Community Investment Management's (CIM) team is comprised of investment and technology professionals with significant lending, asset management, and fintech expertise. Our investment team has a proven track record to select, underwrite and manage investments of specialty niche lenders in highly fragmented markets with limited data.
Elena Amato serves as Managing Director, Investments
Elena Amato serves as a Managing Director on the Investment team and is based out of New York City. Prior to joining CIM, she led business development efforts in New York for DealVector, a fintech analytics firm focused on structured credit. Previously, she was a co-founder, partner, and investment officer at GMG Investment Advisors, a global Emerging Markets asset manager where she was responsible for various aspects of the strategy including managing private credit and impact investment portfolios. Mrs. Amato previously held positions at Lehman Brothers and Goldman Sachs, where she was part of their Emerging Markets interest rate, currency and derivatives structuring and sales businesses. Mrs. Amato started her career at Cargill Financial Services as an Emerging Markets trader.
Mrs. Amato holds a M.B.A. in Finance from Columbia Business School and a B.S. in Finance and International Business from the University of Northwestern.
Malika Anand serves as Director, Impact
Malika Anand serves as Director, Impact, and is based in Mexico City. Prior to working as a consultant with CIM, Ms. Anand served as Head of Impact, ESG & Research at Catalyst Fund, an early-stage fund and accelerator backing tech-enabled ventures in emerging markets, where she led impact due diligence, reporting, and learning and insights. Preceding her time with Catalyst Fund, Ms. Anand worked with CGAP, an inclusive finance think tank in the World Bank, where she conducted research and insights on inclusive fintech, carbon markets, and financial services for gig workers. Prior to CGAP, Ms. Anand worked with The Coca-Cola Company, supporting projects to grow small, women-owned enterprises in the value chain, and with MeraDoctor, where she led user insights to develop a telemedicine product for rural communities in India. Previously, she was a Fulbright Fellow at Banco ADOPEM, the Women's World Banking affiliate in the Dominican Republic.
Ms. Anand holds a BA in Public Policy from the University of Chicago, and a MPAID from the Harvard Kennedy School.
Alejandro Arenas serves as Senior Director, Investments
Alejandro Arenas serves as a Senior Director on the Investment team and is based out of Bogota, Colombia. Prior to working as a consultant with CIM, Alejandro was a Vice President at Inverlink, an investment bank, and asset manager, where he was responsible for early-stage venture capital investments. Previously, he worked for Developing World Markets, a financial inclusion investment manager, as a private equity associate for Latin America, and for J.P. Morgan as a private bank analyst. Alejandro began his career at Inverlink as an investment banking analyst.
He holds a M.B.A. from the University of Cambridge Judge Business School and a B.A. in Economics from Universidad de los Andes.
Rachel Balmy serves as Senior Manager, Operations and Investor Relations
Rachel Balmy serves as a Senior Manager where she focuses on operations, investor relations and portfolio research and is based out of San Francisco. Prior to joining CIM, she worked as a Communications Associate for UC Berkeley's Office of Sustainability and Energy (OSE), an organization committed to measuring, reporting, and reducing the campus' ecological footprint by setting and achieving sustainability goals through project implementation, planning, partnerships, and community engagement. Among her duties at the OSE, she developed and directed social media campaigns on campus, established student-faculty relationships, served as Editor-in-Chief of the OSE newsletter, and contributed to the annual campus Sustainability Report. Ms. Balmy also worked as a GIS consultant for StreetLight Data, a mobile data analytics company dedicated to transforming how transportation and mobility behavior is used across urban planning, transportation infrastructure design, business, and research. While at StreetLight, she collected, analyzed, and mapped relevant data points for their online application and database.
Ms. Balmy holds a B.S. in Society & Environment and a B.A. in Geography, both from the University of California, Berkeley.
Christoffer Dahlberg serves as Managing Director, Client Solutions
Christoffer Dahlberg serves as a Managing Director of Client Solutions and is focused on European client activities from CIM’s newly-opened office in Zurich, Switzerland. Mr. Dahlberg has spent more than two decades in client-facing roles with asset managers, with a particular emphasis on private markets and sustainability. He most recently served as Head of Client Solutions Europe & Middle East for Stafford Capital Partners, an asset manager focused on sustainability in real assets and private markets. And prior to that he was the Global Head of Sales and Client Relations at Symbiotics, a leading microfinance investment manager. Mr. Dahlberg started his career at Fidelity Investments and a few years later co-founded the Dual Return Fund - Vision Microfinance. Another position of note includes that as Head of Nordic Institutions at the Swiss private bank Union Bancaire Privée.
Mr. Dahlberg has a dual Bachelor’s degree in financial economics and international business from the Stockholm School of Economics and is fluent in five languages.
Greg D'Alessandro serves as Director, Strategy & Client Solutions
Greg D’Alessandro serves as a Director of Strategy & Client Solutions and is based in Chicago. Prior to joining CIM, he was Director of Strategic Relationships at Capricorn Investment Group, one of the largest mission-aligned investment firms in the world, where he focused on their Sustainable Investors Fund. Previously, Mr. D’Alessandro was a Vice President at AQR Capital Management, overseeing institutional investor relationships throughout North America. He began his career at J.P. Morgan as an analyst within their investment banking division.
Mr. D’Alessandro holds an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago with concentrations in analytic finance and economics and a B.B.A. from The College of William and Mary. He is a CAIA charterholder.
Bharat Desai serves as Senior Investment Analyst
Bharat Desai serves as a Senior Investment Analyst on the Investment team and is based out of New York City. Prior to joining CIM, Mr. Desai was a senior data scientist at Nikel, a leading embedded finance technology player in South East Asia providing end-to-end solutions for banks and technology companies to lend to their customers in underserved sectors like small businesses, healthcare, agriculture, and sustainability. He was focused on investment due diligence on Fintech credit investments, and led portfolio monitoring and management efforts on existing investments. Before starting his career in financial services, he conducted quantitative research in machine learning and optimization applications for cyber-physical systems at the NUS-Singtel Research and Development Laboratory.
Mr. Desai holds a B.Eng in Systems Engineering from Singapore University of Technology and Design.
Daniel Eichner serves as Managing Director, Strategy & Client Solutions
Daniel Eichner serves as Managing Director, Strategy & Client Solutions and is based out of New York City. Mr. Eichner leads CIM's Client Solutions team and serves as an Investment Committee member. Prior to joining CIM, he was the Partner in charge of capital development at SOSV, a venture capital fund focused on climate tech and health tech. Mr Eichner has extensive experience in private credit asset management running business development and client solutions while sitting on the investment committees of Serengeti Asset Management and Garrison Investment Group. Previously, he performed credit research and investments at Ermitage, Gruss Capital and Goldman Sachs's Special Situations Investing Group. He began his career as a management consultant building credit scoring models and loan pricing models for South American banks at PriceWaterhouseCoopers.
Mr Eichner received a B.A. in English literature and Economics from the University of Pennsylvania.
Bernhard Eikenberg leads the Emerging Markets strategy
Bernhard Eikenberg serves as Partner of CIM Emerging Markets LLC (“CEM”) and co-founded the firm's Emerging Markets strategy, where he focuses on investment and operations activities and is based out of Indonesia. Prior to co-founding CEM, Mr. Eikenberg spent a decade in various roles at Bamboo Capital Partners, an impact investment manager, where he served as Fund Manager for Bamboo's fintech equity fund, Head of Financial Inclusion, and Regional Director for Latin America. Previously, he worked for BlueOrchard Finance, a microfinance investment manager, where he was responsible for debt operations in Central America and the Caribbean as well as local currency lending initiatives. Mr. Eikenberg began his career at JPMorgan in London, where he focused on fixed income and currency derivatives.
Mr. Eikenberg has served as an Adjunct Professor at the Economics Faculty of Universidad de los Andes in Bogota and currently guest lectures at The Graduate Institute in Geneva. He holds an M.A. in Public Affairs and International Development from Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA), and a BSc in Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science.
Audrey Gordon serves as Director, Investments
Audrey Gordon serves as a Director on the Investment team and is based out of San Francisco. Prior to joining CIM, Ms. Gordon was Vice President of Private Credit at New Island Capital Management, an institutional-scale impact investor, where she deployed debt capital in furtherance of financial inclusion, sustainable agriculture, renewable energy, and education. Prior to New Island, Ms. Gordon worked with Wells Fargo's Community Lending and Investment group, where she underwrote equity-equivalent capital (EQ2) in favor of Community Development Financial Institutions, and with Bank of America, where she underwrote revolving and term debt across the semiconductor, technology hardware, and software industries.
Ms. Gordon holds a B.S. in Business Administration from the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley
Arash Gourtani serves as Senior Director, Investments
Arash Gourtani serves as a Senior Director on the Investment team and is based out of Cyprus. Prior to working as a consultant with CIM (through Codevity), Mr. Gourtani was a co-founder at Impact Credit Solutions, an impact investment manager focused on fintech credit investments in South East Asia, where he served as Chief Analytics Officer, leading the Risk Analytics and Data Science team. Mr. Gourtani also previously was a Lead Data Scientist at Funding Circle UK and Senior Quantitative Analyst at Barclays, where he focused on SME credit risk modelling and portfolio optimization. Prior to Barclays, Mr. Gourtani was a Quantitative Analyst at HSBC, where he reviewed the model risk and methodology across different businesses. Before starting his career in financial services, he conducted quantitative research in renewable energy optimization at Smartest Energy and University of Southampton.
Mr. Gourtani holds a BSc in Statistics from University College London, MSc in Operational Research from London School of Economics and PhD in Mathematics from University of Southampton.
Alejandra Granados serves as an Investment Analyst
Alejandra Granados serves as an Investment Analyst on the Investment team and is based in Bogota, Colombia. Prior to working with CIM Colombia, Alejandra was a structuring analyst on the investment banking team at Financiera de Desarrollo Nacional, a Colombian development bank that specializes in financing and structuring infrastructure projects. Previously, she worked as an intern for Axon Partners Group, an investment and consulting firm.
Ms. Granados holds a B.S. in Business Administration and a B.S in Economics from the Universidad de los Andes.
Jacob Haar serves as Managing Partner and Chief Investment Officer
Jacob Haar co-founded Community Investment Management and serves as its Managing Partner and Chief Investment Officer. Mr. Haar is based out of San Francisco and focuses on leading the firm's investment activities and setting its strategic direction. He currently serves on the Executive Board of the Responsible Business Lending Coalition and on the Board of Directors for Impact Capital Managers. Previously, he co-founded Minlam Asset Management, an investment advisor which launched and managed Minlam Microfinance Fund, the first global investment fund focused on providing local currency debt investment to micro, small, and medium enterprise lenders in emerging markets, which was acquired in 2012. Mr. Haar oversaw Minlam's transition to the MicroVest GMG platform and served as a Partner of the acquirer, GMG Investment Advisors, until founding CIM to focus on the United States small business market in 2013. He began his career in global financial inclusion working in Azerbaijan for Save the Children USA's microfinance institution.
Mr. Haar graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a B.A. from the University of Chicago, is a Fulbright Scholar, and received a M.A. from the University of Chicago's Center for Middle Eastern Studies.
Jeff Hilton serves as Managing Director, Investments and Finance
Jeff Hilton serves as a Managing Director of the Investment and Finance teams and is based out of San Francisco. Prior to joining CIM, he was Senior Vice President of Capital Markets at Opportunity Fund, a certified Community Development Financial Institution, where he was responsible for funding the small business loan portfolio. Previously, he served as the Chief Financial Officer of Aura Financial, overseeing capital markets, finance, and human resources. Mr. Hilton has extensive experience as a portfolio manager at BlackRock and Barclays Global Investors, where he focused on securitized products for over a decade. He began his career at Providian Financial, managing the day-to-day operations of the company's structured product funding vehicles.
Mr. Hilton received a B.A. in Economics and an M.S. in Applied Economics and Finance from the University of California at Santa Cruz.
Michael Hokenson serves as Partner and leads business development
Michael Hokenson co-founded Community Investment Management and serves as its Partner, leading business development for the firm. He was co-founder of Minlam Asset Management and served as Managing Director from 2005 to 2012, where he developed an extensive network of global institutional and individual investors for Minlam Microfinance Fund. Mr. Hokenson served as a member of the fund's Investment Committee and performed credit analysis including on-site due diligence and monitoring of active investments. Following Minlam's acquisition, he joined TriLinc Global LLC as Director of Sales to launch the first SEC-registered impact investment fund in June 2013 focused on emerging market SME private credit.
Mr. Hokenson has published case studies on the profitability of MSME lenders in The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid by Professor C.K. Prahalad. Mr. Hokenson graduated from the Erb Institute of Global Sustainable Enterprise at the University of Michigan, earning a M.B.A. at the Stephen M. Ross School of Business and a M.S. at the School of Natural Resources and Environment. He received his B.A. from St. John's College in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Jeffrey Horwitz serves as Manager, Investments
Jeffrey Horwitz serves as a Manager on the Investment team and is based out of New York City. Prior to joining CIM, Mr. Horwitz was a Vice President of Underwriting at Percent, a private credit investment platform, where he underwrote and structured asset-backed issuances across multiple asset classes, geographies, and transaction structures. Before joining Percent, Mr. Horwitz was a Director of Portfolio Strategy at Kapitus, a small business lender. In this capacity, he conducted analysis to support the firm’s capital markets activities and developed strategies to optimize Kapitus’ loan portfolio performance. Mr. Horwitz started his career as an Investment Banking Credit Analyst at J.P. Morgan where he managed the firm’s credit extension to a portfolio of alternative investment managers.
Mr. Horwitz holds a B.B.A. from the University of Michigan Ross School of Business.
Barry Joseph serves as Director of Risk
Barry Joseph serves as a Director of Risk and is based in San Francisco. Prior to working at CIM, Mr. Joseph held a variety of positions across several fintech companies, predominantly focused on building and launching commercial finance products for underserved SME borrowers. These roles included serving as the Chief Risk Officer at Settle, Head of Lending Product at Ripple, Corporate Treasurer at Flexport and Senior Credit Officer at CircleUp. Mr. Joseph started his career within the Federal Reserve System in which he worked across multiple functions over the course of the '08 financial crisis.
Mr. Joseph holds a B.S in Business Administration and a B.A. in Economics from American University.
Vivek Krishnappa serves as Chief Operating Officer
Vivek Krishnappa serves as the Chief Operating Officer of CIM and is based out of San Francisco. Mr. Krishnappa has extensive experience in investment management and fintech. Prior to joining CIM, he was the President of LendingClub's investment management subsidiary, a Managing Director at BlackRock and Principal at Barclays Global Investors. During this time he launched and managed a variety of short duration funds providing global solutions for institutional investors including pensions, foundations, family offices and high net worth individuals. He also has deep experience with lending platforms having led business operations at both LendingClub and Shopify's Merchant Services division.
Mr. Krishnappa holds a M.B.A. from the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley and a B.S. in Operations Research & Industrial Engineering from Cornell University.
Rayna Kutsal serves as Operations Associate
Rayna Kutsal serves as an Operations Associate and is based out of San Francisco. Prior to joining CIM, Ms. Kutsal was the Manager of Membership & Communications at the Hotel Council of San Francisco, where she managed member engagement and events.
Ms. Kutsal graduated magna cum laude with a B.A. in Psychology and a minor in Communications from the University of California, Davis.
Fabián León serves as Senior Investment Analyst
Fabián León serves as a Senior Investment Analyst on the Investment team and is based out of Bogota, Colombia. Prior to working with CIM Colombia, he was CFO and Co-Founder of Factcil, a fintech for freelancers in Colombia, where he focused on developing the firm’s credit model and supporting fundraising efforts. Previously, he served as Credit Manager at the representative office of Banesco in Colombia, overseeing the commercial loan portfolio and researching the local financial intermediation industry. He also worked at BRC Standard & Poor’s, rating sub-sovereign entities. He earned the CFA Charter in 2017 and is Co-Founder and Secretary of the Board of Directors at CFA Society Colombia. Mr. León is also a representative of the Atlantic Island and Latin America Advocacy Council. He began his career at Banco Davivienda, assessing the creditworthiness of corporates.
Mr. León holds a bachelor’s degree in Finance and International Trade from the Universidad del Rosario in Bogota, Colombia, and a master’s degree in Corporate Finance from EDHEC Business School in Nice, France.
Dryden Liddle serves as General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer
Dryden Liddle serves as General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer for CIM and is based out of San Francisco. He previously was head of legal and compliance at Aura Financial Corporation (formerly Insikt, Inc.), a Community Development Financial Institution, where he helped build the first private market securitization platform backed by community development loans, and established hedge funds and private equity funds as alternative investment vehicles to fund Aura's loans. He managed securities and consumer finance regulatory issues and worked closely with federal and state regulators. At Aura, Mr. Liddle also executed successful legislative strategies that increased access to responsible, credit-building loans in low-income communities.
Prior to Aura, Mr. Liddle was General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer for LawFinance Group, a California Finance Lender and specialty finance company, providing working capital loans and other innovative funding solutions to law firms and their clients. While at LawFinance Group, he was responsible for overseeing legal and compliance matters for the company's originations and investor funds. Mr. Liddle also worked at Kirkland & Ellis LLP in New York where he focused on corporate reorganizations. He began his career as an English lawyer at Tucker Turner Kingsley Wood LLP in London, founded by Winston Churchill's Minister of Finance.
Mr. Liddle has a B.A., with honors, from University of York and an LL.M., with distinction, from Boston University School of Law. He is admitted to practice law in California, New York and England & Wales.
Camila Lopera serves as Investment Analyst
Camila Lopera serves as an Investment Analyst on the Investment team based in Bogota, Colombia. Prior to working with CIM Colombia, she worked as a Structured Finance analyst at Fitch Ratings Colombia, where she mainly focused on rating servicers, Future Flows and Residential Mortgage Backed Securities transactions. Previously, Ms. Lopera worked for J.P. Morgan Colombia as a Corporate Investment Banking operations intern.
Ms. Lopera holds a B.S. in Economics and a B.S in Finance with an emphasis in Data Science from the Universidad EAFIT.
Peter Matsis serves as Head of Technology
Peter Matsis serves as Head of Technology and is based out of San Francisco. He has significant experience building custom software for complex business operations and large data sets using a wide array of technologies. Prior to joining CIM, he worked as the lead software and database developer at ABC Bus Companies, where he successfully merged several companies and over 2 million inventory items into one ERP system with a custom e-commerce backend. Mr. Matsis lead the data conversion effort in a 3 year ERP implementation replacing most accounting, payroll, sales and employee data systems. Mr. Matsis managed all current data systems for ABC and worked closely with each department to automate processes and boost productivity, including building customer reporting tools, e-commerce stores and several data interfaces for vendors and customers. Before ABC, Mr. Matsis was the lead software and database developer for S & A Homes, where he developed the company's custom intranet system that effectively automated business functions resulting in increased efficiencies. Mr. Matsis has consulted for numerous enterprises in the energy, health care, construction and transportation industries as a full-stack developer building custom solutions.
Mr. Matsis received a B.A. from The Pennsylvania State University with a focus on Software Engineering and Management.
Mollie Pepper serves as an Investment Analyst
Mollie Pepper serves as an Investment Analyst on the Investment team and is based out of San Francisco. Prior to joining CIM, Ms. Pepper was a Research Associate at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, where she supported FOMC policy-related work for the Director of Research and co-authored multiple economic letters. Previously, she served as a Visiting Research Assistant and Coordinator for the U.S. Civil Society Working Group on Women, Peace and Security at the United States Institute of Peace.
Ms. Pepper holds a B.S. in Economics with Honors and B.A. in Global Studies from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa, with Highest Distinction and as a Morehead-Cain Scholar.
Kevin Ryken serves as Manager
Kevin Ryken serves as a Manager focusing on finance and operations and is based out of San Francisco. Prior to joining CIM as a consultant, he was a Director of Internal Audit at BlackRock, where he led assessments of risk and evaluations of controls for finance and operations functions. Prior to BlackRock, Mr. Ryken was a Director at LendingClub focused on the operations of the firm’s investment management subsidiary and private investment funds. Mr. Ryken has also held positions as Director of fund administration at BlackRock, Assistant Controller at Omidyar Network, a philanthropic investment firm, and Manager at PwC in the audit practice serving investment management clients.
Mr. Ryken holds a B.S. in Business Administration from the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley.
Ravi Sattuluri serves as Senior Director, Investments
Ravi Sattuluri serves as a Senior Director on the Investment team and works closely with CIM’s New York City office. Prior to working with CIM, Mr. Sattuluri was the CEO of Sivo, a YC backed fintech company that provides asset backed debt capital to early stage lending companies. Mr. Sattuluri has held a variety of roles within fintech, most notably leading risk, analytics, and operations for Happy Money where he helped scale the company’s lending program from inception to over $3B in total originations. Mr. Sattuluri started his career at Capital One where he held various roles across operations, marketing analytics, and risk analytics.
Mr. Sattuluri holds a B.Eng from Mumbai University and a M.S. from Purdue University.
Chin Xing Tan serves as Manager, Investments
Chin Xing Tan serves as a Manager on the Investment team and is based out of New York City. Prior to joining CIM, he interned at UBS Wealth Management Singapore, analyzing ultra-high-net-worth clients' portfolios to identify alternative investment opportunities and conducting research on new investment vehicles for the Funds Specialist team. Mr. Tan also led an AIESEC local chapter in London, the largest student-run organization in the world, where he facilitated international student exchanges at 11 universities. During his term, he surpassed the national record for exchanges facilitated and was awarded the Excellence Award by the AIESEC U.K. National Team. Between his degrees, he conducted research as part of the International Big Data Project at Harvard University in partnership with the National Bureau of Economic Research.
Mr. Tan received a M.S. in Finance from the Simon Business School, University of Rochester and earned a B.S. from the University College London in Economics.
Kristy Tholanikunnel serves as Transaction Counsel
Kristy Tholanikunnel serves as Transaction Counsel for CIM and is based out of New York City. Prior to joining CIM, Ms. Tholanikunnel was an associate at Seward & Kissel LLP, where she represented borrowers, lenders, trustees and agents in connection with bond issuances, lending transactions, asset-backed financings, project financings, securitizations and debt restructurings. Prior to Seward & Kissel, Ms. Tholanikunnel was an associate at Hogan Lovells LLP, where she focused on debt capital markets transactions.
Ms. Tholanikunnel has a B.A. in Philosophy and Political Science (magna cum laude) from Furman University and a JD from Columbia University School of Law, where she was a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar. She is admitted to practice law in New York.
Dan Uttaro serves as Director, Operations
Dan Uttaro serves as a Director on the Operations team and is based out of Wilmington, North Carolina. Prior to joining CIM, he was Senior Account Manager at Apex Fund Services, where he was responsible for the administration of CIM's strategies, as well as the administration of hedge fund clients. Previously, he served as the oversight Senior Manager at Investors Bank & Trust Company, overseeing mutual fund clients. Mr. Uttaro has extensive experience in hedge fund administration and mutual fund accounting. He began his career at Investors Bank & Trust Company as an entry level mutual fund accountant.
Mr. Uttaro received a B.S. in Business Administration from Suffolk University.
Ravi Vukkadala serves as Country Director, India
Ravi Vukkadala is CIM's Country Director, serving as a Senior Director on the global investments team, and is based out of Mumbai. Prior to working as a consultant with CIM, Mr. Vukkadala was the CEO of Northern Arc Investment Managers, where he built the fledgling private credit alternates business over 7 years to 10+ funds and approximately $500 million of capital. He has extensive experience across public and private credit markets in India. Previously, he was part of the fixed income investment team at Invesco's mutual fund overseeing credit and rates. His capital markets experience also includes stints with asset managers such as Bharti AXA, JM Financial and Merrill Lynch.
Mr. Vukkadala received his Chemical Engineering degree from the University of Mumbai and received his Masters from Virginia Polytechnic University. He holds the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and Financial Risk Manager (FRM) charters.
CIM's advisors are comprised of thought leaders in financial inclusion, economic policy, and impact investing.
Senior Fellow & Director
Bowman Cutter is a Senior Fellow and Director of the Next American Economy Project at the Roosevelt Institute. He was a managing director of Warburg Pincus, a major global private equity firm headquartered in New York City, between 1996 and 2009 where he served both as the firm's economist and as a leader in its international business, with particular reference to Asia.
Mr. Cutter joined Warburg Pincus directly from a senior economic policy role in the Administration of President William Clinton. He has served with distinction during two Democratic presidencies: at the National Economic Council, from 1992-1996, during the Clinton Presidency – as director of the National Economic Council and Deputy Assistant to the President; and at the Office of Management and Budget from 1976-1981, during the Carter Presidency, as Executive Director for Budget.
Mr. Cutter also served as leader of the OMB transition team after the election of President Obama. From 1981-1993, he was vice chairman and managing partner at Coopers & Lybrand, the global accounting and consulting firm that subsequently merged with Price Waterhouse. Mr. Cutter's central ublic policy interest has been the development and management of economic policy, and in particular the issues related to economic growth, development, and the alleviation of poverty.
He has worked extensively with the World Bank; and until recently was Chairman of the Board of CARE, the global development organization (where he was a member of the Board for 13 years); and is a founder and current Chairman of MicroVest, a leading global microfinance fund with assets under management now in excess of $100 million. In addition, Mr. Cutter is a member of the Governing Council of the IFMR Trust, in India, focusing upon market based solutions to the problems of severe poverty in India.
Mr. Cutter holds degrees from Harvard University, the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University, and Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar. He is a member of the executive committee and immediate past co-chairman of the Committee for Economic Development, the leading business "think-tank" in the United States; a board member of Resources for the Future, an energy and environmental research institute; and a board member of the Russell Sage Foundation. In addition, he is a member of the New York Council on Foreign Relations.
Partner & Investment Committee Member
William Orum is a Partner and member of the Investment Committee of Capricorn Investment Group. One of the largest mission-aligned firms in the world, Capricorn Investment Group was born from a belief that sustainable investment practices can enhance risk-adjusted returns. Underlying this investment approach, Capricorn seeks to generate superior investment results by supporting the entrepreneurship and innovation required to create commercial solutions to the world’s greatest challenges. William joined the Firm in 2004 and has been based in its New York office since 2008. He has primary responsibility for leading marketable investments, portfolio construction, and risk management across asset classes.
Prior to Capricorn, he was an investment banker with Merrill Lynch in their global industries group focused on corporate finance and M&A advisory for technology clients.
Mr. Orum received a BA from Amherst College and an MBA from the NYU Stern School of Business.
Co-Founder & Principal
Liesel Pritzker Simmons is Co-Founder and Principal of Blue Haven Initiative, an innovative family office that invests for profit and with purpose. An early leader in the impact investing space, BHI manages an international portfolio of diversified investments in traditional asset classes, groundbreaking impact business models, and nonprofit organizations. It applies a rigorous portfolio-management lens to its investments with the goal of generating measurable financial returns as well as societal and environmental benefits.
Liesel is also Co-Founder of IDP Foundation, a private Chicago-based foundation focused on achieving universal primary education. There, she helped create the IDP Rising Schools Program, which leverages microfinance networks to empower nearly 450 low-cost private schools — established and managed by local entrepreneurs — in some of the least-developed regions of the world.
Liesel is a sought-after speaker on the topic of impact investing. She serves on for-profit and nonprofit boards and investment committees of organizations including Impact Assets, Synergos, Toniic, Eco-Post, and the ImPact, a network of families committed to the conscientious stewardship of wealth. Liesel attended Columbia University in New York City, where she studied African History. She lives in the Boston area with her husband, Ian Simmons, and their daughter.
Co-Founder & CEO
Peter Renton is the Founder and CEO of Renton & Co, LLC, a consulting firm specializing in fintech media, events and thought leadership. He was formerly the co-founder and chairman of Fintech Nexus, a fintech media and events company that produced 31 large-scale events worldwide, several hundred webinars, and white papers. The events business was sold to Fintech Meetup in 2023, and the media business was shut down in June 2024. Peter has been writing about fintech since 2010, with over 2,500 articles authored. Since 2013, he has been the publisher and creator of the Fintech One-on-One Podcast, the first and longest-running fintech interview series. He has conducted more than 750 interviews and panel discussions and produced over 1,800 fintech newsletters. His passion is fintech and he is always looking for new ways to help drive the industry forward.
Peter has a degree in computer science from the University of Technology, Sydney
President & CEO
Michael Schlein is the President and CEO of Accion, a global nonprofit dedicated to building a financially inclusive world. A world pioneer in microfinance, Accion has helped build 64 microfinance institutions in 32 countries which currently reach millions of clients providing them with the financial tools that can help improve their lives.
Mr. Schlein brings nearly 30 years of extensive international banking, management and public service experience to his role as President and CEO of Accion. As President of Citigroup's International Franchise Management, Mr. Schlein managed the bank's network of 100 Chief Country Officers. Before that, he ran communications, philanthropy, government relations, branding and human resources for Citigroup. He served as Chief of Staff at the US Securities and Exchange Commission in the Clinton Administration and in New York's City Hall in the Dinkins and Koch Administrations. He began his career in investment banking.
In 2014, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio appointed Mr. Schlein to serve as the Chairman of the NYC Economic Development Corporation, which encourages economic growth throughout New York's five boroughs and facilitates investments that build capacity, generate prosperity, and catalyze the economic vibrancy of city life as a whole.
Mr. Schlein has graduate and undergraduate degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa.