Author: Emily McLaughlin

Jonathan Waldroup

Emily McLaughlin Jonathan Waldroup - Kenya, Meet our Scouts, Summer-Fall 2012 1 Comment

Location: Nairobi, Kenya

Village Capital Partner: Growth Africa

Jonathan grew up in Atlanta and after receiving degrees in business and economics from the University of Georgia worked as a financial analyst for Kimberly-Clark Corp. for two years. This provided exposure to the business world and experience working through a wide range of business decisions. In 2011 he began a Master’s in International Affairs at American University in Washington, DC. He is very interested in international development, particularly education, water/sanitation, and social enterprise and hopes to work in these fields after graduating in 2013. He is married to his wife Ashley and enjoys reading, writing, cooking, and playing the piano.

Check out Jonathan’s blog.

John Lindquist

Emily McLaughlin John Lindquist - China, Meet our Scouts, Summer-Fall 2012 0 Comment

Location: Hong Kong

Village Capital Partner: Village Capital- China, One Earth Designs

John grew up in San Diego, California, and is currently pursuing a Bachelor of Arts in International Studies at the Monterey Institute of International Studies with an emphasis in Chinese business.  During his assignment, John will be co-facilitating a Village Capital social enterprise accelerator program and assisting venture-stage Chinese entrepreneurs.  In his free time, John is an avid golfer and enjoys working on his Chinese language skills.

Check out his blog, The China Frontier!

Jennifer Clessas

Emily McLaughlin Jennifer Clessas - Colombia, Meet our Scouts, Summer-Fall 2012 0 Comment

Location: Bogota, Colombia

Village Capital Partner: HUB Bogota

Jennifer is an MPA student at MIIS who graduated with a degree in International Economics from Valparaiso University in Indiana in 2008.  She has worked in administrative services for international students studying in San Diego, California, and she looks forward to being on the other side of studying abroad once again.

Jennifer will be serving from June – August 2012 at the HUB in Bogota, Colombia.  She looks forward to meeting social entrepreneurs in the Colombian capital and learning about the innovation occurring in Latin America.

Jen had a lot to say about her time at the Hub!

Irene Garcia

Emily McLaughlin Irene Garcia - Mexico, Meet our Scouts, Summer-Fall 2012 1 Comment

Location: Mexico City, Mexico

Village Capital Partner: New Ventures

Irene will work at New Ventures in Mexico. Prior to becoming a Frontier Market Scout, Irene worked at UBS Global Asset Management analyzing new investment opportunities and supporting the Transactions team with the set-up of new investment funds. She has a passion for social impact, and has been able to catalyze it by participating in “ESADE alumni solidario”, an alumni organization where she contributes to the completion of a strategic planning exercise for a non-profit organization.

Her background and previous experience also include working as the Finance Vice-president of AIESEC’s Madrid Committee, an international student run organization that promotes global understanding through international exchange, where she oversaw financial planning and management tasks.  She holds a Masters in Corporate Finance & Law from ESADE Business School, Spain, and degrees in Business Administration and Law. She is a Venezuelan and Spanish national, and is fluent in Spanish, English and German.

Read about Irene’s experience in Mexico here!

Erin Chmelik

Emily McLaughlin Erin Chmelik - India, Meet our Scouts, Summer-Fall 2012 1 Comment

Location: India

Village Capital Partner: ENZI

Erin Chmelik recently graduated from San Diego State University with her MBA. Prior to getting her MBA she was working in corporate America doing human resources and marketing. In going back to school she wanted to get more international experience as well as be able to explore different career fields. Erin was introduced to the idea of social enterprise in an International Business class. She fell in love with the concept because of the combination of the use of business practices with making a difference. Since then Erin have travelled to various developing countries and also wrote her master’s thesis on social enterprise. Through this experience she hopes to gain a better understanding of the impact investing industry as well as real experience in the field. Eventually Erin hopes to work in international development possibly teaching women business skills.

Read Erin’s blog!

Elliot Rosenberg

Emily McLaughlin Elliot Rosenberg - Brazil, Meet our Scouts, Summer-Fall 2012 0 Comment

Location: São Paulo, Brazil

Village Capital Partner: Quadrado Mágico

Elliot is a rising senior at the University of Virginia where he majors in Business and Latin American Studies. He is President of SEED, a social enterprise consultancy that had 50 students advise 14 clients last semester, and he is also working to institutionalize social entrepreneurship at the University of Virginia. His first exposure to the social sector came when he deferred college admission to volunteer teaching English and technology to at-risk youth in Santiago, Chile. Last year he studied abroad in Sao Paulo, Brazil. He is fluent in Spanish and Portuguese and has overall spent a year and a half in Latin America. He is originally from Los Angeles, California.

For more information about his experience in Brazil, read his blog.

Dana Warren

Emily McLaughlin Dana Warren - Guatemala, Meet our Scouts, Summer-Fall 2012 0 Comment

Location: Guatemala City, Guatemala

Village Capital Partner: Pomona Impact

Dana is a Chicago native who recently completed her undergraduate studies at Kenyon College.  She majored in International Studies with a concentration in Environmental Studies and a focus on Latin America. Dana has experience working in finance and in the non-profit sector and is excited to combine those skills as a Frontier Market Scout. She has studied Spanish for the past four years and spent five months living, studying, and teaching English in Quito, Ecuador. She is excited to enter the field and wants to pursue a career in impact investing with an environmental focus.

Read Dana’s blog here!

Christopher Hurtado

Emily McLaughlin Chris Hurtado - India, Meet our Scouts, Summer-Fall 2012 0 Comment

Location: India

Village Capital Partner: Village Capital – India

Chris just graduated with a J.D. from Yale Law School and an M.B.A. from Yale School of Management in 2012.  After taking the New York bar exam, he will be scouting new ventures in India with Village Capital.  In the fall, he will return to New York and begin work at the law firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP.  Chris is also working on a concept for a publicly traded community development venture capital fund that is accessible to retail investors.

Earlier in his career, Chris worked as a consultant to nonprofits, private foundations, and public institutions at the Bridgespan Group in San Francisco.  He started his career in corporate finance in the Silicon Valley.  Chris is a southern California native and studied finance as an undergraduate at the University of Southern California.

Read about his time in India here!

Catherine Munyua

Emily McLaughlin Catherine Munyua - Kenya, Meet our Scouts, Summer-Fall 2012 0 Comment

Location: Nairobi, Kenya

Village Capital Partner: Invested Development

Catherine, a Kenyan national is currently pursuing an MS. in Environmental Policy at Bard College in New York. She graduated from Lafayette College with degrees in Economics & Business and Public Policy and a certificate in Financial Policy and Analysis. At Lafayette she participated in various activities including organizing a conference to discuss the potential of ICT in fueling development in Africa. She also made a commitment and attended the Clinton Global Initiative University meeting in Miami in 2010. She previously participated in Monterey Institute’s DPMI program in Washington, DC as a Davis Scholar.

Catherine attended the United World College of the Adriatic in Duino, Italy. Here she spent 2 years pursuing International Baccalaureate and interacting with young people from over 80 countries. Having traveled around Europe, United States and Trinidad and Tobago, she hopes to go back to Kenya and explore the beauty of Kenya.

As a Frontier Market Scout, Catherine will join Invested Development as an analyst in their Nairobi office. Her roles will include connecting Invested Development with entrepreneurs in Nairobi, with a focus on alternative energy and mobile technology enterprises. She is a strong believer in the potential of market-based solutions to improve the livelihoods of the world’s poor.

Catherine loves to travel, cook and hopes to learn to sew.

Check out Catherine’s blog, Start-up to Scale!

Gray Robinson

Emily McLaughlin Gray Robinson - Turkey, Meet our Scouts, Summer-Fall 2012 0 Comment

Location: Istanbul, Turkey

Village Capital Partner: HUB Istanbul

Gray graduated this May with a BA in Political Science and a minor in Economics from Davidson College, where she focused her studies on international development and international political economy. Gray was also a founding member and the CFO of the Davidson Community Entrepreneurial Fund, a student-run organization providing microloans and business services to small business owners in the Davidson community. Last summer, Gray supported impact evaluations taking place around the world as an Intern at Innovations for Poverty Action’s Small and Medium Enterprise Initiative in Washington, DC.

Gray is excited to enter the field as a Frontier Market Scout in Istanbul, Turkey.

You can read Gray’s blog here!

Carolyn Caton

Emily McLaughlin Carolyn Caton - Turkey, Meet our Scouts, Summer-Fall 2012 0 Comment

Location: Istanbul, Turkey

Village Capital Partner: HUB Istanbul

Carolyn Caton is a recent MS graduate of the Columbia University
School of Social Work.  Through her coursework at Columbia, and
fieldwork at UNICEF Headquarters in New York, she studied
international social welfare and economic strengthening for women and girls in emergency and development settings. Before graduate school,
Carolyn managed resource and program development for Native Public
Media (NPM), an organization whose mission is to promote independent
Native American communities through media access, control and
ownership.

Check out her blog about Impact Investing in Istanbul!

Aineth Torres

Emily McLaughlin Aineth Torres - Mexico, Meet our Scouts, Summer-Fall 2012 0 Comment

 

Location: Mexico City, Mexico

Village Capital Partner: New Ventures

Aineth started to think about the catalyzing power of businesses since she was very young. She especially started to focus her attention on the impact of businesses from the perspective of sustainability while in college. With a major in Industrial Engineering and minor in Entrepreneurship from a public Mexican university and studies in innovation and natural resources, right now, as a PhD candidate in Industrial Engineering at Penn State, she hopes to generate practical alternatives that help organizations achieve sustainability.

By participating in FMS, she intends to enhance her skill set and effectiveness while networking with knowledgeable people in the area of impact investment but, most of all, through field experience.

In addition to helping businesses generate well-being through good management and operational efficiency, her dream life includes the creation of a few enterprises all of them with social impact.

Be sure to read about Aineth’s experiences in Mexico.

Summer Frontier Market Scouts Finishing their Assignments

Emily McLaughlin FMS in Action, Frontier Market Scouts 0 Comment

Eight of the twenty one scouts that are currently on assignment are finishing up their assignments by the end of August. Our scouts had exciting summer internships with partners such as The Hub-Bogota, The Hub- Istanbul, Growth Africa, Village Capital – India, Qmágico, and more.

The scouts gained hands on experience in investing at the Base of the Pyramid, while focusing on market-based solutions and private sector development to alleviate the poverty much the of the enterprising poor population endures.

Be sure to follow their blogs as they finish up their assignments. The scouts already have offered substantial insight into the field of impact investing through their blogs, and we expect even more as they wrap up and reflect on their experiences. Their blogs can be found at: 2012 Scouts in the Field.

For more information on the Frontier Market Scouts Program, a joint venture of the Monterey Institute of International Studies, Sanghata Global, and Village Capital, please visit the FMS Site.

Frontier Market Scouts is sending its largest group ever into the field!

Emily McLaughlin FMS in Action, Uncategorized 0 Comment

The Frontier Market Scouts Program is sending its largest group ever of scouts into the field to locations such as Colombia, Brazil, India, Kenya, South Africa, and more! The scouts just completed their training program last week, with 29 taking part in training and 21 of them going onto field assignments.

This group’s scouts come from very diverse backgrounds: recent college graduates from places such as Kenyon College and Davidson College, graduate students, MBAs, PhDs, and JDs from institutions such as University of Michigan, Bard College, and Syracuse University, Yale, and Columbia University, and mid-career professionals seeking to become involved in the continually growing field of impact investing.

For this round of the program, we are sending scouts to 15 different in-country partners, such as Invested Development, Growth Africa, the Hub Istanbul and, the Hub Bogota, to name a few. Our scouts will be located in Central and South America, Africa, Europe, and Asia, working to apply the wealth of new knowledge they have gained through the FMS training.

The goal of the scouts is to enable the enterprising poor to scale poverty alleviation in capital-weak areas of emerging markets, while gaining career defining and life changing experiences. Keep up-to-date with the work the scouts are doing through the FMS blog, which will be updated with their blog posts throughout their assignments. More information on the FMS program can be found at: http://www.miis.edu/academics/short/frontier-market-scouts. Of course, this program would not be possible without our partners, Village Capital and Sanghata Global.

Stay up to date with the scouts while they are in the field! Here are a couple of their blogs:

Erin Chmelik’s Blog

Jennifer Clessas’s Blog