The Social Finance Programme Team

Craig Churchill,

Chief of the Social Finance Programme

Email: churchill@ilo.org

Craig Churchill has more than two decades of microfinance experience in both developed and developing countries. In his current position as the chief of the ILO's Social Finance Programme, he focuses on the potential of financial services and policies to achieve social objectives. He serves as the Chair of the Microinsurance Network, on the governing board of the Access to Insurance Initiative, and on the Faculty of the Boulder Institute of Microfinance.

Craig has authored and edited over 40 articles, papers, monographs and training manuals on various microfinance topics including microinsurance, customer loyalty, organizational development, governance, lending methodologies, regulation and supervision, and financial services for the poorest of the poor. He has a BA from Williams College and an MA from Clark University, both in Massachusetts.

Yoseph Aseffa,

Chief Project Advisor in Microinsurance (Addis Ababa)

Email: aseffa@ilo.org

Yoseph Aseffa has served for 24 years as the CEO of the African Insurance Organization (AIO) covering 42 African countries. He was instrumental in developing regional programs for insurance supervisory authorities, the insurance industry and training centres in Africa. He initiated the creation of the Association of African Insurance Supervisory Authorities, the African Reinsurance Forum, the African Regional Rating Scheme and the African Centre for Natural Catastrophe Risks. He has done insurance consulting with the World Bank, the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and UNCTAD. He has also served as a Director of QED Actuaries and Consultants, South Africa.

His responsibilities at the ILO focus on ILO's access to insurance for financial inclusion initiatives. Yoseph holds a BBA degree from Addis Ababa University and from Fellow Life Management Institute (FLMI), USA.

Speaks: Amharic, English and French

Séverine Deboos-David Technical Officer of the Social Finance Programme

Email: deboos@ilo.org

Séverine Deboos-David has been working for the ILO since 2001, and joined the Social Finance Programme 9 years ago, first in the ILO office for Central and Eastern Europe and since 2009 in the Head office in Geneva. She works on issues related to access to finance for workers and through trade-unions, youth financial inclusion, financial literacy and capability, migrant workers’ remittances, social performance for microfinance especially in industrialized countries.

She studied in France, USA and Russia and holds a French/Russian Master's degree in Political Science/ International Relations.

Speaks: French, English, Russian and Italian.

Nalina Ganapathi,

Senior Administrative Assistant to the Social Finance Programme

Email: ganapathi@ilo.org

Nalina Ganapathi has been working with Social Finance Programme since 2004. Prior to joining the ILO in 2000, she worked for the World Meteorological Organization and with the United Nations Office in Geneva for 10 years.

She holds an MBA in Human Resources and is currently pursuing PhD in Management.

Speaks: Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada, English and French.

Yousra Hamed,

Technical Officer of the Social Finance Programme

Email: hamed@ilo.org

Yousra Hamed has 12 years of experience in access to finance as a researcher and technical specialist. She works on access to finance for and through employer’s organisations, microfinance in post conflict / disaster settings, financial education, cooperatives, microfinance and occupational safety and health. She also acts as the coordinator of the Social Finance Network. Her research interests are related to issues of impact assessment, social performance, microfinance and decent work.

Before joining the ILO, Yousra was a Lecturer in the universities of Le Maine and Reims (France) teaching economics and finance. She also worked for many years as a consultant and researcher with NGOs and consultancy firms. She holds a Ph.D., an M.A. in Economics from Université Paris XII, and a B.A. in Financial Management from ISG-Tunis.

Speaks: Arabic, French, English and Spanish

Jeanna Holtz,

Chief Project Manager of the Microinsurance Innovation Facility

Email: holtz@ilo.org

Jeanna Holtz has an extensive background in health insurance and consulting. She recently worked for Allianz, based in Munich, leading a team of internal consultants to support Allianz health insurance businesses and initiatives worldwide. Prior to that, she worked for Aetna, a large US health insurer, to develop and manage medical provider networks, and to support health plan operations in the northwest United States. She has expertise in medical cost management, provider network development, business process improvement, and health insurance operations.

She holds an MBA from Northwestern University and a Bachelor of Science (BS) degree in Human Nutrition from Washington State University.
Speaks: English and German (basic)

Aida F. Lindmeier,

Programme Assistant to the Microinsurance Innovation Facility

Email: lindmeier@ilo.org

Aida Lindmeier, has a background in project management and public relations/information. She worked as a Project Specialist for USAID and a Press & Public Relations for the United Nations and the European Union in Kosovo.

She holds a Bachelor Degree in Journalism, a Graduate certificate in Peace Research and International Relations from the University of Oslo, Norway and a Master’s Degree in European Integration, Regionalism and Federalism from the University of Graz, Austria.
Speaks: English, German, Albanian, Serbo-Croat, Turkish, French (basic)

Michal Matul,

Senior Research Officer to the Microinsurance Innovation Facility

Email: matul@ilo.org

Michal Matul worked for the last 8 years for the Microfinance Centre (MFC) for Central and Eastern Europe and the New Independent States as a Financial Education Program manager. Michal has been involved in more than 20 action-research projects with microfinance practitioners in more than 10 countries in Eastern Europe, Central Asia and West Africa. His main areas of expertise include financial education, social performance, microinsurance, impact assessment, market research, marketing and product development.

He holds a PhD on Economics from the University of Warsaw, a MSc in Economics and Statistics from Warsaw School of Economics, and a postgraduate certificate (DEA) from Sciences Politiques (Paris) in Economic Demography in Developing Countries.
Speaks: English, French, Polish, and Russian (basic)

Alice Merry has worked in insurance and microinsurance with Lloyd's of London and MicroEnsure since 2010, after graduating with a degree in Classics. She has worked in international operations, communication and knowledge management.

Speaks: English and French

Caroline Phily,

Microinsurance Officer of the Microinsurance Innovation Facility

Email: phily@ilo.org

Caroline Phily has worked in both the private and the nonprofit insurance world. She is a certified actuary (ISFA diploma) and has worked for several years in private companies (in France and in Chile), especially in credit insurance topics, developing risk management and pricing tools.

She holds a Master’s degree in Development (Lyon II university) and has worked as a technical assistant for a community-based health insurance scheme in Cambodia for almost 2 years.
Speaks: French, Spanish and English

Pranav Prashad,

Microinsurance Officer of the Microinsurance Innovation Facility

Email: prashad@ilo.org

Pranav Prashad is a business manager with more than 21 years of experience across various sectors ranging from consumer products and telecom to insurance. Pranav has worked in organizations such as Heinz and Tata Tele Services and during his previous assignment with ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company was responsible for expanding the company's rural footprint and developing relevant products. He developed the organization’s micro insurance plans and implemented large programmes in index-based weather insurance and rural health.

He graduated with honours in Economics and holds a Master’s degree in Business Administration from Faculty of Management Studies, Delhi University, India
Speaks: English and Hindi

Patricia Richter,

Technical Officer of the Social Finance Programme

Email: richter@ilo.org

Patricia Richter has been working on financial inclusion for more than 10 years. Her expertise covers the areas of microfinance, risk management, social performance and impact, and decent work with a regional focus on
Africa and South-East Asia. She is also working on rural and SME finance
and how access to finance can improve climate change adaptation.

Before joining ILO in 2007, Patricia undertook research on financial system
development and microfinance with a regional focus on East Africa and
served on the Board of the Melton Foundation. Prior to that, she was an
advisor on economic development at a regional parliament in Germany.
Patricia holds a PhD in Economics and an M.A. in Intercultural
Management and Business Administration.
Speaks: German, English, and French

Miguel Solana has previously worked in Switzerland as a Senior Analyst for Symbiotics SA, in microfinance investment services, and as an Associate at Deutsche Bank in Mexico City and Dresdner Kleinwort in Frankfurt. He has also been involved in various community development programs in Mexico, as well as youth and HIV/AIDS related social projects.

He studied actuarial science at the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM) in Mexico City and holds an MBA from the business school WHU in Koblenz, Germany.
Speaks: Spanish, English, German, French and Portuguese

Jasmin Suministrado,

Knowledge Officer of the Microinsurance Innovation Facility

Email: suministrado@ilo.org

Jasmin Suministrado has over a decade of experience in Knowledge Management (KM). She has worked as a KM Specialist at CCLFI, a Philippine-based NGO specializing in knowledge-based development, where she acted as a project manager, trainer, consultant and facilitator for national-level agencies and local and international development organizations in Asia and Africa wanting to implement KM and organizational learning activities. She has designed and taught strategic KM at De La Salle University-Manila where she was an Assistant Professor. She has written more than 20 research papers on knowledge management and various development issues.

Jasmin holds a BSc in Business Economics from the University of the Philippines and an MBA from De La Salle University-Manila.
Speaks: Filipino/Tagalog, English and French (basic)

Judith Van Doorn,

Microfinance Expert to the Social Finance Programme (Addis Ababa)

Email: doorn@ilo.org

Judith Van Doorn has worked for more than 15 years in the area
of social finance. She worked for the ILO Caribbean Office, where she
was responsible for small enterprise and cooperative development, as well as a microfinance expert at the ILO Headquarters in Geneva and
the ILO Regional Office for Africa. Her main areas of expertise include
post-conflict microfinance, migrant worker remittances, financial
education and financial inclusion for workers and young people.

She holds a Master’s Degree in Business Economics at Maastricht University with a specialization in Development Economics at Wageningen
Agricultural University, the Netherlands.
Speaks: English, French, and Dutch

Mary Yang,

Capacity Building Officer of the Microinsurance Innovation Facility

Email: yang@ilo.org

Mary Yang practiced as an actuary and a global retirement benefits consultant at Towers Perrin for 10 years prior to joining the Facility. She is experienced in addressing international human resources (HR) issues and has carried out multi-country projects on a range of HR topics including benefits policy, design, valuation and risk management.

She is a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries in the US and holds an MBA from INSEAD (France) as well as a BS in actuarial science from the University of Illinois.
Speaks: Mandarin, Taiwanese, English and French