Instructors
The Investment Readiness Training Course was taught by microfinance capital markets / investment experts from the Center for Financial Inclusion at ACCION International, EDA Rural Systems and the Mennonite Economic Development Associates (MEDA). Two instructors led each course.
Among others, instructors included the following:
- Bill Harrington, Senior Investment Advisor, MEDA
- Deborah Drake, Vice President, Center for Financial Inclusion at ACCION International
- Ragini Bajaj Chaudhary, Director Training, EDA Rural Systems
Bill Harrington
Senior Investment Advisor
Mennonite Economic Development Agency
Bill Harrington is a senior investment advisor for MEDA with specialties in capital-raising, investment and governance issues. He has almost twenty-five years of experience in business development including ten years of experience in developing economies. He has been responsible for the identification of investment candidates, due diligence evaluations prior to investment, and negotiation and satisfaction of investment terms and conditions. Since 2003, he has worked for Mennonite Economic Development Associates (MEDA). MEDA is a faith-based non-profit organization composed of Christian businesspeople who use their business experience to create jobs and improve living conditions for the poor in developing countries.
In this capacity, Mr. Harrington provides technical assistance and advisory services to microfinance institutions and small and medium sized enterprises in developing countries that are seeking to grow and need to raise outside capital to finance that growth. In addition to capital raising, his areas of interest include governance, transformation, and business planning.
During most of the 1990s, Mr. Harrington was executive vice president of a large non-profit organization in the US that helps advanced technology businesses to start and grow. In that position he had responsibility for five specialized investment funds with a portfolio of more than 200 companies. Together with staff and consultants, he reviewed more than 250 business plans, conducted approximately 200 due diligence reviews each year and provided technical assistance to many of the portfolio companies.
Mr. Harrington is also the founder and managing director of a consulting firm that provides assistance to emerging businesses in capital-raising, business planning, market analysis and general management. Among its clients are the InterAmerican Development Bank, the US Department of Energy, several NGOs in Latin America, and small technology companies.
Mr. Harrington has written papers published by the Microcredit Summit on foreign direct investment in microfinance. He has also written guidelines for the preparation of business plans for MFIs as well as case studies on investment attraction.
Mr. Harrington has a degree in mechanical engineering from Lafayette College and a master’s degree in city planning from the University of Pennsylvania. He has served as a judge of the Wharton Business Plan Competition for the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania since its inception.
Deborah Drake
Vice President
Center for Financial Inclusion at ACCION International
Deborah Drake has worked with ACCION International since 1990. She currently manages the Council of Microfinance Equity Funds (CMEF), a membership organization of private entities that make equity investments in microfinance institutions (MFIs) of the developing world and for which ACCION International serves as Council Coordinator. The Council spearheads the advancement of the field of equity investment in MFIs through research projects, publications and biannual meetings. For many years, she managed the Financial Management Unit, a specialized unit dedicated to gathering and analyzing data to improve financial transparency and establish international standards of financial performance for microfinance institutions, including the application of the ACCION CAMEL evaluation instrument.
Ms. Drake leads ACCION’s efforts in investment policy including the development and provision of investment readiness training and strategy to MFIs. She is the co-facilitator of the SEEP Working Group on Investment Readiness, which is comprised of major networks and industry participants involved in transformation, governance of and supply of capital to MFIs.
Ms. Drake is the co-editor of The Commercialization of Microfinance: Balancing Business and Development and the co-author of Alchemists for the Poor: NGOs as Financial Institutions. Her previous roles at ACCION have included Special Assistant to the President of ACCION International and a senior director in ACCION’s Capital Markets Department. Before joining ACCION International, Ms. Drake was a banking specialist in the Financial Policy and Systems Division of the World Bank and a commercial banker in Washington, DC. She is a board member of SEEP and a member of the advisory board of CARS, the assessment and rating system for U.S. community development financial institutions. Ms. Drake chairs the board of Root Capital; a Cambridge, MA- based non-profit which provides loan capital to support low-income communities whose business activities foster environmental conservation and grassroots economic development.
Ragini Bajaj Chaudhary
Director Training
EDA Rural Systems
Ragini Bajaj Chaudhary is the Director, Training at EDA Rural Systems. She is a post graduate from Institute of Rural Management, Anand (IRMA), India and is a member of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA), UK. Ragini has intensive experience of training module development, training delivery and CGAP TOTs in India, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Indonesia and Sri Lanka. Ragini is leads the EDA Training division and makes evolutionary changes and modifications to the training offerings.
Ragini has conceptualized and developed new training courses in – Management of Information Systems (MIS) for MFIs, supervision of MFIs, internal audit in MFIs and improving operating efficiencies in MFIs. She has also conceptualized and led the team to develop courses on factors affecting operating costs and its implications on interest rates for MFIs. As part of EDA consulting assignments, Ragini has managed a number of capacity building needs assessments for clients like Sa-Dhan, BASIX, Sewa Bharat and CARE.
She has expertise in training needs assessment, capacity and risk assessment of MFIs, financial and cost analysis. Ragini has led projects and assignments pertaining to Social Performance Management (SPM).
A professional career spanning over 8 years, Ragini has undertaken project co-ordination and project management roles in organizations like CARE and has also been academically attached with IRMA as a Teaching Associate.
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