International Finance Corp.

Ms. McGarvie is Chief Executive Officer of LIF Group, a firm offering a global perspective for clients seeking profitable growth and providing leadership seminars for corporate and academic groups. She specializes in delivering keynote speeches and moderating company and association meetings. She is the author of two books: Shaking the Globe: Courageous Decision-Making in a Changing World and Fit In, Stand Out: Mastering the FISO Factor for Leadership Effectiveness in Business and Life. Prior to founding her firm in 2003, Ms. McGarvie was executive vice president and chief financial officer of BIC Group, one of the world's leading manufacturers of convenient disposable products. Ms. McGarvie served as Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Hannaford Bros. Co., a food retailer, from 1994-1999.

Dr. Maher Mahmassani is our Chief Legal Adviser. He has over 19 years of experience in emerging markets as Chief Counsel for Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia at the International Finance Corporation. He has also previously served as General Counsel for Middle East Airlines, the Arab Investment Company and the Lebanese Company for the Development and Reconstruction of the Beirut Central District (Solidere). Dr. Mahmassani holds a PhD in Law and a BSc in Political Science.

Ladislaus von Hoffmann served as IFC's Executive Vice President from 1974 to 1977. He came to IFC in 1960 as an investment officer and was appointed vice president in 1970. During his tenure as EVP, Mr. von Hoffmann initiated the successful renegotiation of the first general capital increase, which boosted resources to $650 million and significantly added to the Corporation's ability to finance private enterprise in developing countries.

Jyrki Koskelo, a Finnish national, is IFC's new Vice President, Europe, Central Asia, and Global Financial Markets, and a member of IFC's Management Group. He oversees IFC's business in Europe and Central Asia and provides leadership to the departments serving Global Financial Markets. Prior to this assignment, Mr. Koskelo was Vice President, Africa, Global Financial Markets, and Funds, where he led IFC's business in Africa and provided leadership to the departments serving Global Financial Markets as well as Private Equity and Investment Fund. From April 2004, he was IFC's Director for Global Financial Markets, where he led the significant expansion of IFC's business in housing finance, microfinance, insurance, and banking. He also led the launch and successful implementation of the IFC Global Trade Finance Program, sustainability finance, and SME financing, particularly in frontier markets. Previously he served as Director of Special Operations, where he had responsibility for managing IFC's restructuring and recovery operations during the Asian, Argentine, and Russian crises. Mr. Koskelo has had extensive experience globally across sectors including manufacturing, infrastructure, and extractive industries. He has also held responsibilities in Central and Southern Europe, where he served as IFC's Country Anchor for Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland. Prior to joining IFC, Mr. Koskelo spent more than 10 years in senior management positions in the private sector, including as Managing Director of Georeda Ltd., a large engineering company in Saudi Arabia with six branch offices, and as Vice President of Finance for Geo-Hydro, Inc. in Rockville, Maryland, a high technology company he cofounded. Mr. Koskelo holds a Master of Science degree in International Management/Finance from MIT's Sloan School of Management and a Master of Science degree in Civil Engineering from the Technical University of Helsinki, Finland.

As Vice President, Risk Management, Michel Maila provides overall direction for IFC's risk management, controllers, corporate portfolio management, and information technology functions. He has purview over all risk management operations in IFC including credit, operational, business, liquidity, funding, equity, and market risks. He also oversees IFC's budget, financial operations, business informatics, and special operations functions. A dual citizen of Canada and Lebanon, Mr. Maila is a financial economist with over 25 years of international banking experience in the Middle East, Europe, and North America. Most recently, at the Bank of Montreal, he was the senior officer for market and operational risk and was previously Executive Vice President and Head of Corporate Risk Management. Prior to that he was the Executive Vice President for Mexico and Latin America and also served as a senior credit officer and head of portfolio management. Before joining the Bank of Montreal, Mr. Maila gained extensive experience with American Express and Citibank in project and corporate finance in emerging markets as well as in trading and underwriting in international capital markets. Mr. Maila has had wide-ranging business affiliations and associations. He has served as President of the Canadian Ditchley Foundation, which organizes private and highly focused conferences of senior international experts to address issues of transatlantic and global interest. For several years, he was a director on the board of the Mexico-based Grupo Financiero Bancomer, chair of the Senior Risk Management Committee of the Canadian Bankers Association, and a member of the Canadian Advisory Board of U.S.-based Factory Mutual Global Insurance. More recently, he was Executive-in-Residence at the Schulich School of Business of York University in Toronto and has been lecturing and consulting in the area of risk management and international finance. Mr. Maila has also published a number of papers on project finance and exchange rate risk. Mr. Maila holds an MBA in economics and finance from the American University of Beirut. He earned another MBA degree in international business and his Ph.D. in international finance from the University of Chicago.

Mr. Potter is Chairman of Emerging Markets Advisors Inc. in Toronto and is a director of a number of companies in Canada including Canadian Tire Corporation, Golden China Resources Corporation, Rockwater Capital Corporation, Penn West Energy, amongst others. He has a background in international banking in Europe, Asia and the United States. He is the former executive director of The World Bank and the International Finance Corporation in Washington and former advisor to the Department of Finance in Ottawa. He was educated at Royal Military College of Science and Trinity College, Dublin.

Ali Hashmi is currently with the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private investment arm of the World Bank Group, where he advises governments in the Middle East and North Africa region on the structuring and execution of public-private partnerships and privatization transactions in a variety of infrastructure sectors. Prior to IFC, Mr. Hashmi was with the Mergers and Acquisitions Group at RBC Capital Markets in New York. Mr. Hashmi received a Bachelor of Science (with Honors) in Finance and Accounting, with a minor in Middle Eastern Studies from the Leonard N. Stern School of Business at New York University. As an undergraduate, Mr. Hashmi was selected to be an NYU Founders Day Scholar and Leonard N. Stern School of Business Scholar, and received several scholastic awards, including the Dean's Honor Key. Mr. Hashmi was also inducted into Beta Gamma Sigma National Scholastic Honors Society in his senior year. While at New York University, Mr. Hashmi held leadership positions at several on-campus organizations, including the Islamic Center at New York University (ICNYU). As Vice President of the ICNYU, Mr. Hashmi co-founded the ICNYU Alumni Association. Mr. Hashmi was recently appointed as Senior International Development Associate to assist the ICNYU in its institutionalization and fund raising efforts for the establishment of an operational endowment. Outside of work, Mr. Hashmi enjoys traveling, reading, scuba diving and cricket.

Alphonse Kouagou is the founder and inspiration behind the Benin Education Fund. He was born in the village of Tampegre in northern Benin. Alphonse has ten brothers and sisters, none of whom can read or write. His native language is Ditammari; he also speaks two other African languages, plus French and English. At the age of six, Alphonse was recruited by the village chief to attend the new primary school in his village. After primary school, Alphonse chose to continue his education. With a few francs and a sack of yams, he walked 20 miles to the city where the high school was located. Alphonse eventually graduated from high school and college. He began teaching French and local African languages to Peace Corps Volunteers, which eventually led him to the U.S. Today, Alphonse has a B.S., a C.P.A., and an M.B.A., and he works at the International Finance Corporation in Washington, DC. His dream of helping young people in Benin was realized when he and his wife, Karen, founded the Benin Education Fund in 1998.

Claudette Christian practices principally in the business and finance areas, with particular emphasis on international corporate and project finance. For the past 25 years, she has advised sponsors, project developers, lenders, and foreign governments in a wide array of cross-border transactions, including a number of large infrastructure projects. She works regularly on matters in the energy, telecommunications, shipping, transportation, and aviation industries for clients with operations in the United States, Latin America, Africa, and Europe. Claudette has worked in Brazil since 1997 and has also worked extensively on matters in Venezuela, Mexico, and Bolivia. Claudette's leadership and management of large infrastructure transactions has given her the ability to advise clients across a broad range of commercial and financing issues, providing experienced counsel and executive judgment when needed. She has structured, negotiated, and finalized project and financing documents related to the construction and financing of oil and gas pipelines, stock and asset acquisitions, formation and operation of joint ventures, equity investments, divestitures, and privatizations. In addition, she has assisted her clients in a large number of capital market and commercial bank financing transactions. Claudette also has extensive knowledge of the loan, guarantee, and insurance programs offered by the multilateral and export credit agencies, including the Export-Import Bank of the United States, Overseas Private Investment Corporation, the Inter-American Development Bank, the World Bank, the International Finance Corporation, and the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency. Complementing her legal and transactional activities, Claudette is also active in firm management. She currently serves as the co-head of the Latin America practice group, co-chair of the Recruitment Committee, and co-chair of the Diversity Committee. Claudette served as counsel at the Export-Import Bank from 1979 through 1984. In addition to her transactional work for clients, Claudette has taught classes on international project development and project financing and has served on numerous conference panels on project finance issues.

David I. Fisher is Chairman of the Board of Capital Group International, Inc. and Capital Guardian Trust Company, as well as an officer and director of numerous affiliated companies. He is a portfolio manager for U.S., non-U.S., global and emerging market assets and has been responsible for the organizations international investing activities since 1982. Mr. Fisher serves on many Boards of Trustees including Trustee Emeritus of the J. Paul Getty Trust, trustee for the Harvard Westlake School, the UCLA School of Public Policy CalArts, The Lowe Institute, and The Institute of International Finance, Inc. Mr. Fisher brings finance and business expertise, innovation and community leadership to our Board of Directors.

Gavin Rabinowitz is the Managing Director of Credo Property Group Limited. He was also a founder member of the Credo Group. He is a solicitor with an LLM in International Finance (LSE). He is a consultant to solicitors Berwin Leighton Paisner and a former partner and head of Property Finance at Nabarro Nathanson (UK).

Malcolm Chisholm is a leader in the fields of master data and reference data management, as well as the implementation of business rules. His two books, Managing Reference Data in Enterprise Databases and How to Build a Business Rules Engine have been invaluable guides for many professionals working to better utilize the information assets of their enterprises. Malcolm runs two web sites www.refdataportal.com and www.bizrulesengine.com and undertakes numerous consulting assignments as well as speaking engagements. In addition, he is a frequent contributor of written articles to industry publications. Elizabeth Davis is a founding member and Unit Leader of the four-person Information Quality Group ("IQ Group") within the International Finance Corporation (IFC). IFC is a multilateral finance institution of 2,700 global staff with a mission to "promote sustainable private sector in developing countries." Chris Deger is a demonstrated leader who enjoys problem solving through working with all levels of an organization. As a Vice President at Wachovia he has been responsible for establishing & leading the Risk Data Governance Program and the Process & Governance Group for Corporate & Investment Banking Technology. In this capacity he has developed (organizationally & functionally) and staffed both organizations from the ground up. These groups develop and implement processes directed at ensuring compliance with all internal and external governance initiatives (i.e. BASEL II, SOX, corporate policy & standards).

Martin M. Rosen was appointed Executive Vice President of IFC on October 15, 1961. He had joined the World Bank in 1946, and during his tenure there he had been Assistant Director, Department of Technical Operations, and was part of the Bank's first mission to Yugoslavia. After leaving IFC in 1969, Mr. Rosen founded First Washington, an investment firm specializing in international finance. He also held positions at Bache Halsey Stuart Shields Inc. and was director of a number of firms, including Atlantic Bank, City National Bank of Miami, and California Commerce Bank of Los Angeles.

Prior to joining the IFC, Maxine Garvey taught strategy, finance and international business at the University of the West Indies. She also consulted for the Commonwealth Secretariat conducting corporate governance training for directors in the South Pacific, Africa and the Caribbean.Previously, Dr. Garvey worked as a management consultant with Analysis Group (New York), A.T. Kearney (Toronto) and Price Waterhouse (Kingston). She started her career as an auditor at KPMG and has worked as an accountant in industry. Maxine is a Certified Public Accountant and a member of the AICPA and the Academy of Management.

Pravan joined ORIX Venture Finance in June 2002 and focuses on due diligence and investment analysis of East Coast transactions. Prior to joining ORIX Venture Finance, he worked in venture capital, holding positions at Metropolitan Venture Partners and Global Bridge Ventures. Pravan has also worked on mergers and acquisitions for BMO Nesbitt Burns and corporate finance transactions for the Tokai Bank. He received his B.A. in business administration from Coe College and earned an M.B.A. from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Tatiana Oreshkina, project assistant at the International Finance Corporation in St. Petersburg which supports smaller and medium-sized IT companies in the city, said: "Motorola is involved in headhunting in a big way, and they will be going after programmers already working in St. Petersburg at other companies. Because 150 programmers - that's quite a lot."

Recognized for his innovations and pioneering work in the field of development, particularly in bringing together corporations with international organizations to tackle market and supply systems challenges in developing countries, Mr. Konishi has over 20 years of professional experience in private business, think tanks, as well as advising major international organizations. His negotiation skills as well as technical expertise in areas such as small business development and foreign direct investments have proven beneficial to major corporations as well as to local businesses in developing countries seeking market opportunities. Mr. Konishi is a pioneer in forming dynamic strategic alliances, where he has successfully implemented a number of programs with multinational enterprises, developmental organizations, non-governmental organizations, universities, and governments to help accelerate the development of markets and industry. Mr. Konishi has also successfully established and strengthened over 10 investment agencies (one-stop-shop) around the world. He brings a wealth of knowledge from his work in the private sector, as well as with leading research organization and developmental organizations. His previous professional experience includes work with the Stanford Research Institute (SRI International), International Business Information (IBI, Tokyo), Brookings Institutions, Development Alternatives, Inc (DAI), as well as serving as an adviser and consultant to the World Bank, International Finance Corporation (IFC), Multilateral Investment Guaranty Agency (MIGA), Inter-American Development Bank (IADB), Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF), and United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Mr. Konishi holds a Masters in Law and Diplomacy from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy (a joint programme with Harvard Business School), and a BA from University of California at Davis in international economics and finance.

Daniel Gros is the Director of the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS), in Brussels. He is originally from Germany, however he attended University in Italy, where he obtained a Laurea in Economia e Commercio, as well as the United States, where he earned his M.A. and Ph.D (University of Chicago, 1984). Upon completion of his academic education, he worked at the International Monetary Fund, in the European and Research Departments (1983-1986), then as an Economic Advisor at the Directorate General II of the European Commission (1988-1990). He has taught at the European College (Natolin) as well as various Universities across Europe, including the Catholic University of Leuven, the University of Frankfurt, the University of Basel, Bocconi University, the Kiel Institute of World Studies and the Central European University in Prague. He has worked at CEPS in 1986-88 and then continuously since 1990. At present, his research concentrates on the impact of the euro on capital and labour markets and the international role of the euro, especially in Central and Eastern Europe. He also monitors the transition towards market economies and the process of enlargement of the EU towards the east (he advised the Commission and a number of governments on these issues). He was advisor to the European Parliament 1998-2005 and member of the Conseil Economique de la Nation (2003-2005); 2001-2003 he was a member of the Conseil d'Analyse Economique (advisory bodies to French Prime Minister and Finance Minister). Since 2002 he is member of the Shadow Council organised by Handelsblatt. Since April 2005 he is President of Eurizon Capital (Italian asset management company). He is editor of Economie Internationale and editor of International Finance (link).

As a corporate governance specialist and trusted advisor to CEOs, corporate staffs and boards of directors on governance issues and board dynamics, Jon Masters draws on broad and deep experience. He has been a managing principal of a corporate governance consulting firm, a senior partner in a law firm, a vice chairman of a securities firm, and a director of both business and non-profit corporations. He also served as the Legal Advisor to the Blue Ribbon Commission established by the National Association of Corporate Directors on Performance Evaluation of Chief Executive Officers, Boards and Directors and is a member of International Finance Corporation's (World Bank Group) Global Corporate Governance Forum's Private Sector Advisory Group. These experiences enable him to bring to his work a uniquely comprehensive view of corporate governance, synthesize highly complex issues, and design and implement fully appropriate solutions. Trained in mediation and with more than 30 years of counseling experience, he helps CEOs and boards of both business and not-for-profit organizations develop more productive relationships, function more effectively, and establish processes and procedures that help them achieve their full potential. Drawing on his experience in law, business, government, and the non-profit sector, he acts as a confidential, independent, and objective sounding board for his clients. Prior to co-founding Masters-Rudnick, he served as a senior member of the corporate governance practice of Mercer Delta Consulting, where he did board assessments and had extensive training in helping CEOs and senior managers deal with organizational issues. Previously, he founded Lear, Yavitz & Associates with three former CEOs of major enterprises, where he helped CEOs and directors master the practicalities of corporate governance and worked internationally, training the directors of the Asian Development Bank nominated to the boards of its portfolio companies. As Vice Chairman of Robb Peck McCooey, a large New York Stock Exchange specialist firm, he focused on strategic and governance issues and listed-company relations, financings, and acquisitions; and he served on the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors of the parent company. As a co-founder of Christy & Viener, Jon helped build a highly respected New York law firm. As a senior partner he had a broad-gauged corporate and securities practice, advising chief executives, entrepreneurs, and other principals on the whole range of issues they faced in developing, financing, and managing their businesses. As General Counsel, Director, Vice President and Secretary of Baker, Weeks, & Co., a leading securities firm, he served as a director, counseled management and the board, coordinated the activities of certain segments of the firm's business, had responsibility for various administrative functions, and acted as the firm's spokesman to Washington and the industry. He also served on various Securities Industry Association committees, and at the request of the SEC and Senate and House staffs he assisted in formulating positions on various securities law and market structure issues, which became part of the Securities Act Amendments of 1975. Jon's public service includes being an advisor to the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission, work on the redevelopment of Bedford-Stuyvesant, and service in the U.S. Defense Department and on the Special Political Research Staff of President Lyndon Johnson. A published author of articles on corporate governance, he is a graduate of Princeton University and Harvard Law School.

Peter A. Petri is a senior fellow at the East-West Center in Honolulu, the Carl J. Shapiro Professor of International Finance, and former dean of the International Business School at Brandeis University. [Homepage]