Microfinance Focus July 1, 2011: UK national, Rosalind Copisarow has been appointed as Managing Director of social investor and worldwide cooperative, Oikocredit. Copisarow will officially assume responsibilities from Tor G. Gull today.

Copisarow has 15 years of experience as blue chip investment banker, followed by 13 years of building up new microfinance institutions and a further three years heading social enterprises.

She founded Fundusz Mikro, the first microfinance institution in Poland in 1994. The organization went on to serve more than 35,000 clients and was valued at € 35 million and became financially sustainable in 1999. The following year she embraced a new challenge with Street UK - a UK-based microloan programme, now national and self-financing.

Copisarow has also held positions as senior Vice President of international microfinance organization ACCION, and then as Chief Executive of International Development Enterprises UK (IDE), a development organization that works to empower subsistence farmers.

Copisarow is a social entrepreneur as well, whose most recent venture, Constellation Communities, aims to enable slum residents to acquire their own home through a package of housing products and support services that include microfinance.

Oikocredit is a social investor and worldwide cooperative that promotes global justice by providing credit. Since 1975, Oikocredit has offered loans and investment capital to microfinance institutions, cooperatives, fair trade and other businesses. Today, Oikocredit has 863 project partners in more than 70 countries.