Andrew Thornton is a software engineer working at the United Nations.  After spending about eight years working in the investment banking field, where he specialized in developing risk management and electronic trading systems, Andrew returned to university to study International Affairs.  During his studies, he worked on several microfinance projects and wrote his thesis on the appropriateness of microcredit in alleviating poverty for the poorest of the poor.  Andrew holds master's degrees in Software Engineering and International Affairs.  As well as being the technology co-chair for the Microfinance Club of New York, he holds two other voluntary positions as the technology director for The Mantle and architect and developer of Professor Richard D. Wolff's website.

Clara Lipson has 20+ years experience in financial services, international development and nonprofit management. Following a career in corporate banking, Clara worked on financial sector reform in Central and Eastern Europe, as well as microenterprise development in Nepal and Mongolia, and designed a microloan program in Malawi. She has worked at USAID and UNDP. More recently Clara has been consulting to community development organizations in the NY area and currently sits on the Advisory Board of Pro Mujer and on the Steering Committee of WAM-NY. Through her work and travels, Clara has experienced the dire living conditions of the world's poor and is passionate about microfinance as a means of offering critical support to these populations in order to survive and thrive.

Irena Shiba is the Program Officer for Microfinance and Enterprise Development at the Citi Foundation where she is responsible for making and managing philanthropic investments in 89 countries where Citi operates. The Citi Foundation’s Microfinance and Enterprise Development portfolios are comprised of investments that drive consumer financial product innovation while supporting small businesses that create jobs and enhance incomes. She also directs the Citi Microentrepreneurship Awards, Citi’s signature $2 million program that recognizes the extraordinary contributions that microentrepreneurs have made to the economic sustainability of their families as well as their communities in 28 countries.
Prior to joining Citi, Irena worked at Senator Hillary Clinton’s office on immigration affairs and at the New York City Council representing constituent interests at City Hall. Most recently, she worked on the International Year of Microcredit, an effort of the United Nations to promote more inclusive financial sectors around the globe.

Linda Sama is Professor of Management and Associate Dean for Global Initiatives at The Peter J. Tobin College of Business, St. John’s University, where she developed and launched the student-managed Global Microloan Program (GLOBE) and serves as the program’s Director.  GLOBE, housed in the academic business curriculum, provides loans to the poorest of the poor in developing world communities while educating students here in NYC about the world of microfinance and its impact on poverty alleviation. 

Linda received her Ph.D. in Strategic Management from CUNY and an MBA in International Finance from McGill University. Her doctoral dissertation addressing the twin impact of governance and strategic slack on corporate social response strategies earned her the Lasdon Dissertation Award.  Linda made a transition to academe after a lengthy career in industry, acting as Director of Market Planning at an international subsidiary of Transamerica Corporation.  She teaches primarily in the areas of International Business, Strategic Management and Business Ethics. Linda has published over 50 articles, proceedings papers and book chapters that address issues of business and the natural environment, CSR, integrative social contracts theory, and global business ethics dilemmas in the new economy. 

Mary Rose Brusewitz concentrates her practice on Latin American transactions - most recently in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Nicaragua, Perú and Venezuela - as well as Spain and Portugal. Ms. Brusewitz represents major Latin American companies as well as U.S., European, and Asian entities doing business in Latin America and elsewhere. Because of her years of experience in the Latin American region, she has developed invaluable expertise in issues such as evaluating convertibility tax regimes, legal and regulatory systems and economic and cultural elements relevant to transactions.

Mary Rose Brusewitz is active in microfinancing. She regularly represents microfinance investment vehicles ("MIVs") in activities including obtaining financing for their activities in lending to microfinance institutions ("MFIs"), both regulated and unregulated. This work includes structuring and forming MIVs as funds, structuring and documenting securitizations to raise financing, preparing and negotiating financing documents involving commercial and governmental/multilateral funding sources and securities issuances, assisting MIVs in connection with diligence activities by investors and rating processes, as well as other activities. She supports MIVs in constructing appropriate strategies create and maintain responsible legal, compliance and other standards, while not overburdening both MIVs and MFIs administratively and financially with compliance responsibilities. Ms. Brusewitz assists MIVs with establishing and managing their relationships with investors and MFIs. She is active in assisting them with due diligence processes, the preparation, negotiation, implementation, administration and monitoring of loan documentation and with managing and protecting their interests in stressed situations. Ms. Brusewitz has represented individual lenders and investors and groups of investors in workouts, restructurings, renegotiations and recapitalizations of both regulated and unregulated MFIs. She has deep experience working with lenders and borrowers/debtors to create effective strategies to maximize legal and practical rights and protections. In stressed situations, workouts and other similar circumstances, she negotiates, structures and prepares standstill, intercreditor, debt restructuring, debt conversion and other consensual documentation involving complex groups of stakeholders, often with very different philosophies, ranging from relatively philanthropic to more profit-oriented. She is skilled at creating and managing transparent and constructive communications processes with constituencies with varying interests and liaising effectively with other legal counsel in stressed situations. She is also very experienced at managing insolvencies, foreclosures and other similar proceedings in multiple jurisdictions. She is principal outside legal counsel to MFX, a US-based business with a unique structure and constituency of investors that provides affordable hedging products to players in the microfinance world. She represented them in their formation and capitalization, as well. Ms. Brusewitz has been active in projects evaluating legal schemes applicable to the microfinance industry throughout the world. Ms. Brusewitz is active in IAMFI and regularly speaks and writes about microfinancing and related topics at conferences and meetings in the US and elsewhere, including at the Microfinance Club of New York. Currently, she is active in the IAMFI default project.

Mary Rose Brusewitz regularly works in the area of renewable energy and assists clients in registering, selling or otherwise monetizing carbon credits. She works together with environmental and other partners at the firm in this rapidly-changing area, in order to optimize the prices received for credits, to determine the best structure and market in which to sell carbon credits, and to retain consultants to help with the strategy to verify and certify or register credits. She has been helping a client with a wind farm in a Central American country to negotiate a Voluntary Emissions Reductions Purchase Agreement for the sale of Verified Emissions Reductions (VERs) expected to be generated by the project. She has been working for a number of years with consulting firms on projects involving Certified Emissions Reductions ("CERs") from projects in countries such as India and Trinidad and Tobago.

Molly Ornati has worked for ten years at Trickle Up, most recently as the Director of the Central America program.  Trickle Up is an international NGO that uses seed capital, business training and savings and credit groups to empower rural women to make sustainable progress out of extreme poverty.  While at TU Molly selected, trained and managed partnerships with more than 30 NGOs in 5 countries, established the branch office TU Guatemala and led cross-regional work on Savings.  Molly holds an MA in International Relations and an MA in Cinema Studies from NYU.  Her work in international development was preceded by 8 years of producing and directing documentary films for public television.

Shamsudeen Mustafa works as the Program Director at Seedco Financial Services. Seedco Financial Services is a national Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) that seeks to foster economic development in economically-underserved communities by providing affordable capital and hands-on technical assistance to small businesses, nonprofit organizations and CDFIs. Sham has practiced criminal law in India and has also interned at Grameen Bank, Dhaka, Bangladesh. He holds a BA and an LLB from University of Madras, India and an MPA from the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University.

William Finkelstein is an Associate in Bank of America Merrill Lynch's Consumer & Retail investment banking group. He previously was a Portfolio Research Associate at HIP Investor. William's microfinance experience includes internships at the United Nations Capital Development Fund and Grameen Bank. He is interested in microinsurance and increasing access to capital markets for microfinance institutions. William holds an MBA from the NYU Stern School of Business and a B.A. from the George Washington University Elliott School of International Affairs.