Executive Team
	Board of Directors and Investment Committee
	Advisory Board

Executive Team
 

Elizabeth Funk
Chairperson and Chief Executive Officer

Ms. Funk is CEO of CML Global Capital Ltd. (www.cmlglobal.com), a real estate investment and development company. Ms. Funk is actively involved in the microfinance industry, serving as Vice-Chairman of Unitus and on the board of the Deutsche Bank Global Commercial Microcredit Consortium Fund. Ms. Funk also serves as Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Peace Action Network, a group of members within Young President’s Organization, and is the founder and forum moderator of the YPO Microcredit Forum. She is also a board member of Glide Economic Development Corporation, Canadian Aspen Properties Ltd., The Hoover Institution at Stanford University and I-Spire PLC, a venture capital firm in London. Prior to joining CML, Ms. Funk was one of the earliest employees of Yahoo! Inc. where she founded the Yahoo! Shopping service. Ms. Funk headed Yahoo!’s shopping and commerce strategy, as well as business development and strategic planning for several Yahoo! businesses including Yahoo! Finance. Prior to Yahoo!, she spent four years at Microsoft Corporation where she served as product manager for Microsoft Word. Ms. Funk holds an undergraduate degree in international relations and economics with honors from Stanford University and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School where she graduated as a Baker Scholar.

 

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Board of Directors and Investment Committee
 

Geoff Davis
President, CEO and Director, Unitus (www.unitus.com)

Mr. Davis has worked with microfinance programs worldwide since 1995, beginning with a program he founded in central Mexico. Mr. Davis was an early employee at Grameen Foundation USA, a global microfinance leader, and has spoken extensively on microfinance, including lectures and speeches at the International Monetary Fund, at Harvard University and on National Public Radio. He is a board member of Pro Mujer Mexico and SKS India, and is an advisor to the Miracle Wine Fund. Prior to his work in microfinance, Mr. Davis served as director of international business development for a California biomedical firm and was the founder and president of a translation company. Mr. Davis holds a B.A. in international relations from Brigham Young University and a masters degree in development economics and public policy from Harvard University.

Elizabeth Funk
See above

Dr. Steven Funk
Founder and Executive Chairman, Grand Marais Investments Ltd.

Dr. Funk was born and raised on a family farm in Iowa. He began his entrepreneurial career at a young age, putting himself through school subdividing development land, renovating multi-family apartments, running a painting crew, and building a health care services business.

Dr. Funk originally pursued a career in oral surgery. Yet his love for business was undeniable. Auspiciously, he took a sabbatical from his oral surgery program in Vancouver to work for a pair of North America’s more renowned entrepreneurs—and never looked back. He went on to found three operating concerns over the next 20 years, each with broad international scope that grew to best of category status in their sectors.

Dr. Funk is now engaged in private financial management as well as philanthropic endeavors, with an emphasis on microfinance initiatives. His focus has been on international debt and private equity investment, with a weighting in real estate acquisition, ownership, and development. He founded the largest fund management business in Investor Category Funds in Canada; acquired a small regional traffic and parking management operator (Imperial Parking) and built its operations into industry leadership in North America and then Southeast Asia; founded Aspen Properties Ltd., a Calgary-based owner and manager of one of the largest portfolios of office commercial real estate in Canada (www.aspenpropertiesltd.com); and oversees a critical timber and environmental rainforest project of 100,000 acres in Central America (www.balamjungle.com).

Dr. Funk and his wife Elizabeth are founders of the Dignity Fund (www.dignityfund.org), directors and financial sponsors of Unitus (www.unitus.com), a world leader in accelerating microfinance initiatives (which Elizabeth Chairs), and the Deutsche Bank Microfinance Consortium. Dr. Funk is also Chair of the Advisory Board to the Microcredit Summit Campaign.

Dr. Funk is a member of the World President’s Organization (“WPO”), a long standing member of Young President’s Organization, and a founding director and officer of the President’s Action Network Chapter (“PAN”) (www.pannetwork.org) of WPO and YPO. PAN is the original arm of the 14,000 member strong international YPO and WPO (www.ypo.org ) (www.wpo.org ) organizations dedicated to empowering and leveraging the positive global difference in our world that can be made by President’s and CEO’s. PAN initiatives today are of tremendous international importance in fostering peace and prosperity in areas of conflict and need.

Dr. Funk is a former director of the Canada China Business Council, a founding funder of the Red Cross Sheldon Kennedy Foundation for Abused Children, a former fundraising chair for Endeavor, is active with the Prince of Wales Foundation, and acts as a director of a select few corporate and philanthropic organizations.

Dr. Funk holds a undergraduate degree with honors from Purdue University, which he attended with the help of an athletic scholarship, and a master’s and doctorate degree from the University of Iowa. He is an accomplished pilot, athlete, and outdoorsman. He is also a piano, fitness, travel, and life experience enthusiast.
 

B. Maya Chorengel
Managing Director, Unitus Equity Fund
 

Ms. Chorengel joined the Unitus Equity Fund team in 2008, focused on making equity investments in MFIs worldwide. Prior to that, she was Managing Director of The Dignity Fund since its inception in 2005. Prior to joining The Dignity Fund, Ms. Chorengel was a Vice President of the private equity firm, Warburg Pincus, working in the firm’s New York, Hong Kong and Menlo Park offices. She was responsible for investments in a variety of companies, from early stage business service ventures and mature consumer packaged goods companies in the US, to manufacturing, service and food companies located in China, South Korea, the Philippines and the US. Earlier in her career she was an associate in the investment banking division of Morgan Stanley Asia Limited and an analyst at James D. Wolfensohn, Incorporated, a boutique mergers and acquisitions focused investment bank. Ms. Chorengel holds a B.A. in social studies with honors from Harvard University and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School, where she organized the 1996 International Development Club Conference: Mobilizing Finance for Development. Ms. Chorengel is also on the board of directors of the Silicon Valley Microfinance Network, on the Board of Advisors of WaterPartners International, and on the investment committees of Wokai and MicroCredit Enterprises.

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Victor MacFarlane
Managing Principal, MacFarlane Partners (www.macfarlanepartners.com)

Mr. MacFarlane is founder and managing principal of MacFarlane Partners, the leading minority-owned real estate investment management and development firm in the U. S. Mr. MacFarlane has 26 years of real estate experience, and has worked extensively in property development, acquisitions, asset management and portfolio management on behalf of some of the largest pension plans and institutional investors in the U.S. After establishing his firm in 1987, he sold the investment management business of MacFarlane Partners to GE Capital in 1996 and then served for three years as CEO of the renamed firm, GE Capital Investment Advisors. In April 1999, he resigned from GE Capital and restarted MacFarlane Partners as an entrepreneurial firm focusing on urban properties and other high-yielding real estate investments. Mr. MacFarlane began his real estate career with Aetna Life & Casualty Company. Mr. MacFarlane sits on the boards of directors of the Initiative for a Competitive Inner City and Stanford Hospital & Clinics. He serves on the policy advisory board of the Fisher Center for Real Estate at the University of California, Berkeley, and is an outsider director of Developers Diversified Realty Corporation. He is a member and former trustee of the Urban Land Institute and a member of the International Council of Shopping Centers, the Pension Real Estate Association, the Chief Executives Organization and the World Presidents Organization. Mr. MacFarlane holds an undergraduate degree from the University of New Mexico, an M.B.A. from the University of Pittsburgh, and a J.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Mike Murray
Chairman, Unitus (www.unitus.com)

Mr. Murray is co-founder and chairman of Unitus. He is also president of Crystal Springs Foundation, an organization that provides catalytic capital and management support to projects that create permanent improvements in people's lives. CSF has made a multi-million dollar commitment to Unitus. Mr. Murray spent 20 years in the computer industry, most notably at Apple Computer, Incorporated and Microsoft Corporation, where he served as corporate vice president for Human Resources and Administration. Mr. Murray holds an engineering degree and an M.B.A., both from Stanford University.

William S. Price III
Founding Partner, Texas Pacific Group.

Mr. Price is one of the founding partners of the Texas Pacific Group, a leading global private investment firm with over $20 billion of capital under management. Prior to forming TPG in 1992, Mr. Price was Vice President of Strategic Planning and Business Development for G.E. Capital, responsible for acquiring new business units and determining the business and acquisition strategies for existing businesses. From 1985 to 1991 Mr. Price was employed by the management consulting firm of Bain & Company, attaining officer status and acting as co-head of the Financial Services Practice. Prior to 1985, Mr. Price was an associate specializing in corporate securities transactions with the legal firm of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. Mr. Price serves on the Board of Directors of Bally International AG, British Vita, Cranium, DoveBid, Inc., Grohe AG, and IRMC Holdings, Inc. He also serves on the boards of four non-profit organizations: COPIA, The California Mentor Foundation, The Gladstone Institute and Just Give. Mr. Price is a member of the California Bar and received his undergraduate degree with honors from Stanford University and his law degree with honors from the Boalt Hall School of Law at the University of California, Berkeley.


Stuart Sundlun
Managing Director, Global Emerging Markets (www.gemny.com)

Since 1996, Mr. Sundlun has been a Managing Director of Global Emerging Markets, a private investment group specializing in control investments in private companies and minority investments in public companies in the US and internationally. Additionally, since 1994, Mr. Sundlun has structured transactions and investments in Russia. From 2001, he has also served as an advisor to Triago S.A., a placement agent for private equity funds headquartered in Paris, France. Mr. Sundlun serves on the board of South Oil Corporation, which operates in Russia, and the advisory board of MusicLoads, Inc. and Recipco Inc. Previously he was an associate in the investment banking division of Lehman Brothers and a Mexican Liaison Officer at Chase Manhattan Bank. Mr. Sundlun received a B.A. in international relations with honors from Harvard University and an M.B.A. from Columbia University Graduate School of Business. After graduating from Harvard, Mr. Sundlun was a Rotary Fellow at La Universidad Pontifica Catolica in Lima, Peru.
 

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Advisory Board

Alex Counts
President and CEO, Grameen Foundation USA (www.gfusa.org)

Mr. Counts established Grameen Foundation USA in 1997 at the request of Dr. Muhammad Yunus, the founder and managing director of the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh. GF-USA acts as a catalyst, channeling human, financial and technological resources in the United States to support the growth of the poverty-focused microfinance movement. Mr. Counts was named President and CEO of GF-USA in 1998. Mr. Counts first encountered the devastation of world poverty in 1988 as a Fulbright Scholar with Grameen Bank in Bangladesh. In 1989, he returned to the United States and became the legislative director of RESULTS until 1992. He then returned to Bangladesh and to Grameen Bank and then became a regional project manager for CARE-Bangladesh in 1995 and 1996. Mr. Count’s articles on poverty and microcredit have appeared in the Washington Post, Christian Science Monitor, Miami Herald, International Herald Tribune and elsewhere. He is the author of Give Us Credit: How Muhammad Yunus' Micro-Lending Revolution is Empowering Women from Bangladesh to Chicago.

Christopher A. Crane
President and CEO, Opportunity International-U.S.A. (www.opportunity.org)

Mr. Crane has been President and CEO of Opportunity International-U.S since 2002. Opportunity provides loans to poor entrepreneurs to work their way out of poverty and made 1 million loans totaling US $240 million in 27 countries in 2004. Previously, Mr. Crane acquired COMPS Info Systems, Inc in 1992. COMPS took in four venture capital rounds, acquired 13 other companies, and went public in 1999. Mr. Crane sold the company in 2000. Prior to acquiring COMPS, Mr. Crane was a Group President at a public company which imported apparel from developing countries. Earlier, he served as a Vice President at an electronic database publisher and as a Partner in a venture capital firm. Mr. Crane won the 1999 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award in the category of Software/Internet.

Gil Crawford
General Manager, MicroVest Capital Management (www.microvestfund.com)

Mr. Crawford has over 20 years experience with microfinance institutions and capital markets, and has worked extensively in Latin America, Africa and Asia. Prior to joining MicroVest Capital Management, Mr. Crawford worked for the Latin American Financial Markets Division at the International Finance Corporation, focusing on investments in microfinance institutions. Prior to joining IFC, Mr. Crawford created and ran Seed Capital Development Fund, a US based non-profit firm involved in creating financial instruments and attracting funds to capitalize microfinance institutions, primarily in Latin America, Asia and Africa. Specific projects included Latin American Challenge Investment Fund (LA-CIF), a US$ 20 million loan fund for microfinance institutions in Latin America, and DEVCAP, a “shared return mutual fund” whose total assets reached over US$ 27 million dollars. Mr. Crawford has also been a member of Profund’s Investment Committee and alternate member to the Board of Directors for many years. Prior to creating SCDF, Mr. Crawford was the Assistant Project Director for Africa Venture Capital Project, a $7.1 million USAID contract designed to create risk capital firms in Africa. Mr. Crawford received his bank training at Chase Manhattan Bank in the mid-80’s after working in Africa for the Red Cross and State Department.

Sam Daley-Harris
President and Founder, RESULTS Educational Fund (www.results.org)

RESULTS Educational Fund is a 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to mass educational strategies to generate the will to end world hunger. REF organized the 1997 Microcredit Summit (www.microcreditsummit.org) and launched a nine-year campaign to reach 100 million of the world's poorest families with credit for self-employment and other financial and business services by 2005. Mr. Daley-Harris is Director of the Campaign. Mr. Daley-Harris is also Founder and President of RESULTS, an international citizens' lobby dedicated to creating the political will to end hunger and poverty. Mr. Daley-Harris is author of Reclaiming Our Democracy: Healing the Break Between People and Government, editor of Pathways Out of Poverty: Innovations in Microfinance for the Poorest Families, and author of each year’s State of the Microcredit Summit Campaign Report. Mr. Daley-Harris is a member of the board of RESULTS, REF and Stand for Children. He has received The Temple Award for Creative Altruism from the Institute of Noetic Sciences, the Caring Award from the Caring Institute, the Warner Woodworth Humanitarian Service Award from the Marriott School at Brigham Young University and the Elliott Black Award from the American Ethical Union.

Diandra Douglas
Chairperson, Wildwolf

 
Ms. Douglas is Chairperson of Wildwolf, a company that produces feature films and documentaries, and has produced internationally acclaimed films for the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Channel 13, Turner Broadcasting and HBO. She is also the author of books and articles on arts, architecture and the environment. Ms. Douglas is a member of the Chancellor’s Council and the Lancaster Society, and has been a trustee of the University of California at Santa Barbara Foundation since 1991. She is a trustee of the American Red Cross of Greater New York; she received its Special Achievement Award in 1991 and its Humanitarian Award in 1985. She also received a special recognition Award from the Partnership for the Homeless in 1990. Ms. Douglas also sits on the boards of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, the Santa Barbara International Film Festival; and MUSE Film and Television.

Elizabeth Littlefield
CEO, Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (www.cgap.org)

Ms. Littlefield is CEO of the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor, a multi-donor microfinance organization dedicated to building financial systems for the poor operating from World Bank offices in Washington, D.C. and Paris. CGAP’s clients are financial institutions, NGOs, donor agencies, governments and other industry actors. CGAP’s 28 development agency members mandated CGAP to develop and set industry standards and guidelines, provide technical strategic and policy advice, develop technical manuals and services, and deliver training and research. CGAP also has a small grant facility that funds these activities and provides capital for innovations. Prior to joining CGAP in 1999, Ms. Littlefield was the Managing Director in charge of J.P. Morgan's Emerging Markets Capital Markets financing business in Central, Eastern and Southern Europe, Central Asia, Middle East and Africa. Her responsibilities included arranging public bond issues, private placements, securitized and derivative structures and related advisory work, such as credit ratings. In this capacity, she was responsible for most of the first-time public ratings and bond offerings of emerging market sovereign borrowers in the 1990s as well as the subsequent corporate and bank issues. Prior to this position, Ms. Littlefield held positions as Vice President and Head Debt Trader for Africa, Eastern Europe and Asia, and as a Directeur in JP Morgan’s Paris Office in Corporate Finance, among others. In parallel to her career in investment banking, Ms. Littlefield also spent a year and a half in 1989-1990 on secondment to several microfinance institutions in West and Central Africa and in Pakistan. She has served on the executive board of several organizations including Women’s World Banking, Profund and Africa International Financial Holding. Ms. Littlefield has also been a founder of several of not-for-profit organizations including an organization that linked European food banks and homeless shelters and the Emerging Market Charity in the UK.

Maria Otero
President and CEO, ACCION International (www.accion.org)

Ms. Otero was named President & CEO of ACCION International in 2000. Ms. Otero first joined ACCION in 1986 as director of its microlending program in Honduras, where she lived for three years. Ms. Otero is a leading voice on sustainable microfinance, and has published extensively on the subject, including as co-editor of The New World of Microfinance, published by Kumarian Press. Ms. Otero chairs the board of ACCION Investments, a US$20 million investment company for microfinance. She also serves on the boards of directors of three regulated microfinance institutions in Latin America: Mibanco in Peru, BancoSol in Bolivia and Compartamos in Mexico. Ms. Otero also serves as the chair of the MicroFinance Network, a global association of 30 leading microfinance institutions, and is coordinator of the Council of Microfinance Equity Funds, which convenes 18 equity investment funds dedicated to microfinance. Ms. Otero serves on several other boards, including that of the Calvert Foundation and the United States Institute of Peace. She chaired the board of Bread for the World from 1992-1997. In 1994, President Clinton appointed Ms. Otero to serve as chair of the Board of Directors of the Inter-American Foundation, a position she held until January 2000. Since 1997, Ms. Otero has been an adjunct professor at the John Hopkins School for Advanced International Studies (SAIS). In 2000, she received Hispanic Magazine’s “Latina Excellence Award,” and was also featured in Latina magazine.

Bob Pattillo
Chairman, Rockdale Foundation (www.rockdalefdn.org) and Chairman, Gray Ghost Fund.

Mr. Pattillo leads Gray Ghost Fund, a $50 million social investment portfolio focused in the field of microfinance. Gray Ghost’s role is as a "partner" to the enterprises the fund invests in and those who work within them, helping to emphasize the enterprise as a living, breathing professional community. Mr. Pattillo's role is also to invite others to coinvest in these enterprises, to find the personal fulfillment that comes with investing for both financial and social return. Mr. Pattillo also chairs The Rockdale Foundation, a charitable foundation established in 1995 focused on education and microfinance, a "business-like, market oriented, and self sustaining" response to poverty, with a commitment to the Middle East/North Africa as a place where the needs are great and the resources are relatively thin. Rockdale is the founding partner of the Arab microfinance network, SANABEL.

John Porter
Founder, Telos Group

Mr. Porter is the founder of the Telos Group, the parent of Telos Corporation which specializes in encryption and security for wide area networks and enterprise integration with web enabled processes. Prior to Telos, Mr. Porter co founded VeriFone Inc., manufacturer of credit card verification equipment. Mr. Porter has served on the Advisory Council, Graduate School of Business, Stanford, serves on the Advisory Board of the Said Business School, Oxford, and is Chairman, i-Spire PLC., a venture capital firm in London.

Steven C. Rockefeller, Jr.
President, Educational Adventures (www.educationaladventures.com)

Mr. Rockefeller is the President of Educational Adventures, which creates family friendly entertainment to empower children to make better safety related decisions. Prior to this Mr. Rockefeller served as a Managing Director for Deutsche Bank Private Wealth Management. He was a key participant in the creation of the Deutsche Bank Microcredit Development Fund, a unique partnership between the bank and its clients to support microfinance programs worldwide. Within his particular focus on microfinance, besides being on the GF-USA board, Mr. Rockefeller also serves on the Board of Directors of the Soros Economic Development Fund and the Deutsche Bank Microcredit Development Fund. He also serves on the Board of the Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, is a member of The Rockefeller University Council and the YMCA-YWCA Camping Services Council.

Bobby Sager
Partner, Gordon Brothers Group and Founder, Sager Family Traveling Foundation and Roadshow (www.teamsager.org)

Mr. Sager is a partner in the Gordon Brothers Group, which provides customized global advisory, acquisition, disposition and capital solutions to companies at times of growth or restructuring. In 2000, Mr. Sager founded the Sager Family Traveling Foundation and Roadshow which works in Rwanda, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, South Africa, Pakistan, Palestine, Bhutan, and other developing countries providing teacher training, leadership training, microenterprise and peace and reconciliation efforts. The Sager Foundation has created several innovative microenterprise initiatives that impact reconciliation and women empowerment. Mr. Sager is the founding Chairman of the YPO Peace Action Network and is a founding board member of the YPO Foundation. He was the first recipient of YPO’s Global Humanitarian Award in 2002. Mr. Sager is also Honorary Consul General for the Kingdom of Nepal.

Frank Sixt
Group Finance Director, Hutchison Whampoa Limited (www.hutchison-whampoa.com)

Mr. Sixt was appointed Group Finance Director for Hutchison Whampoa Limited in 1998. He is also Chairman of Tom Group Limited/Tom Online Inc. and Executive Director of Cheung Kong Infrastructure Holdings Limited and Hongkong Electric Holdings Limited. Mr. Sixt is also a Director of Cheung Kong (Holdings) Limited, Hutchison Telecommunications (Australia) Limited, Partner Communications Company Ltd., Hutchison Global Communications Holdings Limited and Husky Energy Limited. Mr. Sixt was formerly a senior partner of the law firm, Stikeman Elliott in Canada, specializing in taxation and corporate law. He is a member of the Bar and of the Law Societies of the Provinces of Quebec and Ontario, Canada.

 

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"Microfinance programs work from the bottom up. The funds go directly to the hard-working self-employed women. There is no government intervention and real results are achieved in your lifetime.”

 

Mike Murray