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PRESS RELEASE - Nov. 5, 2009
The 16th Annual Conference of the
MicroFinance Network (MFN), “Keeping Leadership in the Changing
Environment,” took place last week in Nairobi, Kenya, hosted by the
Equity Bank. The issues discussed at the conference included how the
MFN members are managing through the global financial crisis, how to
avoid clients’ over-indebtedness, business continuity planning in
emergencies, and succession planning.
During the conference, the MFN General Assembly elected Kurt
Koenigsfest, General Manager, BancoSol, as the new Chair, and also
welcomed Mahabub Hossain, Executive Director, BRAC, as a new member of
the Steering Committee. Mr. Koenigsfest replaces Carlos Labarthe, who
served as the Network Chair for the past four years.
“I know that this comes as a personal challenge and at times of
deep changes in the microfinance industry worldwide. I have the
motivation to work with our network to make sure that we open the path
for our organizations to grow, to innovate, to lend to the very poor,
to respect our clients, and most of all, to give the people in our
countries the opportunities that they never had,” said Mr. Koenigsfest
in his message to the members.
Mr. Koenigsfest is an active member of a number of banking and
microfinance boards including ASOBAN (the Bolivian Private Banking
Association), where he acts as Vice Chairman, AFIN (the Microfinance
Training Institute of Bolivia), and ATC (credit and debit card
processor). He was the Chairman of ASOFIN (Association of Regulated
Microfinance Institutions of Bolivia) from 2004 to 2008, and today he
is the Chairman of the ACCION Network. In 2006 he was elected as Young
Global Leader by the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. A
native of La Paz, he graduated in Business Administration from the
University of North Texas, USA.
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