Management Team
CIM's management team is comprised of investment and technology professionals with significant lending, asset management, and technology expertise.
CIM's management team is comprised of investment and technology professionals with significant lending, asset management, and technology expertise.
Jacob Haar serves as Managing Partner and leads investments and operations
Jacob Haar serves as Managing Partner of Community Investment Management and leads the firm's investment and operations activities. He was co-founder of 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 (MSME) lenders in emerging markets. Mr. Haar served as Managing Director of Minlam from 2005 to the Fund's acquisition in 2012 and managed MSME investments, fund and firm operations, and public-private partnerships. Following Minlam's acquisition, Mr. Haar oversaw Minlam Microfinance Fund's transition to the MicroVest GMG platform and served as a Partner of the acquirer, GMG Investment Advisors, where he continued working on MSME investments and fund operations until founding Community Investment Management to focus on the United States MSME market in 2013.
Prior to co-founding Minlam in 2005, Mr. Haar worked in Azerbaijan for Save the Children USA's microfinance institution. Previously, he was the Founder and Principal of Ihylma, a socially responsible Indonesian manufacturing and real estate company. Mr. Haar is a Fulbright Scholar, received a M.A. from the University of Chicago's Center for Middle Eastern Studies and graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a B.A. from the University of Chicago.
Michael Hokenson serves as Partner and leads business development
Michael Hokenson serves as Partner of Community Investment Management and leads 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.
Olympia De Castro serves as Partner where she focuses on strategy and investments
Olympia De Castro serves as Partner where she focuses on strategy and investments. Prior to joining Community Investment Management, she worked as a consultant at The Louis Berger Group, providing advisory to multilaterals and government on infrastructure related projects. Ms. De Castro was a Director at Global Securities Capital Partners, a private equity firm focused on mid-cap opportunities in high growth, medium risk sectors in Colombia. In 2011 she worked at the IFC in the Global SME Banking group aimed at improving access to finance for SMEs globally. From 2009 to 2010 Ms. De Castro held a number of roles in the microfinance industry including portfolio management, investments and debt capital markets. Previously, she spent three years at Goldman Sachs' Investment Banking Division and one year in its Private Wealth Management Group.
Ms. De Castro received a M.I.A. from the Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs and a B.A. in Finance from the University of Miami.
Rakesh Vemulapally serves as Head of Risk and Analytics
Rakesh Vemulapally serves as Head of Risk and Analytics of Community Investment Management. Prior to joining Community Investment Management, he worked as a Director at Visa, developing information based insights and strategy for Visa's loyalty and merchant data solutions. Prior to Visa, Mr. Vemulapally was Director of Risk Analytics and Strategy at Progress Financial, a technology-driven CDFI which utilizes both traditional and non-traditional data sources to provide financing to individuals and entrepreneurs with limited or no credit history within the under-served Hispanic community. During this time, he managed risk for the installment loan portfolio with approximately $300 million in annual originations. Prior to Progress Financial, Mr. Vemulapally spent five years at Capital One in multiple analytical and risk management roles across various lines of businesses, including small business, credit cards and auto finance. As a risk and analytics expert, Mr. Vemulapally has extensive experience in leveraging data to develop risk models, underwriting frameworks, line assignment policies and product valuations, leading teams focused in these areas during his tenure at both Capital One and Progress Financial.
Mr. Vemulapally earned his M.S. in Mechanical Engineering at University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he also worked as a Research Assistant. He did his Bachelors in Mechanical Engineering at Indian Institute of Technology (I.I.T.) Madras in India.
Peter Matsis serves as Head of
Technology
Peter Matsis serves as Head of Technology for Community Investment Management. He has significant experience building custom software for complex business operations and data sets using a wide array of appropriate technologies. Prior to joining Community Investment Management, 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. Mr. Matsis managed all current data systems for ABC and worked closely with each department to create custom software to 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 application developer to build customized technology solutions.
Mr. Matsis received a B.A. from The Pennsylvania State University with a focus on Software Engineering and Management.
Lucia Villar serves as Director, Investments
Lucia Villar serves as a Director where she focuses on portfolio investments. Prior to joining Community Investment Management, she served as the Head of Personal Loans and Head of Business Operations for major student and personal loan Fintech lender, Earnest (acquired: NAVI). From 2011-2015, Ms. Villar was a consultant at McKinsey & Company in New York in the Financial Institutions Group. Ms. Villar joined McKinsey in the wake of the financial crisis, initially advising large US and Global retail banks on topics such as implementation of new regulatory and compliance requirements for consumer lending, as well as optimizing banking operations. She also focused on retail banking product strategy, technology platform selection and risk modeling. Previously, she spent 4 years working in the microfinance industry, leading thought-leadership initiatives at ACCION International and grant-making at the Citi Foundation.
Ms. Villar received her M.B.A. from Columbia Business School and is a recipient of the Nathan Gantcher Award for Social Enterprise. She received her B.A. in International Relations from Tufts University.
Rachel Balmy serves as a Senior Associate where she focuses on operations, investor relations and portfolio research
Rachel Balmy serves as Senior Associate where she focuses on operations, investor relations and portfolio research. Prior to joining Community Investment Management, 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.
Chin Xing Tan serves as an Analyst
Chin Xing Tan serves as an Analyst in the Risk and Analytics team of Community Investment Management. Prior to joining Community Investment Management, 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.
CIM's advisory team is 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 public 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.
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.
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.