Board of Directors
Lois Juliber, Chair of The MasterCard Foundation, is the retired Vice Chairman and Chief Operating Officer of Colgate-Palmolive. While at Colgate Ms. Juliber was instrumental in growing the company’s global business in Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East and in refocusing the company’s information technology, manufacturing, research and development, and new product capabilities. She has been recognized by Fortune Magazine, Business Week, the American Advertising Federation, among others for her corporate leadership. Ms. Juliber is a member of the Board of Directors of the DuPont Corporation, Goldman Sachs and Kraft, a Trustee Emerita of Wellesley College, and a member of the President’s Council at Olin College.
Phillip Clay served as the Chancellor of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 2001 until 2011. He held other leadership positions at MIT and has been a Professor of City Planning since 1976. Professor Clay is widely known for his work in U.S. housing policy and urban development. He is Chair of the Board of The Community Builders, Inc., the nation’s largest non-profit developer of affordable housing and a member on several foundation and non-profit boards. Professor Clay also brings experience in public higher education, having served as Chair of a community college board and is presently a member of the Board of Trustees of the University of North Carolina.
Jim Leech is the President and CEO of the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, where he oversees the management of the $110 billion in fund assets and the administration of pensions for 300,000 plan members in Ontario, Canada. During his distinguished career, Mr. Leech has gained recognition for his expertise and leadership in the private equity industry and as CEO of several public companies. Mr. Leech serves on the board of Toronto General and Western Hospital Foundation and was a founding Director of Right to Play International. He also chairs the Advisory Board of the Queen’s School of Business.
President Festus G. Mogae led the Republic of Botswana from 1998 to 2008. He is the Special Envoy of the United Nations Secretary-General on Climate Change. President Mogae previously was the Alternate Governor for Botswana at The International Monetary Fund, The World Bank and The African Development Bank. He is a recipient of the Ibrahim Prize for Achievement in African Leadership and a Trustee of the Rhodes Trust.
Don Morrison is the former Chief Operating Officer of Research In Motion (RIM). Prior to joining RIM, Mr. Morrison held a number of senior leadership positions in the international telecom sector. The Co-Founder of the Debbie and Donald H. Morrison Family Foundation, he is a committed philanthropist and member of the Dalai Lama Center for Ethics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the Advisory Board of the Mind and Life Institute, and the Board of the Mind and Life Institute in Canada.
Hutham Olayan is a senior executive and Director of The Olayan Group, a private, multinational organization that is both a diversified global investor and an operator of commercial and industrial businesses in Saudi Arabia and the Middle East. She is also President and CEO of Olayan America, the Group’s investment arm for the Western Hemisphere. Ms. Olayan serves on the boards of a number of not-for-profit organizations, including the American University of Beirut, Georgetown University, Peter G. Peterson Institute for International Economics, and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.
Paul Ostergard is the retired Chairman and CEO of the Citigroup Foundation, where he oversaw the Foundation’s global program in microfinance. He has also served as the President and CEO of the GE Foundation. Mr. Ostergard is currently an Emeritus Trustee of Case Western Reserve University. He has served on various non-profit and foundation boards including the Committee to Encourage Corporate Philanthropy, Junior Achievement International, University of Bridgeport board, and the Hispanic Scholarship Fund.
Marguerite Robinson has worked extensively in international development, with a specialty in large scale commercial microfinance. Advising governments, banks, microfinance organizations becoming regulated, donors, and others, she has carried out intensive fieldwork in developing countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, in rural and tribal areas and among the urban poor. Her writings include books on Sri Lanka and India, and Volumes I and II of The Microfinance Revolution (Volume III, on African microfinance and social and economic development, is in progress). Dr. Robinson is also a Member of the Board of Directors of the Boulder Institute of Microfinance.
Project Categories
Ugandan women meet with BRAC community organizer
BRAC’s “microfinance multiplied” model enables women to use their loans to increase their incomes and build assets while stimulating economic and social development in their community. At the center of this model are groups of women that meet weekly with a BRAC community organizer who makes loans and collects repayments. These groups are the primary distribution channel for technical assistance to their communities. For example, BRAC trains some women to become model farmers, who in turn teach good farming practices to other members of their village. Other group members are trained as health promoters who share their knowledge and sell their services in their community.
