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First Day with Vicki Escarra, Our New CEO
Watch our video with Opportunity‘s new CEO Vicki Escarra. Get to know Vicki and welcome her in comments below or on Facebook.
Tagged CEO, Ending Poverty, Facebook, Financial services, Ghana, Global Microfinance Operations, international staff, Investments, Meet Our Staff, Microfinance, Mission, Opportunity International, Opportunity-US, Oxford, Vicki Escarra, videos
Meet Our Staff: How World Travel Brought Me Home to YAO
For the past month, when people have asked me how I am doing, I have answered, “I’m living the dream!” As the new manager of Young Ambassadors for Opportunity, I spend my days interacting with smart, motivated, and fascinating individuals, travelling around the country strengthening communities of like-minded people in YAO chapters, and developing plans Read more…
Tagged Africa, chapters, Clients, Community, donor, El Salvador, Ending Poverty, Financial services, Global Poverty, Insight Trip, Insurance, Loans, Meet Our Staff, Mexico, Microfinance, Nicaragua, Opportunity International, Poverty, Rwanda, Savings, south america, Tanzania, Training, Travel, YAO, Young Ambassadors for Opportunity
Meet Our Staff: Starting a New Chapter with the Governors
In October 2011, I took a leap of faith leaving some amazing friends and the fast pace of New York City to come back to my sweet hometown of Chicago. I achieved wonderful things in my career, coordinating conferences for 150-2,500 people, special events, outings, and managing a state of the art conference center for Read more…
Tagged 10000 women initiative, Board of Governors, Conference, Director of Donor Experience, Empact, Ending Poverty, Entrepreneurs, Events, Goldman Sachs, International Visitor, Meet Our Staff, Opportunity International, Opportunity International Microfinance Conference, Opportunity Tanzania, The Opportunity Summit, Women, YAO, Young Ambassadors for Opportunity, young entrepreneurs
Meet Our Staff: Join the Online Conversation
My first real experience with microfinance was in a Rwandan hospital. It was a little over a year ago, and I was on a three-week educational trip to Rwanda. One of our first days there, my group and I were introduced to a Trust Group of about eight women, all of whom had been widowed, Read more…
Tagged Africa, Community, Ending Poverty, Facebook, Financial services, Global Poverty, Loans, Meet Our Staff, Microfinance, Online Community Specialist, Opportunity International, Pinterest, Poverty, Rwanda, Social Media, Trust Groups, Twitter, widows, Women
Meet Our Staff: 10 Questions with Lauren Hawley, New Board of Governors Manager
Lauren Hawley arrived at three weeks ago, taking the role of the manager of the program. She’ll be working to grow the community and coordinate Governor activities, support Governor events, and strengthen this group of highly committed Opportunity supporters and champions. Get to know our newest team member, Lauren… What did you do before you came here? I Read more…
Meet Our Staff: Our New Head of Education Finance, Nathan Byrd
This May, we welcomed Nathan Byrd as our new head of education finance. Based in Nairobi, Kenya, and reporting to Colin McCormack, managing director, Africa, Nathan will provide strategic direction and leadership for our education finance program, developing specialized financial tools for schools and families and forming strategic partnerships in the education sector. Nathan is currently Read more…
Tagged afghanistan, Africa, Banking on Education, Children, Colin McCormack, Education, Education finance, Financial services, Ghana, Global Microfinance Operations, India, Kenya, Loans, Malawi, Meet Our Staff, Microfinance, Nathan Byrd, Opportunity International, Rwanda, School fee loans, school tuition loans, Schools, Students, Uganda
Day 1 of My Live Below the Line Challenge for Opportunity
Living Below the Line – Day 1: Shopping from Ian Haisley on Vimeo. Today is the first day of my Live Below the Line challenge for Opportunity, where I eat and drink for $1.50 a day for five days. Live Below the Line is a campaign that raises awareness about the 1.4 billion people who live below Read more…
Meet Our Staff: A Closing Interview with AJ Renold as He Prepares to Leave Tanzania
AJ Renold, mountain trekker, pizza maker, kite surfer, manager of business development and donor relations for Opportunity International Tanzania, hails from Chicago, Ill. He joined Opportunity-US as an intern in their suburban Oak Brook headquarters in 2009. That summer, he helped plan and traveled on the first-ever Young Ambassadors Insight Trip to Tanzania. AJ quickly Read more…
Tagged Abbi Antablin, Africa, AJ Renold, Arusha, Blogging, Dar es Salaam, Financial services, Insight Trip, international staff, Meet Our Staff, MFI, Microfinance, Mount Kilimanjaro, Opportunity International, Opportunity Tanzania, Peter Olivier, Ross Nathan, Social Media, Swahili, Tanzania, YAO, Young Ambassadors for Opportunity
Meet Our Staff: Why Do I Believe in Opportunity?
In May of 2010, I attended a luncheon hosted by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs where Melanne Verveer, the first-ever U.S. ambassador-at-large for Global Women’s Issues, spoke to the significance of investing in women as a means to drive economic growth in the developing world. Equally as captivating as Ambassador Verveer’s remarks was being Read more…
Tagged Ally Lynch, Chicago Council on Global Affairs, Ending Poverty, Financial services, Global Poverty, Meet Our Staff, Melanne Verveer, MFI, Microfinance, Opportunity International, Opportunity-US, Poverty, Women, Women's Philanthropy
