Jessie Greene works as Senior Investment Officer for North Africa and the Greater Middle Easst at Triple Jump, a Microfinance Fund Manager based in the Netherlands, where she has been working since 2006. In addition to her work as Investment Officer, Jessie is the main contact person at Triple Jump for Social Performance and Responsible Finance. Prior to joining Triple Jump, Jessie worked as Financial Services Program Officer at Hivos, a Dutch Donor organization. She has a Bachelors’ Degree in Agricultural Economics and a Masters’ in Development Economics from McGill and Dalhousie University. Jessie is a Canadian/Dutch National, and speaks French, English and Dutch.

Mohammed Abu Dalo has more than 20 years experience, both locally and internationally, in management, small and micro financing, project financing, and grants management. Mr. Abu Dalo is currently working at Reef Finance Company as the Executive Manager of the Company responsible for managing the Company’s daily activities, the staff performance as well as the branches distributed in the West Bank and Gaza. Reef is managing a portfolio of $3.2 million of micro and small loans awarded to people living in the rural areas, farmers, women, and cooperatives. Mr. Abu Dalo previously worked as a Grant Manager with DAI, a private American Company Managing a Grant of around $ 5million. He also worked as Credit and Investment Manager at the Arab Palestinian Investment Bank, managing a loan portfolio of $ 3 million given to local private sector. In addition to that, he worked in several credit and finance intuitions in the West Bank and abroad.

Hassan Faried is a Microfinance training consultant and a pioneer in many fields. Mr. Faried has more than twenty years of work experience with projects funded by international developmental agencies. Mr. Faried entered the business world in 1990 to work as an entrepreneur. He worked in his native country Egypt and also in Canada, and after that, he took over managing Dakahlya Businessmen’s Association for Community Development as Executive Director and here was the start of an innovation and sheer business savvy. Mr. Faried served as a board member for the Microfinance Network of Arab Countries (SANABEL). He is currently a board member for the Egyptian Society for Association Executives (EgSAE) and a board member for the Egyptian Microfinance Network (EMN).

Mrs. Magdoud is currently the Treasurer of AMSSF, one of the leading MFIs in Morocco. She is also President of the Audit and Risk Committee in AMSSF/MC, a member of the GREIM (Groupe de Recherche Interdisciplinaire En Microfinance), and a member of FNAM (Fédération nationale des Asscociations de Microcrédit. Mrs. Magdoud is also a trainer for many associations in Morocco.

Mrs. Lassmann has 18 years of professional experience in banking sector and development work. In about 10 years work in corporate client business of a leading German commercial bank, Mrs. Lassmann gained extensive knowledge of financing facilities for small and medium enterprises (SME) in Germany. Joining KfW Entwicklungsbank in 2002, she worked as Financial Sector Expert first for projects in Asia (focus: China), then for projects in Middle East/ North Africa. Her expertise covers amongst others SME- and micro-finance, the set-up of funds (refinancing fund, credit guarantee funds) and equity investments of KfW in MFIs. In August 2008, Mrs. Lassmann took over the position of the Director of the newly established office of KfW in Damascus. In this position, she is also in charge of the KfW investment in First MicroFinance Institution Syria (FMFI-S).

Dr. Maurer is the Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Finance in Motion, an alternative asset management company based in Frankfurt/Germany. Finance in Motion is the investment advisor of the European Fund for Southeast Europe (EFSE), one of the world’s leading investment funds for micro and small enterprise finance. Dr. Maurer has 25 years of work experience in financial systems development in developing and transition countries, with particular focus on rural and microfinance. He has been instrumental in developing and building the European Fund for Southeast Europe (EFSE) as a flagship fund, initially as a Senior Advisor (1998-2004) and later as Chief Investment Officer (2005-2008). Most of his professional career he worked as an independent consultant and trainer in 35 countries for multilateral and bilateral development organizations such as ADB, IFAD, World Bank, CGAP, KfW, GTZ, SDC, Sida and others, primarily in Asia and Eastern Europe. From 1986 to 1988 he was a project manager at KfW Development Bank and from 1989 to 1991 served GTZ as microfinance advisor to the Central Bank of Indonesia. He holds a doctorate in Financial Economics from the Free University Berlin and a Master of Economics from the University of Regensburg. He currently also teaches microfinance at the University for Applied Sciences (FHTW) in Berlin, Germany.