The Silicon Valley Microfinance Network

The next Silicon Valley Microfinance Network meeting will be held on Monday, June 19th in Redwood City at Omidyar Network. Our speaker will be Maria Otero, President and CEO of ACCION International. Maria will discuss how to scale microfinance quickly and most effectively.

Going BIG on Getting Small:

Keys to Scaling Microfinance

ACCION took 20 years to reach its first million microfinance clients — but only three more years to reach the second million. Ms. Otero will discuss ACCION’s experience in developing commercially viable microfinance: the how, the why, challenges & implications for reaching global scale.

To register for the event, please click on the SVMN eVite here:

(more info below)

When: Monday, June 19th, 2006

6:00-6:30pm: Registration, Dinner & Networking
6:30-8:30pm: Speaker & Discussion
8:30-9:00pm: Networking & Wrapup

Where: auditorium on first floor below Omidyar Network offices

1991 Broadway
Redwood City, CA 94063
(directions here)

A brief bio for Ms. Otero is provided below:

María Otero is president and CEO of ACCION International, a leading global microfinance institution that seeks to open the financial systems in developing countries to reach the poor. ACCION provides technical assistance, equity investment and financial services to microfinance institutions around the world. These MFIs comprising the ACCION Network reached 1.9 million borrowers at the end of 2005, with an active loan portfolio of more than $1 billion. Ms. Otero first joined ACCION in 1986 as director of its lending program in Honduras, and became president in 2000. She also chairs the board of ACCION Investments, a US$20 million investment company for microfinance.

Ms. Otero is a leading voice on microfinance and is co-editor of The New World of Microfinance, published by Kumarian Press. She serves on the boards of directors of three regulated microfinance institutions in Latin America: Mibanco in Peru, BancoSol in Bolivia and Compartamos in Mexico. Ms. Otero also serves as the coordinator of the Council of Microfinance Equity Funds, which convenes 18 equity investment funds dedicated to microfinance. In 1994 she was appointed by President Clinton to serve as chair of the Board of Directors of the Inter-American Foundation, a position she held until January 2000. Since 1997, Ms. Otero has been an adjunct professor at the Johns Hopkins School for Advanced International Studies (SAIS).

Maria Otero has an MA in Literature from the University of Maryland and an MA in international relations from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). She was born and raised in La Paz, Bolivia, and resides in Washington, DC with her husband and three children.