advice, training and information to a global network of more than 50 microfinance institutions and banks that offer credit and other financial services to 21 million low-income people - primarily women - in 30 countries worldwide. CJ has primary responsibility for promoting microfinance institutions' access to commercial sources of funding, especially local currency capital. This includes capital introduction and advisory work on capital markets transactions, as well as capacity building on financial risk management, business planning and projections, and performance monitoring. CJ recently managed the launch of the WWB private equity fund-representing the first investment of WWB-managed capital in network member institutions.

Prior to joining WWB, CJ spent 12 years structuring and marketing international fixed income capital markets transactions for banks and financial institutions globally. Most recently she served as a director in Deutsche Bank's fixed income syndicate group and previously with Merrill Lynch's capital markets group. She is currently a board member and treasurer of the Microfinance Club of New York. CJ holds a BS from the United States Military Academy and an MBA from Stanford University.

CJ is the MFCNY's Co-Treasurer.

Clara Lipson

Clara Lipson has 20+ years experience in financial services, international development and nonprofit management. Following a career in corporate banking, Clara worked on financial sector reform in Central and Eastern Europe, as well as microenterprise development in Nepal and Mongolia, and designed a microloan program in Malawi. She has worked at USAID and UNDP. More recently Clara has been consulting to community development organizations in the NY area and currently sits on the Advisory Board of Pro Mujer and on the Steering Committee of WAM-NY. Through her work and travels, Clara has experienced the dire living conditions of the world's poor and is passionate about microfinance as a means of offering critical support to these populations in order to survive and thrive.

Clara is the MFCNY's Co-Secretary.

Howard J. Finkelstein

Howard J. Finkelstein is a native New Yorker, who received his undergraduate degree from Yeshiva University, a masters in English Literature from NYU, and a JD (magna cum laude) from Cardozo Law School. At Cardozo, he served as Notes & Comments Editor to Volume I of the Cardozo Law Review. He is currently a Shareholder at the New York office of Akerman Senterfitt, where he started and heads the Microfinance Industry Practice Group.

He has been a pioneer in using his legal skills to develop transaction structures to bring together the capital markets and the microfinance sector, having been the lead attorney in a number of historic transactions, including BlueOrchard Microfinance Securitization I (2006), Developing World Markets' XXEB CDO (2007), MicroVest's CDO (2007) and other transactions. He was counsel to Blue Orchard in BOLD-2007, which was named by the Financial Times as Sustainable Deal of the Year for 2007.

Howard lives in Brooklyn and has four children and four grandchildren.

Howard is the MFCNY's Events Co-Chair.

Justin Belkin

Justin Belkin is currently an MBA candidate at the University of Oxford. Previously, he worked as a financial advisor with Citigroup Smith Barney. While there he served at the request of Citigroup Microfinance as liaison with the Microfinance Club of New York having organized events on the "Microfinance Banana Skins Report" and on “Remittances”. Justin also volunteers with Operation Hope, a nationally recognized leader in teaching financial literacy in disadvantaged communities. He is interested in bringing microfinance to Main Street through peer-to-peer lending. Justin received his BA in Political Science from SUNY Stony Brook. You can follow Justin's journey through Oxford at his blog:  http://justinbelkin.blogspot.com

Justin is the MFCNY's Co-Secretary.

Mark Narron

Mark Narron is an Assistant Vice President at Deutsche Bank's Community Development Finance Group, supporting the Bank's management of funds for microfinance. Prior to joining the Bank, he was Program Officer at the Soros Economic Development Fund, a private foundation established by George Soros to invest in microfinance and social enterprises. He also served as a Grants Officer at the Open Society Institute, where he sub-granted and monitored USAID and other federal funds in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. He received his MSc in International Relations from the London School of Economics and his B.A. from McGill University.

Mark is the MFCNY's Co-President.

Olga Serhiyevich

Olga Serhiyevich graduated from SUNY Binghamton with honors, earning a BS in Management with concentrations in Finance and Global Business. She is currently an Associate at Morgan Stanley. Olga was a member of a finalist team in the business case competition at the Microfinance and the Capital Markets conference co-sponsored by Women's World Banking and Morgan Stanley in February 2008, working on an optimal capital structure project with a Microfinance Institution from Pakistan. As a member of the Social Finance and Environment Forum Steering Committee at Morgan Stanley, she has worked on organizing speaker events with highly regarded industry experts. She also serves on the Executive Committee for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society in New York.

Olga is the MFCNY's Events Co-Chair.

Romi Bhatia

Romi has worked in various capacities in the microfinance field for the past nine years as a researcher, consultant and portfolio manager both in the U.S. and overseas. Romi did his Fulbright research in India on role of technology in the enhancement of microfinance operations with SKS Microfinance. He received his Masters of Arts Degree in International Finance and Business from Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs in 2004. Romi has worked at Microfinance International Corporation (MFIC) for the past five years as Portfolio Manager of its U.S. lending operations and also managed MFIC's loan portfolio of MFIs in Latin America. He is currently a Vice President of International Operations at MFIC and manages its transnational loan program. Romi also teaches a course on microfinance to first-year MBA students as an adjunct faculty member at the George Washington University School of Business.

 

Romi is the MFCNY's Events Co-Chair.

Sham Mustafa

Shamsudeen Mustafa works as a Program Manager at Seedco. Seedco is a national nonprofit organization that works with local partners to create economic opportunities for disadvantaged communities and individuals. Seedco also provides affordable financing and comprehensive technical assistance to small businesses located in economically-distressed and traditionally underserved communities. Sham has practiced criminal law in India and has also interned at Grameen Bank, Dhaka, Bangladesh. He holds a BA and an LLB from University of Madras, India and an MPA from the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University.

Sham is the MFCNY's Co-President.

Sophie Romana

Sophie Romana is a private equity professional with a background in humanitarian relief and international development. She joined Planet Finance US in 2009 as Executive Director to run the US office and focus on launching a venture capital fund to help New York's small entrepreneurs gain access to capital. Prior to PlaNet Finance, she served as Vice President, Investor Relations at Mercantile Capital Partners a New York based PE fund focusing on the consumer and merchandising sectors. She brings her experience in the humanitarian and international development fields as she has worked for French non governmental organizations in France, Bosnia, Rwanda and Madagascar. Beyond her current involvement in microfinance, her interests cover carbon finance, social enterprises, corruption and governance in the banking sector. Sophie holds a bachelor degree in International Public Law and a Master’s degree in Public Law, both from Université Paris I Sorbonne and an MBA from Columbia Business School where she served as co-chair of the Sanford Bernstein Center for Leadership and Ethics' EMBA Student Board. She is a dual French-American citizen and currently lives in New York.

Sophie is the MFCNY's Co-Secretary.

Susan Salerno

Susan Salerno is an independent consultant specializing in the microfinance industry. She has developed private equity microfinance funds and business plans for new self-sustaining microfinance ventures. Susan has been involved in microfinance for several years in both professional and volunteer capacities. She has made several presentations about microfinance and has written a well-received article about institutional investing in microfinance for Microfinance Insights magazine. Prior to her involvement with microfinance, Susan was a Director at UBS where she structured, developed, sold and marketed alternative investment products and private equity funds for a global client base. Previously, Susan developed large-scale commercial real estate projects, underwrote commercial loans, and analyzed investment opportunities.

Susan is on the Direct Loan Committee of Project Enterprise and on the microfinance committee of High Water Women. Susan holds an MBA and a B.A in Economics.

Susan is the MFCNY's Events Co-Chair.

William Finkelstein

William Finkelstein is an Associate in Bank of America Merrill Lynch's Consumer & Retail investment banking group. He previously was a Portfolio Research Associate at HIP Investor. William's microfinance experience includes internships at the United Nations Capital Development Fund and Grameen Bank. He is interested in microinsurance and increasing access to capital markets for microfinance institutions. William holds an MBA from the NYU Stern School of Business and a B.A. from the George Washington University Elliott School of International Affairs.

Yana Watson

Yana Watson is a Manager with Dalberg Global Development Advisors, a strategic advisory firm specializing in international development and globalization issues. Yana specializes in emerging markets finance, and leads the firm's work in microfinance investment and institutional strategy. Prior to joining Dalberg, Yana was a manager with The Boston Consulting Group (BCG), dividing her time between the Financial Services and Social Impact practices. Prior to BCG, Yana worked with VISA International's emerging markets division on microfinance strategy. She analyzed VISA's business model to articulate the value - both economic and from a corporate social responsibility standpoint - of investment in the microfinance market. Yana also worked with Women's World Banking on technological innovation in the provision of financial services to the poor, and later with a WWB affiliate, ADOPEM, a microfinance bank in the Dominican Republic. Yana holds a Bachelor of Arts from McGill University in Political Science and an MBA from The Wharton School. While at Wharton, Yana designed and co-taught an elective microfinance class and led a team of student volunteers to participate in the Global Microentrepreneurship Awards (GMAs), part of the UN's International Year of Microcredit.