Manab Chakraborty - India
Manab is a social entrepreneur and microfinance practitioner, whose work experience spans 30 countries in Asia, in Africa, and in North and South America.  He is skilled in the areas of administration, financial management, personnel management, social project design and appraisal, training, and facilitation.  He is the founder and CEO of Mimo (www.mimofin.com), a non-banking finance corporation, providing microfinance services to poor women, tiny and small entrepreneurs and individuals in North India.

Lynne Dant - USA
Lynne Dant is a versatile and reliable leader with proven performance in multiple functions of global management and international business operations.  She has grown top line revenues and reduced operational cost structures, improving the bottom line while performing across a range of line management roles.  Lynne’s strengths are analytical and problem solving capabilities with exceptional organizational, project management, strategic analysis, communication, and interpersonal skills.  Lynne served as Global Marketing Director of Architectural Coatings for Rohm and Haas, overseeing a $1.2 billion business unit within the $8 billion specialty chemicals company.

Richard Donald, Ph.D. - Canada
Dr. Richard Donald, an environmental scientist, has a Ph.D. in agronomy and consults in the area of agronomy, environmental management, training and assessment, in the energy, mining, and banking sectors. His international experience includes work in over 20 countries including projects in Africa, Middle East, China, Europe, and various countries in Latin America, including a three-year assignment in Nicaragua.   In the microfinance sector, Richard has been involved in the assessment of environmental risks in microfinance lending in Vietnam for the Canadian International Development Agency and he was instrumental in developing a training and plain language tool for microfinance risk assessment.  Subsequent to this work, Richard consulted for the International Finance Corporation (IFC) in microfinance risk assessment and training, and undertook a similar study for USAID in Bolivia.  After a long environmental consulting career with Jacques Whitford, Richard is Vice President of Research and Outreach of Novas Scotia Agricultural College in Halifax, Canada.

Abhishek Lal, Co-Founder, GreenMicrofinance, LLC - USA
Abhishek Lal is a LEEDTM accredited professional (AP) and provides project management for building projects.Mr. Lal has provided LEEDTM consulting in the Washington DC area and elsewhere for residential buildings, mixed use, commercial offices, multi-family, and retail developments.  
 

Bryan Benitez McClelland - Philippines
Bryan completed his Master of Environmental Studies degree at the University of Pennsylvania in 2007. His concentrations include resource management, ecotourism, anthropology, and sustainable development. He minored in organizations and environmental management (OEVM) at Wharton.   He participated in a Habitat for Humanity program in Costa Rica, building a house and septic system and leading student discussions. As a research assistant for The Nature Conservancy, he performed GIS mapping and analysis for a large stream restoration project. He served as a graduate student advisor for Penn Engineers Without Borders, guiding undergraduates in identifying and implementing community development projects. Currently, he is an EWB Country Liaison in the Philippines.   Bryan has been living in the Philippines. He helps develop environmental programs for Gawad Kalinga, a local NGO that aims to eradicate poverty by building holistic communities for the poor.  Bryan is in search of new microfinance opportunities in the Philippines for Green Microfinance (GMf) and is developing a long-term plan to improve the environmental sustainability of microenterprise in the Philippines and throughout Southeast Asia.

Teodorina Lessidrenska, Ph.D. - USA, Switzerland
Teodorina, or Teddy, is one of the authoritative sustainability experts providing training, technical advice and hands-on assistance in sustainable business strategies and management, and sustainability reporting to large and small enterprises and other institutions worldwide. She is a co-author with Prof. Mervyn King of the recently published book, 'Transient Caretakers – How to Make the Life on Earth Sustainable'. Dr Lessidrenska holds a PhD in Chemical Engineering and Environmental Management. As a global sustainability expert, she has sat on advisory boards, lectured and consulted in South America, North America, Europe, Africa, Russia and several Eastern European countries. As a sustainability practitioner and researcher, Dr. Lessidrenska has many publications in the field and is a frequent speaker at sustainability conferences around the world. For the past 15 years Dr. Lessidrenska has been an active participant in the development of the sustainability concept and in its practical implementation in many emerging economies worldwide. As an Associate Director at the GRI Secretariat, she was responsible for the creation of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), development of the GRI framework and process for sustainability reporting through GRI multi-stakeholder consultative process.

Robert N. Meyer - USA
Robert is a consultant with 20 years of wide-ranging experiences.  Robert has strong interest in green technologies.  He has a background in civil engineering, and was awarded an advanced degree from MIT in environmental engineering with a specialization in quantitative analysis of coastal systems.  He worked as a consultant for a number of years with CH2M Hill, a world renowned environmental engineering consulting firm.  His work included building models of polluted estuarines and coast lines, and conducting environmental impact studies of rivers and other wetlands. 

Gabriel Solórzano - Nicaragua
Gabriel Solórzano, a major force in building Nicarauguan microfinance, graduated as an engineer from Texas A&M  University and continued his studies in business and microfinance at Harvard University’s Kennedy School and at INCAE, Central America’s premiere business education school.   He presided over the transformation of Findesa, Nicaragua’s largest Microfinance Institution, into a full-fledged bank, as Chairman of the Board of Banco del Exito (BANEX).  He shares his expertise on a number of international initiatives, including the Advisory Council of FMO, the entrepreneurial development bank of the Netherlands; the Investment Committee of Deutsche Bank Global Commercial Microfinance Consortium; and as Member of the Editorial Board for the Micro Banking Bulletin.  Gabriel has been active in adopting and executing Socially Responsible microfinance standards, especially Principles for Client Protection, and measuring Social Performance criteria for the Microfinance sector.

N. Srinivasan - India
N. Srinivasan has more than 30 years of involvement in financial sector in India, including five years with the Central Bank (RBI) and 24 years with Apex rural development bank (NABARD) of which last six years were in the capacity of  Chief General Manager.  He managed a portfolio of $ 900 million in development finance in one of the largest provinces in India and led a program linking more than 200,000 SHGs to the banking system within a three-year period in the Maharashtra province of India.  He is involved in many significant initiatives in rural finance; institutional development and strengthening; product development, training, and capacity building; design, implementation, and supervision of rural development projects; and financing of rural infrastructure. After leaving the bank, he is pursuing a career as a freelancer and has been a consultant to World Bank, IFAD, UNDP, UNOPS, GTZ, Frankfurt School, Sir Ratan Tata Trust, Access Development Services and Government of India. He is the author of the ‘Microfinance in India: State of the Sector Report 2008 and 2009'.

Ira Wagner - USA
During his 28-year career as an investment banker, he has acquired extensive experience in asset securitization and fixed income capital markets.  In his career, he has worked with governments, corporations, and institutional asset managers to create a broad range of innovative financing transactions backed by consumer and corporate receivables.  He has compiled a notable and innovative record of achievements in the origination, design, structuring, documentation, and distribution of securitizations, which engage a wide range of asset classes.  Subsequent to significant early career achievements as an investment banker, Ira became associated with Bear, Stearns & Co. Inc. from 1996 until early 2008.  He rose to be Senior Managing Director and Head of the Global CDO Group,  where he supervised more than 40 professionals based in New York, London, Tokyo, and Hong Kong.  After a 28-year career on Wall Street, he has decided to devote his time to bringing his expertise into the microfinance field.

William F. Yager, PhD - USA
Dr. Yager received a BS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley, an MBA from HarvardBusinessSchool and a Ph.D. from the University of Oregon.  He began his professional career with the IBM Corporation in San Francisco as systems engineer, instructor and systems engineering manager, participating in the conversion of major San Francisco corporations to computerization.  After a subsequent six-years in Strategic Planning at the Memorex Corporation, he began a second career - in higher education at Whitworth College in Spokane.  Following his Ph.D. program in Strategic Management, with a focus on international business and economic development, he joined the BusinessSchool faculty at Pacific LutheranUniversity in Tacoma, Washington.  During the succeeding 17 years,  his teaching focused on Strategic Management oriented to cross-cultural transfer of knowledge, consummating in his present work in sustainable micro-enterprise development.  In his sabbatical year of 2001-2002, Bill taught international business and was acting director of the Latin American Studies Program in San Jose, Costa Rica. This life-changing year’s experience with multiple sojourns into Nicaragua and Guatemala seared into his consciousness the critical and complex issues of poverty and injustice.  In retirement, Bill has fully engaged his third career – poverty reduction through holistic sustainable micro-enterprise development.