Agata Szostek
Consultant
Agata has great experience in microfinance and has been working in the industry since 1994. Her expertise is based on 6 years grassroots’ experience as a member of the top management team of Fundusz Mikro (a Polish MFI, which recently transformed into a bank) and cooperation with the MFC (Microfinance Centre). Agata has been working in training and consulting for the past 13 years. Thanks to this she has a deep understanding of the microfinance industry and it’s specifics in the Western, Central and Eastern European region. Agata’s competencies and technical skills are focused on credit and operational risk, institutional capacity building, human resource management, strategic marketing, product development as well as strategic planning, social performance management and customer protection. Agata is on MFC’s Social Performance Management team.
David Alimbarashvili
Consultant
David is Credit risk management unit Head at Liberty Bank, Tbilisi Georgia, and Trainer / Consultant of the MFC. He is a credit and investment specialist with 10 years in micro and SME lending. David has spent the last 5 years in managerial positions with several Banking / financial institutions, where he has led credit rating assessments and appraisal of more than 1000 SME-s in the region; developing methodologies, standards and procedures for credit appraisal and credit risk management for Banks, MFI-s and wholesale lending institutions in South Caucasus. Currently he is coordinating the MFC local team in Caucasus implementing the financial literacy project. David has a Masters degree in Economics (From Tbilisi state university).
Margarita Lalayan
Consultant
Margarita Lalayan has 10 years of experience with microfinance and social finance. She works with Microfinance Center for CEE and NIS (the MFC) for five years as a Trainer and Consultant, and is serving as a Technical Advisor for MFC’s Financial Education Program in the region, as well as is involved in number of other activities, including social performance, responsible finance, MFIs capacity building. She conducted various capacity building and research assignments in many countries of the Central/Eastern Europe and NIS . Margarita holds an MA in economics.
Piotr Koryński
Consultant
Piotr is an international development expert with 20 years practical experience in designing and implementing various economic programs in Central Europe, Asia and Latin America. Most recently, he led the economic development activities of the Open Society Institute in New York (funded by George Soros). In addition, he has served on boards of several non-profit organizations worldwide. Piotr focuses on microfinance policies and access to finance, small business development and entrepreneurship. Piotr holds advanced degrees in Business and Economics from the Ohio State University and the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.
Volodymyr Tounitsky
Consultant
Volodymyr has more than 10 years experience in microfinance, 7 of which as a trainer and consultant. He joined the MFC SPM Team at its inception and contributed to the development and testing of practical solutions helping MFIs to successfully address the issues of mission-led strategic planning and its operational implementation. Over the last 2-3 years, he has delivered social performance management training courses to a number of MFIs and networks, made presentations and moderated social-performance related panels and workshops at industry conferences. In terms of practical application and testing, he has supported several leading MFIs in the CEE and NIS region and beyond in the development and implementation of mission-led strategies focused on the achievement of both social and financial results.
Elena Amerova
Consultant
Elena has over 13 years of experience in implementing technical assistance in developing the financial market, particularly MFIs and banks. She also has experience in more than 15 technical assistance projects funded by EBRD, USAID, TACIS, IFC, CIDA; experience in conducting training courses and seminars to MFIs, SMEs, entrepreneurs, credit unions and banks on strategic development, Human Resources development, institutional building, lending methodology, organisational management, product development, sales, management and mortgage lending methodology. Elena has developed training courses for low-income population, conducted Training Of Trainers for MFIs, bank and NGOs on client’s financial literacy. She develops and leads the Advanced Training and Certification Program for Managing staff of Credit Unions.
