Microfinance Staff & Consultants
Each member of MEDA’s microfinance team has extensive experience and expertise in various areas of microfinance.
STAFF AT HEADQUARTERS
Julie Redfern
Director, Microfinance Department
Julie Redfern has been with MEDA since 1996 and has served as the Director of the Microfinance (MF) Department since 2003. She leads a team of 7 staff in both North America and abroad, and has provided project management and consulting services to over 15 clients in 30 countries. She serves as a director on the Boards of Microvest, MiCrédito, and Sevis Finansye Fonkoze. Prior to joining MEDA, Ms. Redfern was a project manager for the SEEP Network, project manager for CARE in Lesotho, and served in the Peace Corps (Lesotho) as a small business advisor. She was also a branch manager of Tucson Federal Credit Union, prior to her international work. Ms. Redfern has an MBA, a BA in Economics and an Advanced Certificate in Credit Union Management.
Kim Pityn
Vice President, International Operations
Ms. Pityn serves as Vice-President of International Operations and the Director of Human Resources for MEDA. Ms. Pityn has over 20 years of experience in Management and Human Resources. She has worked for for-profit Human Resource Consulting Firm and the last 14 years in international economic dDevelopment. Ms. Pityn has been involved in designing, implementing and consulting on effective Human Resources and Management for MEDA’s programs and other Microfinance Institutions in Latin America and the Caribbean, Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe. She has taught/presented at such venues as the Boulder MFT, SAM in Kenya, the MF Centre in Poland, SEEP PLP in India and a host of other workshops. Ms. Pityn has an HBA from the University of Western Ontario’s Business School, a diploma in Adult Education from St. Francis Xavier, a certificate in Human Resource Management and is a member of the Ontario Human Resource Association. She currently serves as a member of the Board of Directors for CAPA, an MFI in Romania.
Ruth Dueck Mbeba
Senior Consultant/Project Manager
Ms. Dueck-Mbeba is a seasoned professional accountant with over 20 years of experience. She lived and worked in Tanzania for 8 years, serving as a Finance and Training Specialist with MEDA and is now Senior Consultant with MEDA Microfinance. Ms. Dueck-Mbeba has extensive experience building capacity at all levels of a microcredit organization. She has demonstrated success in the development and installation of appropriate microfinance loan portfolio management systems, accounting systems and controls, impact and performance monitoring tools, and reporting structures. In addition, she has considerable experience in the design and delivery of microfinance training workshops. Ms. Dueck-Mbeba is a Certified General Accountant and holds a certificate in Adult Education.
Bill Harrington
Senior Consultant/Project Manager
Bill Harrington is a Senior Microfinance Consultant with specialties in
capital-raising and governance issues. He has more than twenty years of
experience in business development, the last fifteen years involving
investments in companies with significant growth potential. Mr.
Harrington has experience in starting and growing advanced technology
businesses, assisting emerging businesses in capital-raising, business
planning, market analysis and general management, and in community
development. He has a degree in mechanical engineering from Lafayette
College and a master’s degree in city planning from the University of
Pennsylvania.
Nicole Pasricha
Consultant/Project Leader
Ms. Pasricha is a Microfinance Consultant with five years of experience in microfinance operations, individual lending methodologies, and financial reporting and credit ratings. Prior to joining MEDA, Ms. Pasricha worked in credit operations at a leading microfinance bank in El Salvador, and performed financial sector research and project management duties at a multilateral consortium of donors working in microfinance. Her recent consultancy contracts have taken her to Tajikistan, Bangladesh and Vietnam. She holds a master's degree in International Affairs and a BA in Business Administration and Political Science, and is fluent in Spanish and French.
Jared Penner
Microfinance Coordinator
Mr. Penner is the Microfinance Coordinator for MEDA. He has experience in research and analysis, project design and management, conference facilitation, report writing and providing technical assistance to MFIs. Mr. Penner has developed an understanding of microfinance and development in Africa where he worked in Mozambique as a program coordinator for MEDA’s HIV/AIDS and Microfinance Project. His areas of specialty focus on the social cross cutting themes in microfinance, such as HIV/AIDS, gender and youth. Mr. Penner has a BA in Global Political Economy and an MA in Political Science and Development Studies.
Jennifer Denomy
Senior Consultant/Project ManagerJennifer Denomy has worked in education and international development for 16 years and joined MEDA in 2006, where she focuses on youth, education and microfinance. As manager of the PPIC-Work project, she supports non-formal education and workplace safety initiatives with working youth in Egypt. She brings considerable experience in qualitative research methodology, training and group facilitation. Prior to joining MEDA, Ms Denomy worked as the pedagogical manager of a training centre in Germany. She also developed and field tested a set of textbooks for BRAC’s Nonformal Primary Education Program in Bangladesh. Ms Denomy holds an M.Ed. in Comparative, International and Development Education from the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto (OISE/UT) and an MA from McGill University.
Pauline Achola
Manager, Technical Services
Ms. Achola has over nine years of experience in project design,
development and management in Africa, North America and Asia. Her areas
of specialty include monitoring and evaluation, gender, environment,
training and technical assistance. Ms. Achola holds an M.Sc. in
International Development Planning, a Postgraduate Certificate in
Integrated Regional Development Planning and a Bachelors degree in
Rural Sociology and Arabic. Ms. Achola speaks fluent Kiswahili and
basic Arabic.
Jennifer Helmuth
Manager of Human Resources
Jennifer Helmuth currently serves as the Manager of Human Resources for MEDA. She has worked with MEDA for over 10 years, with a concentration on Human Resources for the past seven years. In addition to the daily management of MEDA’s HR policies, practices and initiatives, Ms. Helmuth has also provided technical assistance and training in various HR functions in Haiti, Poland, Tanzania, and Afghanistan. A graduate of Psychology and Personnel Studies from the University of Waterloo, Ms. Helmuth holds a certificate in Human Resource Management and is a member of the Ontario Human Resource Professional Association.
INTERNATIONAL STAFF
Octavio CortesNicaragua Country Manager
Mr. Cortés holds a Masters in Public Administration (MPA) and a Bank Management Diploma. He has been MEDA’s country manager since 1997, overseeing the development of the different programs in the country. He was involved directly in supervising
Chispa and in participating in its merger with other equity partners in order to establish the regulated financial institution called
CONFIA. He was instrumental in the establishment of
MiCrédito in 2004.
Melanie Newman
MEDA Microfinance Project Manager, MEDA Tanzania
Ms. Newman has extensive experience in microfinance institutional development. She is committed to local capacity building and often works in a combined role as manager, trainer and technical advisor to transfer her skills and knowledge in developing governance and management, financial and operational systems, monitoring and evaluation tools and products and services to promote best practices in microfinance. Her first grounding in microfinance came from four years of strategic and operational management of a growing microfinance institution in Albania. She has also worked in the design and implementation of various microfinance and microenterprise development studies, include microfinance feasibility assessments in Abkhazia, Ingushetia and Chechnya. In her current role with MEDA, Ms Newman focuses on designing and implementing projects that integrate microfinance into broader socio economic and poverty reduction programming, including rural microfinance services, HIV/AIDS mitigation, gender equity and Youth. She has an MA Hon degree in Russian and French and a Post-Graduate Diploma in Business Development.
Associate Consultants
MEDA has staff and local consultants based in our country offices in Mozambique, Peru and Tanzania. MEDA Microfinance also works with ten approved Associate Consultants.
