Obama nominates CGAP chief Littlefield to head OPIC

Microfinance Focus, Nov.23, 2009: US President Barack Obama nominated among others, Elizabeth Littlefield, CEO of the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP) as President of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) on Monday. This is the second instance of a person with microfinance background has been chosen by President Obama. Former ACCION International CEO Maria Otero was appointed the Under Secretary of State for Democracy and Global Affairs in August.
Others nominated include Harry K. Thomas, Jr., Ambassador to the Philippines and David Adelman, Ambassador to Singapore.
President Obama said, “These individuals will represent our nation well and work to fulfill the important goal of strengthening our relationships abroad. I look forward to working with them in the coming months and years.”

Elizabeth Littlefield is currently a Director of the World Bank and the CEO of the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP), a multi-donor organization created to help build a large scale permanent microfinance industry providing flexible, high-quality financial services on a sustainable basis to the poor.
Ms. Littlefield previously worked with JP Morgan, where she was the Managing Director in charge of JP Morgan’s Emerging Markets Capital Markets Division. As such, she oversaw JP Morgan’s capital markets business in Central, Eastern and Southern Europe, Central Asia, Middle East and Africa.
Apart from her career in investment banking, Ms. Littlefield also spent a year and a half providing guidance to several start-up microfinance institutions in West and Central Africa and in Pakistan. She has served on the executive board of some key organizations like Women’s World Banking, Profund, Africa International Financial Holding, the Mastercard Foundation, the Calvert Foundation, and E&Co.
Littlefield is a graduate of Brown University and also attended Ecole Nationale de Sciences Politiques in Paris.

Related Posts:

• Incofin, Grassroots honchos to speak at IQPC conference
• Experts call for microfinance client protection initiatives
• US to honour Microfinance pioneer Dr Muhammad Yunus with Freedom medal
• IFC investments increase by 58% in West and Central Africa
• Microfinance institutions incurring rising costs: MIX Report
• IFC to increase investment in Togo and Cote d’Ivoire
• The MIX`s microfinance website re-launches with MasterCard Foundation partnership
• OPIC Board Approves $125 MN Microfinance Fund for Latin America

© 2009, Microfinance News. All rights reserved. 2008-09