Dr. Carter Garber, an international microfinance consultant, has 29 years of experience in economic development on three continents. Carter is the Executive Director of IDEAS (Institute for Development, Evaluation, Assistance & Solutions), an NGO with an international team of microfinance and development consultants. In addition to market research and impact evaluation, Carter and the team consult in private investment in microfinance institutions in developing countries and microfinance institutional development and evaluation.

Carter has served as the lead trainer and consultant for AIMS (Assessing the Impact of Microenterprise Services) in Latin America, Asia, Africa and North America. He has authored many materials and is the Associate Editor of the AIMS-SEEP Network manual on impact evaluation, called Learning from Clients: Assessment Tools for Microfinance Practitioners. Carter earned his Ph.D. in Economics. He is a member of the SEEP Client Impact Working Group and has taught and presented at the SEEP Network annual meetings during the last few years.

Carter Garber is a Certified Service Provider for MicroSave-Africa. He has used the tools to conduct market research in Uganda, El Salvador and Columbia. He co-facilitated the course for SEEP Network members with MicroSave’s director, Graham Wright. He is facilitating the field work of practitioners in Latin America and the Caribbean.

As part of the process of getting certified from MicroSave-Africa, Mr. Muñoz designed and implemented with Dr. Carter Garber, a marketing research investigation for ENLACE in El Salvador. The research applied the MicroSave-Africa market research tools and focused on the perspective of village banking and solidarity group clients served by microfinance institutions in four branches in the country. Mr. Muñoz holds a degree in Business Administration from the University of El Salvador.

Brian Cayce is a micro-finance consultant with experience in providing training and technical assistance in the industry through his experience in Asia, Africa and Eastern Europe with CARE International. He has experience working in the developmental sector focusing on financial planning, small-business development and management, project management and program technical support and NGO management. His experience with CARE incorporates exposure to the financial accounting systems and generally accepted regulations and practices applicable for micro-finance institutions throughout the developing world.

Mr. Cayce previously worked for CARE International, based both oversees and in its domestic office, and worked his way from financial software implementation manager and trainer to Assistant Mission Director for CARE’s offices in Kosovo and Macedonia. Prior to that Mr. Cayce worked with KPMG LLP, focusing in the areas of business valuation, litigation support and forensic accounting, including vast experience with data management and analysis. He holds a Master’s of Business Administration degree in Finance from Georgia State University (Robinson).

Marty Collier is a North American adult educator with a Masters Degree in Adult Education from St. Francis Xavier University, Antigonish, Canada. She has worked to promote economic empowerment in various impoverished communities from the Southern region of the United States and in Central America. Marty has considerable administrative and community organizing experience, having worked as the director for several non-profit organizations and projects.

From 1986 through 2001, Marty lived and worked extensively in Nicaragua and El Salvador, during which time she primarily organized, hosted, and led delegations of United States citizens in their endeavors to support development projects in Latin America. These projects have included strengthening neighborhood organizations, women’s income generating projects, coffee cooperatives, as well as small business development and training.

Fluent in the Spanish language, Marty currently resides in the Atlanta area. She is the current Administrator of the Georgia Office of IDEAS. Also, Marty serves as the Treasurer of IDEAS.

Dr. Puneetha Palakurthi, an Indian national, facilitated the qualitative tools in an AIMS-SEEP impact evaluation process in India for SHARE Microfin Ltd. She co-teaches “Impact Assessment of Micro-finance Institutions: Using AIMS Tools” in Microenterprise Development Institute at Southern New Hampshire University each June (www.mdi-nh.org). She received her Ph.D. at Andhra Pradesh Agriculture University, India.

Puneetha is currently a visiting faculty member at the School of Community Economic Development, Southern New Hampshire University teaching graduate level Research and Evaluation courses. She is working as a Research Coordinator at the Youth Employment Summit. She is a board member of the Institute for Development, Evaluation, Assistance and Solutions (IDEAS). She is a member of the Client Impact Working Group of the SEEP Network.

She has evaluated several development projects in India for CAPART, Government of India. As an Assistant Professor in Andhra Pradesh Agriculture University, she had extensive experience in training and instructing courses in India for extension officers involved in rural development. She specializes in teaching participatory rural appraisal and project management.

Ms. Torres has extensive experience in Organization and Community Development, and gained from personal experience the difficult situation in which rural populations face in Central America. From her youth, Ms. Torres has shared the life of those living in marginal communities. Her personal and professional goal has been to acquire technical tools to contribute to the transformation of Central America’s reality. Ms. Torres Lopez has assisted the Nicaraguan Network of Community Marketing with training sessions to the consolidation the organization and the development of community business.

In 1998 Ms. Torres worked as General Administrator with the Red COMAL, the Network of Alternative Community-based Marketing Businesses in Honduras. In 2002, she was promoted to Manager of Operations and oversaw five programs: Training, Marketing Information, Farm Products, Basic Market Basket of Goods and Institutional Strength. In addition to these programs, Imelda assisted the General Manager in revision and definition of policy; administration of funds from eleven sources; administration of members of Comal, presentation and analysis of financial updates to the decision- and policy-makers of the Comal Network.

From 1994-1997, Ms. Torres Lopez worked as Administrative Director of the Agro-Industrial Business Horsch Frutas y Vegetals, S.A., in the areas of Administration, Exports and Imports. From 1990-1994, Ms. Torres Lopez was Assistant of the Area for Economic Development and Agro-Forestry for CEPAD. Imelda assisted Carter in the establishment of the Nicaraguan MFI, PRESTANIC. Before that time, she gained financial experience with the United Methodist Church tracking funding to their economic projects.

Currently, as the Administrator of the subregional office of IDEAS in Managua, she markets IDEAS training and consulting services in Nicaragua, Honduras, Costa Rica, and Panama. In 2003, she was a co-trainer with IDEAS team in a regional training in Chimaltenango, Guatemala and also for two national trainings in Nicaragua for members of the ASOMIF network and one for Executive Directors of MFIs.

Raquel Argumedo, a Salvadoran living in Costa Rica, is a Public Relations and Communications Specialist by profession who has worked with NGOs dedicated to microfinance with a special emphasis on rural cooperatives. She has experience with organizing and follow-up of training events, as well as strengthening collaborative relationships between institutions.

Currently, Raquel currently is enjoying scholarship through Organization of Latin American States (OAS), completing a major in Gender Studies for a regional Masters Degree in Women’s Studies at the University of Costa Rica (UNA). Her investigation and thesis are directed under the theme of Women and Development.

Gabriel Gaitán Argeñal, Nicaraguan, is on the Board of Directors of IDEAS. He studied Banking and Finance at the Baptist Polytechnic University of Nicaragua, along with courses in the specialization of inversion projects. Mr. Gaitán has a Master’s in Business Administration through the Commercial Exterior Program of the National Autonomous University of Nicaragua. He has taken a series of courses related to urban and rural development as well as microfinance.

Mr. Gaitán has had extensive experience in the field of development. He worked in the Evangelical Committee for Development Assistance (CEPAD), holding different positions such as: Director of Rural Development, Financial Director, and Economic Development Director. In each of his roles he developed projects dealing with international donors. In 1991, he participated in the formation of a Nicaraguan MFI, PRESTANIC, along with Dr. Carter Garber. Using loans from socially responsible investors in the US and Europe for the first time in Nicaragua, this much success and is one of the primary projects that united Northern and Southern efforts for the benefit of poor rural entrepreneurs.

From 1995 to present, Mr. Gaitán has worked with Catholic Relief Services (CRS) in the area of Microfinance, first in Nicaragua and now in El Salvador as part of the international staff of this organization. In this stage he has participated in more than ten evaluation processes in different Latin American countries where CRS has microfinance programs. In this institution,
Mr. Gaitán has held important roles such as Chair of the Business Development Commission of Latin America and the Carribbean (1996-1998) as well as Mentor for the CRS Ecuadorian program from June 2000. In 1999 he was chosen and named “the Best Worker of Latin American and the Carribbean” by CRS.

Nelly Moreno Shenk, a Salvadoran living in the US, is an economist with a Master’s Degree in Business Administration. She has worked approximately 15 years in the area of economic development in El Salvador. Her areas of strength are program and project management, project evaluation and development, and strategic planning.

Throughout her working career, Ms. Moreno has assisted in strategic planning processes with various non-profit organizations. Through this work experience, she has completed assessments in project formulation, as well as long and short term strategic plans. In the development field, Ms. Moreno has extensive project evaluation skills with the assistance of the Logical Framework system. She also has experience with analysis tools, such as SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats), which she has used in various strategic planning processes.

From 1998 to 2000, Ms. Moreno managed a Credit Bureau, called INFORED, organized by 7 non-traditional financial institutions in El Salvador that was funded by USAID and originally managed by Catholic Relief Services. Nelly managed the transition of the credit bureau from a non-profit project to a for-profit enterprise. The goal of the credit bureau is to exchange debtor credit information among microfinance organizations.

Ms. Moreno participated in the supervision of an Impact Evaluation System. This system evaluated the impact of the credit programs implemented by 5 microfinance organizations in El Salvador within the Microenterprise Innovation Project (MIP).

Rosa Amanda Vargas, Nicaraguan, is an independent consultant who has worked for IDEAS in both Nicaragua and Honduras. She has a BA in Banking and Finance and has taught in the same field in the Polytechnical University in Nicaragua (UPOLI). She also is a bookkeeper and has served with many non-profit organizations in that capacity.

Rosa Amanda was a loan analyst during the 1990s for PRESTANIC, a microfinance institution, which borrows from socially responsible investors in the North and then lends to rural microentrepreneurs and companies in Nicaragua. While there, Rosa Amanda handled both urban and rural loans, using individual and group methodologies.

Flor Loucel, a Salvadoran, has a Bachelor in Computer Science from Central American University “Jose Simeón Cañas” in San Salvador. She has worked as a computer technical support provider for Technoserve, Catholic Relief Services and Confia. In addition, she was computer technical assistant for the Women Development Network, based in Costa Rica.

Milton Arguello , Nicaraguan, is an independent consultant. He has a Bachelor in Biology from Denison University and an MBA from INCAE in Nicaragua. Milton Arguello was member of the Peace Comission and participated in mediation agreements in the armed conflict between the government of Nicaragua and the organizations of indigenous rebels YATAMA.

He has worked for Xerox in Guatemala, Costa Rica, and Nicaragua. Milton Arguello was Human Resources Manager for Xerox in Costa Rica where he developed a new managerial team and improved the operational processes that the affiliate lacked.

Currently, Milton Arguello is Consultant of Organizational Development working on operational and human resources processes. He works in the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Panama and Nicaragua.

He has worked for IDEAS in Honduras and Nicaragua in the evaluation of microfinance institutions. He has helped other team members of IDEAS to adapt the Baldrige tool for use with MFIs. He has done a presentation about the adjustment of that tool with Carter Garber in a workshop in the Annual Meeting of the SEEP network in October of 2001.

Katia Rioja, a Bolivian living in the US, recently has completed a Master of Arts in Economics from Georgia State University. She also has a Bachelor in Business Administration from the Bolivian Catholic University. She has worked for the Department of Economics at Georgia State University. She did surveys and research in marketing for a cable TV provider in her country.

She assists the IDEAS office in the US in translation and research.