Team

AFI is managed by a small, international team in Bangkok.

Executive Director's Office and Administration >
Policy and Grant Management >
Network and Outreach >
Associates >

Executive Director's Office and Administration

Alfred Hannig, Executive Director alfred.hannig@afi-global.org Alfred, a German national, has been developing the AFI approach and preparing the project for the past three years. He was the Director of GTZ’s Sustainable Economic Development programs in Indonesia and served as the head of the Financial System Development Program in Uganda, a joint initiative by the Bank of Uganda and GTZ, co-funded by SIDA. He worked on microfinance regulatory and supervisory issues in Bolivia and was the head of GTZ’s Financial System Development Unit of the Planning and Development Department in Germany. He started his career at the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development working on financial sector policy issues. He also represented the Federal Republic of Germany at the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP) for several years.
Sung-Ah Lee, Lead Manager sungah.lee@afi-global.org Sung-Ah, a Korean national, worked at the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) in the Trade and Investment Division in Thailand. Her work focused on regional cooperation and enterprise development. Before moving to Thailand, she was a Marketing Communication Consultant at the International Trade Centre (ITC- UNCTAD/ WTO) in Switzerland, and a Communications officer at LG Card Co. Ltd., a financial company in South Korea.
Celina Lee, Monitoring & Evaluation Specialist celina.lee@afi-global.org Celina, a U.S. national, has managed and implemented programs that supported micro and small enterprise development and rural development throughout Latin America with the Peace Corps and with Aid to Artisans (a U.S.-based international NGO). She has also researched and assessed international poverty measures with UNDP and designed research tools and statistical models to assess the impact of health programs with the International Planned Parenthood Federation.
Nancy Widjaja, Project Manager nancy.widjaja@afi-global.org Nancy, an Indonesian national, spent about three years in the strategic management consulting industry with The Boston Consulting Group (BCG). Her experience includes strategy and implementation projects across Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, India, and the United Arab Emirates, encompassing Financial Services, Retail, Industrial Goods, and Public Sectors. Nancy’s experiences in financial inclusion projects while in BCG include managing the implementation of a pilot microfinance branch in rural Sumatra, Indonesia, and drafting a strategy plan for a nation-wide rollout of a new Indonesian microfinance bank.
Lara Gidvani, Knowledge Manager lara.gidvani@afi-global.org Lara, a Canadian national, spent two years as a Research Assistant at the Financial Access Initiative, a research consortium focused on finding answers to how financial sectors can meet the needs of poor households. She served as Co-President of the NYU Microfinance Initiative (NYUMI.) Lara began her career in financial inclusion as an Associate at Swadhaar FinServe (then FinAccess), an urban microfinance institution in Mumbai, India.
Carsten Demuth, Senior Financial Manager carsten.demuth@afi-global.org Carsten, a German national, was the Controller of the Division of German Public-Sector clients at GTZ in Berlin. Carsten has extensive experience in financial management, project management and administration. He was the advisor for project administration and was also a project manager in East-Timor, Ghana, Dem. Rep of Congo, Madagascar, Burkina Faso and Kenya for Deutsche Welthungerhilfe (DWHH). Prior to this, Carsten was a project administrator in Primary Public Health projects in Benin and Burkina Faso for Deutscher Entwicklungsdienst (DED).
Pruksa Krutphan, IT Specialist pruksa.krutphan@afi-global.org Pruksa, a Thai national, has worked in IT field for the past seven years, especially in the recruitment and hospitality industries. She is experienced in managing websites and maintaining and providing support for IT systems/networks, with additional skills in software project management and IT asset management. Formerly, Pruksa was the IT Manager in charge of online recruitment software, maintenance of IT systems and website, and recruitment for IT positions.
Benjamard Mittaree, Secretary benjamard.mittaree@afi-global.org Benjamard, a Thai national, was a Medical Doctor's Secretary and Training Coordinator at South East Asia Research Collaboration with Hawaii (SEARCH) in HIV/AIDS research and training. Prior to this, she was an Administrative Officer for Pact Thailand, a US based International NGO working on HIV/ AIDS for the Greater Mekong Region with funding from USAID. Her experience includes operation and administration, project administration, legal and financial matters. She was a temporary Office Assistant at World Food Program, UN and a Customer Relations at EF International Languages Services.
Surachada Kaewsritong, Secretary surachada.kaewsritong@afi-global.org Surachada, a Thai national, has over ten years of experience in secretaryship and retail business. She was the Regional Secretary at Kimberly-Clark for five years. Before that, she worked with the International Retail Business (e.g. Marks & Spencer, Tesco Lotus, Carrefour). Surachada started her career as an Import Executive with Barco representative office in Thailand.
Natchaleo Chomthoranin, Secretary natchaleo.chomthoranin@afi-global.org Natchaleo, a Thai national, started her career as an English teacher to undergraduates in the South of Thailand for 2 years and has worked in the food manufacturing and exportation industry for the past five years. Natchaleo’s experience includes production, administration, procurement and purchase matters. Previously, Natchaleo was also a personal assistant to the CEO of the Insurance Australia Group (IAG).

Policy and Grant Management

Crispin Bokea, Senior Policy Program Manager crispin.bokea@afi-global.org Crispin, a Kenyan national, was an Assistant Director at the Research Department of the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK), where he headed the Financial Stability and Financial Access Division. He has also worked as the Head of Microfinance, Bank Supervision Department at CBK, where he was responsible for developing the policy and regulatory framework for the microfinance sector. Crispin also chaired and provided leadership to FinAccess Kenya, a private-public partnership promoting greater financial access. Prior to joining CBK in 2004, he was the head of Corporate Strategy and Research at Kenya Airways for four years. He has also served as the Research Manager for the Africa Region of the International Center for Economic Growth.
Hayder Al-Bagdadi, Policy Grant Manager hayder.al-bagdadi@afi-global.org Hayder, a German national, spent eight years in GTZ working on financial system and private sector development issues. Directly before joining AFI, he was a Technical Advisor in GTZ’s Financial System Development (FSD) Unit of the Planning and Development Department in Germany, responsible for GTZ’s FSD programs in Asia. Prior to this, Hayder served as a Project Manager in private sector development programs in Indonesia and Bosnia& Herzegovina. He started his career in GTZ Headquarters in Germany, focusing on microfinance.

Network and Outreach

Alyson Slater, Director alyson.slater@afi-global.org Alyson, a Canadian national, spent nearly a decade in various international organizations working on business and sustainability issues. She was the Director of Strategy and Communications at the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) in Boston and Amsterdam (2001-2007), where she helped build one of the most prominent multi-stakeholder network-based organizations. Prior to joining GRI, she was a communications officer at the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) in Geneva (2000-2001). Most recently, Alyson has been providing consulting services to companies on corporate responsibility issues ranging from climate change to human rights, and to international organizations on strategy, network development, governance and fundraising.
Merle Wangerin, Policy Network Manager merle.wangerin@afi-global.org A German national, Merle worked on external relations and partnerships with the Joint United Nations Programme on AIDS (UNAIDS) and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) over the last seven years. During her assignment with UNAIDS, she also spent time coordinating the UN reform pilot project in Vietnam. Merle studied political sciences and European policy making at the London School of Economics and Sciences Po Paris. Her role in AFI is to manage its network of members and partners and contribute to building an active community on financial inclusion. Merle speaks German, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and basic Arabic.
Beth Magne-Watts, Communications Manager beth.watts@afi-global.org Beth, a British national, joined AFI from her role heading up the Communications, Advocacy and Networking unit at the Global Health Workforce Alliance (GHWA), World Health Organization. Prior to joining the WHO, Beth spent three years with UNAIDS, focusing on media, web content and production. Beth was also a web communications officer for the International Federation of the Red Cross. Beth started her career as a journalist for AlertNet (www.alertnet.org), a Reuters international humanitarian relief desk and website. As Communications Manager, Beth is responsible for coordinating AFI’s communications programme to increase public awareness of the organization, its members, and its work. Beth speaks English and French.

Associates

Our associates help us build relationships with policymakers, regionally and globally, as well as offer strategic advice and technical expertise, based on their extensive experience in the field of financial inclusion.

Eduardo Cabral Jimenez, Regional Associate (Africa and Asia) eduardo.jimenez@afi-global.org Eduardo, a Philippine national, has more than 15 years of experience in microfinance. After working for the Central Bank of the Philippines, he became the Executive Director (1994-1999) of Alliance of Philippine Partners in Enterprise Development (APPEND), the largest and oldest network of microfinance NGOs in the Philippines. Since then, he has been a microfinance consultant for World Bank, Asian Development Bank, UNDP and other bilateral organizations, including helping to craft standards and financial literacy programs for the Philippines’ microfinance sector.
Ernesto Aguirre, Associate ernesto.aguirre@afi-global.org Ernesto, a Colombian national, has 30 years of experience in senior central bank, banking regulation and microfinance roles. For the first 10 years of his career, he served as an advisor and later Assistant Vice-President to the Central Bank of Colombia before being appointed Superintendent of the Banks of Colombia, responsible for the regulation and supervisions of all financial institutions in the country. Later, he worked for a decade as a senior counselor to the IMF, helping to modernize banking and central bank legislation in more than 30 countries worldwide. For the last 10 years, he has served as program manager and advisor for the World Bank and as a senior consultant at CGAP.
Nimal Fernando, Associate nimal.fernando@afi-global.org Nimal Fernando, a national of Sri Lanka, is a former central banker who has over 35 years of development experience and was the Practice Leader for Microfinance at the Asian Development Bank (ADB) until his retirement in 2008. He was the founder and chief editor of ADB’s quarterly microfinance newsletter, Finance for the Poor, and main author of ADB’s Microfinance Development Strategy. He has extensive country experience in rural finance and microfinance development in Asia and the Pacific and worked with many central banks, other policy makers and a number of multilateral and bilateral organizations to develop financial services for the poor, low-income households and small and medium-enterprises. He has designed and conducted training programs and research in microfinance, financial inclusion and financial literacy and authored many papers and publications in these areas. He served as a member of the Executive Committee of the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP) for four years.
Dr. Nicola Jentzsch, Associate nicola.jentzsch@afi-global.org Nicola, a German national, has more than 10 years experience of research on the economics identification and privacy (regulation and competition in markets for personal information). In the past years, Nicola has served as adviser to the central banks and market regulators in several Asian and African countries, but also to the European Commission, World Bank and CGAP. She has been a research fellow at the Freie Universität Berlin, Yale University and DIW Berlin.
Yashwant Thorat, Regional Associate (Asia) yashwant.thorat@afi-global.org Yashwant, an Indian national, has more than 35 years of experience in senior public-bank and microfinance positions. For over three decades, he worked for the Reserve Bank of India, culminating as an Executive Director and including more than 10 years dedicated to cooperatives, rural credit and microfinance. More recently, he has been Managing Director and later Chairman of India’s National Bank of Rural and Agricultural Development (NABARD, 2004-7), Chairman of the Expert Groups on Credit Deposit Ratio and Investment Credit, and Chairman of the Micro Finance Development and Equity Fund.