Management Team

ACCION International's senior management team and board of directors bring to the organization diverse experience from both the private and public sectors, including commercial and investment banking, corporate and nonprofit management, and international community development.

María Otero
President & CEO

Gina Harman
President & CEO, ACCION USA

Carlos Castello
Chief Programs Officer

Susan Clancy
Chief Financial Officer

Catherine Quense
Chief Administrative Officer, Chief Deputy

Lauren A. Burnhill
Chief Investment Officer

Roy Jacobowitz
Managing Director, External Affairs

Elisabeth Rhyne
Managing Director, Center for Financial Inclusion

Enrique Ferraro
Managing Director, ACCION Investment Management Company, LLC

María Otero
President & CEO

María Otero is president & CEO of ACCION International which pioneered making small loans to the self-employed poor beginning in 1973 in Recife, Brazil. ACCION is a leading global microfinance institution that seeks to open the financial systems in developing countries to reach the poor. It provides technical assistance, equity investment, governance and financial services to 35 of the most advanced microfinance institutions in the world. These institutions together serve 3 million borrowers on three continents.

María Otero first joined ACCION in 1986 as director of its lending program in Honduras, where she lived for three years. She opened ACCION’s office in Washington, DC in 1989 and in 2000 was named president & CEO. She is a leading voice on sustainable microfinance, and has published extensively on the subject, including as co-editor of The New World of Microfinance, published by KuMarían Press. She speaks throughout the world on microfinance and the use of market mechanisms to fight poverty.

In addition to her responsibilities as ACCION’s CEO, Ms. Otero chairs the board of ACCION Investments in Microfinance, a US$50 million investment company for microfinance. Ms. Otero also serves on several other boards, including that of Banco Sol (Bolivia), the Calvert Foundation and BRAC Holding of Bangladesh, the largest NGO in the world, as well as the United States Institute of Peace. In 2007 she was named to the Advisory Councils of the Inter-American Foundation and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). In addition, she was a founder of the Council of Microfinance Equity Funds (CMEF), which convenes 23 equity investment funds dedicated to microfinance to discuss their common challenges and interests. In June 2006, Ms. Otero was appointed by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan as one of 25 members of the UN Advisors Group on Inclusive Financial Sectors.

Since 1997, Ms. Otero has been an adjunct professor at the John Hopkins School for Advanced International Studies (SAIS). Among her many awards, in October 2005 she was profiled in Newsweek’s special report, “How Women Lead” as one of the 20 most influential women in the United States, and in November 2007 received Notre Dame University’s “Distinguished Service in Latin America Award” for her work in alleviating poverty in the region.

Ms. Otero has an MA in literature from the University of Maryland and an MA in international relations from Johns Hopkins SAIS. She was born and raised in La Paz, Bolivia, and resides in Washington, D.C. with her husband and three children.

Carlos Castello
Chief Programs Officer
Mr. Carlos Castello has worked with ACCION International since 1985. Since June of 2006, Mr. Castello has been the head of ACCION's entire International Operations, now Global Programs. Previously, Mr. Castello directed ACCION’s international operations for Latin America since 1995, first as vice president and since January 1999 as senior vice president. He is responsible for the management and coordination of ACCION's technical assistance to its more than 30 worldwide partner institutions. Mr. Castello supervises the work of U.S, Latin America, Africa and Asia-based teams of microfinance specialists who provide assistance in credit methodology, organizational development, business planning, financial management, management information systems (MIS), development of new financial products and branch expansion strategies. He is also responsible for the development of new microenterprise initiatives.
Prior to his move to ACCION's headquarters, Mr. Castello worked in Bogotá, Colombia from 1992 to 1994 as the director of ACCION's regional technical assistance hub, Centro ACCION. As director, he was responsible for funding, program development, management, strategic planning and technical assistance.
Mr. Castello's extensive experience in microfinance includes his work from 1985 to 1992 as ACCION's director for operations in Colombia and as executive director of the Association of Solidarity Group Programs of Colombia, an organization that provided ongoing training and technical assistance to private organizations implementing microfinance programs. In the early 1980’s, prior to joining ACCION, Mr. Castello served as the Latin American representative for PACT, Inc., responsible for all grant making and support operations for the region.
A native of Colombia, Mr. Castello holds a M.S. in economics and development and a M.S. with distinction in Foreign Service from Georgetown University. He graduated from Union College with a B.A. in International Administration.

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Lauren A. Burnhill
Chief Investment Officer
Lauren A. Burnhill, head of ACCION's Global Investments group, comes to ACCION International with significant experience in microfinance, investment banking and capital markets. Ms. Burnhill has been active in microfinance and SME lending for over 20 years. In the early 1980s, she worked on community based microfinance projects at the Organization of American States. As part of the financial and capital markets group of the Inter-American Investment Corporation (IIC), Ms. Burnhill arranged and monitored bank credit lines, designed investment funds, created and implemented microfinance training programs (both for her colleagues at IIC and externally), oversaw an advisory services team providing project evaluation assistance to the Multilateral Investment Fund and participated in the elaboration of Inter-American Development Bank programs to improve SME competitiveness, amongst other activities. As the IIC investment officer responsible for the first outside investment in BancoSol (Bolivia), the world’s first commercial microfinance bank, Ms. Burnhill was an active member of the board of that institution during its critical early years of operation. She also conducted the market research and structuring activities for ProFund, S.A., the first special purpose investment fund devoted to financial intermediaries serving small and microbusinesses, serving on the Fund’s board of directors for more than five years.

After leaving the IIC, Ms. Burnhill moved to Barclays/BZW to help build its Latin American Structured Finance practice. She has structured numerous debt, equity and quasi-equity cross-border transactions and been involved in strategic efforts leading to corporate restructuring and/or investment decisions. Ms. Burnhill formed Ariel Ventures, Inc. (AVI), a specialized consultancy, in 1997. AVI has structured and/or evaluated a number of specialized funds and fund investment programs, including environmental, small business and venture capital funds, in addition to providing telecommunications and technology sector expertise. Ms. Burnhill and AVI teams have evaluated small & micro business lending and venture finance programs in Latin America, Africa and Russia for the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and conducted financial training for the World Resources Institute, Shorebank Advisory Services, Inter-American Development Bank and the International Finance Corporation.
A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the Johns Hopkins University, Ms. Burnhill completed a dual masters program at the Wharton School (dual major in finance and strategic planning) and the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (social change and development). Ms. Burnhill speaks English, French, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese.
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Roy Jacobowitz
Managing Director, External Affairs
Roy Jacobowitz joined ACCION in 1994 as senior director of resource development, where he was responsible for corporate and foundation fundraising, and managed prospect research and information systems. In 1998, Mr. Jacobowitz was promoted to vice president of resource development and is currently responsible for raising $3.6 million annually from private sources.
Before joining ACCION, Mr. Jacobowitz served as director of corporate and foundation relations for the Boys & Girls Clubs of Boston for three years, doubling the organization's corporate and foundation income in that time. Previously, he was director of marketing and media relations and director of planning and development for the Breakthrough Foundation in San Francisco, an organization dedicated to aiding high-risk youth. Mr. Jacobowitz holds a B.A. from Yale University.
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Catherine Quense
Chief Administrative Officer, Chief Deputy
Catherine Quense joined ACCION in 1983 as the assistant to the executive director, working on the formulation and implementation of a national education program designed to raise awareness about Latin American development issues. From 1985 until 2007, Ms. Quense served as ACCION's CFO. Ms. Quense is now ACCION's Chief Administrative Officer and Chief Deputy, supervising human resources, office operations and management information systems, coordination with external attorneys and administrative support for overseas offices.

Ms. Quense is involved in strategic organizational planning and development for ACCION International and for ACCION USA. Prior to joining ACCION, she served as director of operations of a domestic social service organization and worked as a research assistant with the national VISTA volunteer program. She participated as a Partners of the Americas Fellow in International Development funded by the Kellogg Foundation. Ms. Quense holds a Master of Public Administration from Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government and a Bachelor of Arts in Latin American studies from Yale University.
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Elisabeth Rhyne
Managing Director, Center for Financial Inclusion
Elisabeth Rhyne is the Managing Director of the Center for Financial Inclusion. As senior vice president of ACCION International since 2000, Ms. Rhyne was responsible for ACCION’s initial entry into Africa and India. She directed the organization’s research efforts to develop new financial products and managed ACCION’s publications and educational activities.
Recognized as a leading thinker and writer in the field of microfinance, Ms. Rhyne has published numerous articles and four books on the topic, including Mainstreaming Microfinance: How Lending to the Poor Began, Grew and Came of Age in Bolivia (Kumarian Press, 2001). She was also co-editor of The New World of Microenterprise Finance (Kumarian, 1994), which provided the introduction to microfinance for many of the field’s current professionals.
Ms. Rhyne’s was director of the Office of Microenterprise Development at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) from 1994 to 1998, where she developed and led USAID’s Microenterprise Initiative. While there, she contributed to the founding of the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP) and the Boulder Institute of Microfinance. Ms. Rhyne’s experience includes eight years of residence in Africa (Kenya and Mozambique) and independent consulting on microfinance policy and operations for governments, international organizations and microfinance institutions.
Ms. Rhyne holds a master’s and Ph.D. in public policy from Harvard University. She earned a bachelor’s degree in history and humanities from Stanford University.
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Enrique Ferraro
Managing Director, ACCION Investment Management Company, LLC (AIMCO)
As managing director of ACCION Investment Management Company, LLC (AIMCO), company manager for ACCION Investments in Microfinance, SPC (ACCION Investments), Enrique Ferraro seeks out investment opportunities among microfinance institutions in Africa and Latin America and negotiates the investment company’s participation in such ventures. Mr. Ferraro sits on the board of several institutions where ACCION Investments holds equity investments, plays an active role in governance and provides strategic and financial advice. Mr. Ferraro is also responsible for monitoring investment performance, reporting to investors, marketing the investment company to potential investors and working to develop new financial products for use by microfinance institutions.
Mr. Ferraro joined ACCION in 1999 as vice president of Capital Markets. He was responsible for the management of ACCION International's 100% owned investment vehicle, the ACCION Gateway Fund and the Latin America Bridge Fund, until early 2003 when he took on the role of managing director of AIMCO.
Before joining ACCION in early 1999, Mr. Ferraro worked in commercial banking at Citibank and investment banking at First National Bank of Chicago in Argentina and the United States. He has also worked as an independent financial consultant, and later served as CFO of Alto Paraná S.A., a large industrial company.
A native of Argentina, Mr. Ferraro holds an M.B.A. from the National University of Buenos Aires and is fluent in English and Spanish.
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