Board Members
Alana Aldag |
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Alana is president of Cabezon Investment Group. Prior to joining Cabezon in 2006, Alana was a director at Clarium Capital Management, LLC, a directional global macro fund, where she was responsible for the fund’s business development and due diligence processes. Before Clarium, she was a financial analyst with Bel Air Investment Advisors, a private wealth management firm, where she developed asset allocation and investment strategies for high net worth individuals and families. She began her career in Morgan Stanley’s corporate finance group. She consulted for the Bridge Foundation, Opportunity International’s partner in Bangalore, India, and currently serves as the chair of YAO – San Francisco.Alana formerly served on the board of directors and investment committee for Stanford Student Enterprises and on the steering committee for the Association of Women in Alternative Investing. Alana has a B.A. with honors in STS, with a focus in economic development, from Stanford University, and an M.A. in Philosophical and Systematic Theology from the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, Calif. |
Jeremy Carroll |
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Jeremy is senior vice president and co-founder of Print 4 Change. He is on a mission to change the world one project at a time. Print 4 Change is an engine built to deliver award-winning marketing projects while simultaneously bettering the lives of people living in extreme poverty. Print 4 Change donates 50% of its profits to fund projects focused on water, food, shelter, microfinance and education. Multiple times a year Print 4 Change travels abroad with clients and friends to introduce them to the people they serve and the projects they support through their everyday business.Print 4 Change is a committed supporter of Opportunity International and is excited to continue to support that work. Through Jeremy’s Opportunity Insight Trip to Colombia in 2010 and his continued involvement with the Minnesota-based members of the Board of Governors and YAO – Minneapolis, this partnership continues to flourish. Together with Opportunity, Print 4 Change intends to improve the world faster by empowering individuals in developing countries by supporting Trust Groups. Jeremy and his wife Krista live in Minneapolis, Minn., with their three children, Macy, Cole, and Izzy. |
Peter Deanovic |
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Peter is a vice president at CarVal Investors. As part of their North American real estate team, he manages equity investments in distressed commercial real estate within select United States markets. His responsibilities encompass all phases of the investment process, including acquisitions, financing, dispositions and the ongoing management of transactions. Peter also negotiates leases, loan documents and partnership agreements across a diverse group of asset types. In addition to equity investments, he has been actively involved in other strategic initiatives at the firm.Peter holds a B.B.A. in Real Estate and Urban Land Economics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In addition to serving on the YAO Board, Peter is the Minnesota representative for the Wisconsin Real Estate Alumni Association. Peter wants to leverage his skills and resources in a way that provides opportunity, not handouts. He was attracted to Opportunity International because of its innovative applications for eradicating poverty with leveraged outcomes: a small loan borrowed has a multiplied impact worth many times that amount, and that impact is made most effective through an innovative menu of services. Opportunity provides real opportunity and tools for success. |
Jason Duff |
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Jason Duff is an acclaimed speaker, real estate developer and award winning entrepreneur. Jason graduated from Ohio Northern University in 2005 and received a degree in Business Management from the Dicke College of Business. Jason is the founder & CEO of Community Storage & Properties, Ltd. and COMSTOR Outdoor, Ltd. He also serves in an executive capacity for several other businesses and nonprofit organizations. In 2005, Jason received the Global Student Entrepreneurship Social Impact Award. He conceived and executed the JUMP for Opportunity fundraising event in February 2011, engaging 30 young entrepreneurs and raising $100,000 for Opportunity International. He traveled on the first-ever YAO Insight trip to Tanzania in 2009 and he has enthusiastically supported the work of Opportunity International ever since. |
Katherine Haley |
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Katherine Haley lives in the Washington, D.C. area and serves as the Assistant to the Speaker for Policy for education, workforce and social policy issues. She is responsible for developing policy and coordinating strategies for Republican members of Congress and their staff on behalf of the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, John Boehner. Katherine previously worked in the offices of U.S. Representative Pete Hoekstra, and U.S. Senators Don Nickles and Kay Bailey Hutchison, as well as for the Senate Select Committee on Aging and the House Committee on Ways and Means Health Subcommittee. Katherine conducted clinical cancer research at the Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center at Georgetown University and was awarded a research fellowship at the Center for the Study of World Religions at Harvard Divinity School to examine faith and medicine. She earned a B.S. in Psychology and a certificate in Human Development from Duke University, and she has a master’s degree in Government from The Johns Hopkins University.
Katherine first learned about Opportunity International in 2003 after visiting the small businesses of several microfinance clients in Nairobi, Kenya, with her church. Seeing firsthand the powerful transformation microenterprise has on the marginalized, sick and impoverished was the perfect segue into learning about microfinance from the Opportunity CEO at the time. Katherine and her family subsequently joined Opportunity’s Board of Governors and went on a global Insight Trip to Rwanda in 2008. In 2010, Katherine teamed up with a fellow D.C. resident, Emily Egan, to launch YAO – DC. In 2012, Katherine joined the National YAO Board and looks forward to working with a dynamic team to promote Opportunity’s work and its story in order to eradicate poverty. |
Derek Handley |
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Derek is an entrepreneur and angel investor who co-founded The Hyperfactory and his brother Geoffrey in 2001. The company taught brands like Coca-Cola, Kraft and Intel how to use ideas and technology enabled by mobile devices to communicate and interact with their customers. In 2010, when it was bought by the Meredith Corporation, it was one of the largest specialists of its kind, listed by Entrepreneur Magazine as one of the Top 100 Brightest Ideas of 2010 and Brandweek’s 10 Biggest Ideas of 2008. Derek is a founding limited partner at New York mobile investment fund Eniac, and has backed a number of emerging start-ups. In 2011, Derek was named one of the “Silicon Alley 100,” as one of the most influential technology experts in New York. In past years, Derek has been named a New Zealand Herald Business Leader of the Year, Ernst & Young Young Entrepreneur of the Year, one of the 40 Most Influential People in New Zealand Telecommunications, the 2006 Price Waterhouse Young Leader of the Year, and one of the New Zealand National Business Review Top 60 Innovators of the Year. On the topics of the future of media and technology, Derek has contributed to a number of events and media publications, including The Wall Street Journal, AdAge, and Bloomberg.
Derek went on the first YAO Insight trip to Tanzania and Rwanda in 2009 and joined YAO because he was searching for truly scalable solutions to major global issues. He believes Opportunity is providing a model that, if replicated, will make a significant dent in global poverty. |
Shannon Leutheuser |
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Shannon is Of Counsel in the Private Funds Group at Kirkland & Ellis LLP in Chicago and concentrates her practice on the formation and operation of private equity funds. She previously served as Transaction Counsel at Guggenheim Partners, LLC, where she was responsible for coordinating a broad range of financial and commercial transactions. Shannon holds a J.D. from Washington University School of Law in St. Louis, and received a MAcc and B.S. in accountancy summa cum laude from the University of Missouri in Columbia. Shannon became involved with Opportunity International after traveling to Tanzania in 2009, where she was inspired by the power of microfinance to transform the lives of people living in poverty. She has been involved with YAO since its inception and was a founding chairperson of YAO – Chicago. |
Chris Manno |
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Chris is a purchasing manager at Johnson Controls Inc. (JCI) Automotive Experience division based in the Ann Arbor, Michigan area. JCI is a global Fortune 100 corporation that specializes in the automotive, battery, and building efficiency industries. From November 2007 to 2010, he was based in Shanghai, China, with strategic management and procurement responsibilities across Asia. Chris holds an M.B.A with a specialization in International Business from Walsh College of Business in Troy, Michigan, and has a B.A. in Business Management, with a minor in International Studies from Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. Chris was introduced to Opportunity International in 2007 and joined YAO’s first Insight Trip to Tanzania and Rwanda in the summer of 2009.At its core, Chris feels that Opportunity International identifies a need and reaches out a hand to give people the chance to be a success. Add in the passion and spirit of the clients and you have a recipe for life change–in most cases family legacy-changing stories. Chris feels we have all received some kind of helping hand along the way; now it is our turn to give back. YAO is Opportunity at its best—young professionals and entrepreneurs are made relevant today by using energy and passion to raise awareness for change. Opportunity is at the forefront of technology and equipped to continue as the global leaders in social entrepreneurship now and for generations to come. |
Liesel Pritzker Simmons |
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Liesel is vice president and director of program development for the IDP Foundation, Inc. The foundation’s keystone initiative, the IDP Rising Schools Program, is a unique partnership with Opportunity International, Sinapi Aba Trust and the Ministry of Education in Ghana to invest in schools as social businesses. Since its inception, the program has already empowered 120 existing, but very poor, private schools. After working for an MFI in Tanzania, Liesel co-founded the Young Ambassadors for Opportunity (YAO) in 2008. Under her leadership as board chair, the YAO network has grown to involve over 500 participants, and over 150 members, in the U.S., Canada, and the U.K. Liesel attended Columbia University where she studied African History. |
Brian Zakrocki |
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Brian is a vice president/private wealth advisor at Goldman Sachs, where he provides comprehensive wealth management solutions to high net-worth individuals and their families. Brian joined Goldman Sachs in New York in 2002 after working as a CPA for Arthur Andersen. Upon joining Goldman, Brian worked in the Finance Division with The Goldman Sachs Trust Company and subsequently joined the Investment Management Division in 2004 to work in the Portfolio Advisory Group. Brian has extensive international experience, having led the Portfolio Advisory Group’s growth initiatives in London and Hong Kong. He received his M.B.A. in Finance, with honors, from the Stern School of Business at New York University and graduated summa cum laude from Binghamton University in New York with a B.S. in Accounting. Brian supports YAO and Opportunity International due to the positive impact microfinance has on those living in poverty around the world. |
