The Future of Microfinance

Ira W. Lieberman, is the President and CEO of LIPAM International Inc. Lieberman advises governments, the private sector and international development agencies on issues affecting developing and emerging market countries. He established the Secretariat for the Consultative Group to Assist the Poorest at the World Bank, representing some 26 donor institutions and foundations with respect to best practice in microfinance. He has served on the boards of directors of a number of microfinance funds and institutions servicing Latin America and Africa. He has also published extensively on the sector. He is the author of In Good Times Prepare for Crisis: From the Great Depression to the Great Recession, Sovereign Debt Crises and Their Resolution.Paul DiLeo is the Managing Director of Grassroots Capital management, which manages investment funds that invest in microfinance institutions in Latin America and India. Prior to Grassroots, DiLeo, managed the first fund of funds in the microfinance industry. He has been on the boards of directors of several microfinance institutions.Todd A. Watkins, is Professor of Economics and Executive Director of the Martindale Center for the Study of Private Enterprise at Lehigh University. He is the author Introduction to Microfinance and co-editor of the book Moving Beyond Storytelling: Emerging Research in Microfinance. Watkins founded and directs Lehigh's Microfinance Program, and was a founding member of the advisory Faculty Council for Accion International's Center for Financial Inclusion, which seeks to promote innovation and growth of commercial microfinance worldwide.Anna Kanze is a Managing Director of Grassroots Capital Management PBC, where she supports the creation of impact investment funds in India and Latin America. She is also a board member of the Social Performance Task Force (SPTF) and a co-chair of the SPTF's Social Investor Working Group since 2017.