CIDR Pamiga’s Governance

Yannis WENDLING

President

A graduate of Sciences Po Paris, Yannis Wendling worked in the Arthur Andersen firm for three and a half years where he led audit and consultancy assignments for public and private organizations (European, international, and national). He then joined Trend Consultants, a practice of consultancy in organization and management, where he stayed for 5 years to carry out consultancy missions on the management of organizational transformation projects and evaluation of strategies / policies for public administrations and companies in the financial services sector. In 2006, he joined the IDRH firm as manager, where he carried out projects to support change and support managers in public organizations (local and national). Since September 2009, he has been director in charge of audit, internal control and risk management within the Seine Saint Denis District Council which received the special jury prize during the 2013 IFACI risk management trophies. – Crowe Horwath and the 2013 Special Innovation Award for the IFACI –EY Internal Audit Innovation Awards.

He is also chairman of the local authorities’ professional group and administrator of IFACI and chairman of the conference of territorial inspectors and auditors. He obtained the certification of the internal audit function for the Departmental Council from IFACI Certification. He is a member of the AMRAE’s 360 ° ERM commission.

Finally, he is invested in the associative sector for the support of entrepreneurship in rural Africa and chairs in this context the Board of Directors of CIDR (International Center for Development and Research) and is treasurer and member of the board of Directors of Pamiga (Participatory Microfinance Group for Africa).

He acts as an expert with the European Commission and Expertise France for the implementation of the project for the deployment of an internal audit function which used a risk-based approach in Greek communities. He intervened with the Slovak Ministry of the Interior within the framework of a peer review of the Council of Europe on the internal control system of the Slovak territorial collectivities.

Chrystelle BUSQUE

General Treasurer

Chrystelle Busque is a member of the CIDR-Pamiga board of directors and chair of the audit committee. With a scientific and financial background, Chrystelle is a graduate engineer from ENSTA-Paris Tech, a DEA in oceanography, meteorology and environment from Pierre and Marie Curie University, a diploma in accounting and financial studies and CHEA’s executive MBA.

Chrystelle started her career for an NGO in Mali, then spent three years carrying out audit and advisory assignments within the firm Arthur Andersen.

Professional in the insurance and reinsurance sector for almost twenty years, she has carried out various missions in expertise and management: monitoring of international subsidiaries, M&A, risk management, internal control, actuarial, internal audit, claims management, accounting, management control, cash and investments.

Since 2015, she is the Financial Director and a member of the executive committee of the CCR reinsurance group.

Renée CHAO BEROFF 

Director

PHD in Economics and Finance, Renee Chao-Beroff is the founder and Managing Director of PAMIGA and PAMIGA FINANCE SA, an Investment Vehicle in rural microfinance for Sub-Saharan Africa. In 2019, at the merger of CIDR with PAMIGA, she became the CEO of CIDR Pamiga, an international NGO which ambition is to contribute to unlock the social and economic potential of rural populations in Africa, Latin America and Asia. 

Renee Chao-Beroff comes from the Financial Inclusion sector where she worked during more than 20 years, in the field, in remote rural areas and in poor peri-urban neighborhoods, and as advisor to public and private decision makers in policy and strategy, in many countries as well as to many donors. She has initiated work in measuring social and environmental performance for Microfinance as Chairwoman of CERISE and participated at the foundation of the Social Performance Task Force. 

She has taught rural and agriculture finance at CEFEB (in Marseille), at the Boulder Training Institute (in Colorado and in Turin) and at Sciences Po in Paris. She was a member of the Policy Advisory Group and at the Executive Committee of CGAP (the think-tank of the World Bank and the 30 largest donors and DFIs for Financial Inclusion) during 10 years. 

She has always believed in the virtue of an integrated approach, where Technical Assistance and Investment work in synergy to increase and scale up Impact. This was the vision that led her to create PAMIGA in 2006 and PAMIGA FINANCE in 2012. It is in this context that very innovative projects were implemented in provision of access to productive water and renewable energy as well as in Digital Finance. 

Today, with CIDR Pamiga, Renee Chao-Beroff aims at pushing the frontiers of Financial Inclusion even further into Impact Investment, Digital Platforms for Agricultural Value Chains and to address the challenges of Climate Change. 

She believes in co-creation, in multi-stakeholder partnerships and in network in action. She is a director at Convergence and active member in numerous international working groups. 

Jennifer ISERN

Vice-Présidente

Dr Jennifer Isern, the CEO of Catalyze Global Impact, LLC, brings over 30 years of experience in development in more than 65 countries.   Catalyze Global Impact LLC promotes investing and technical assistance to leverage financial and private sector solutions to improve quality of life for people globally.   Previously, Dr. Isern served 23 years in multiple roles in the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the World Bank Group, including as Senior Manager in South Asia and Senior Manager in East Asia and the Pacific.  With the World Bank Group, Dr. Isern was based in New Delhi (2009-2016) and Hanoi (2016-2019) leading regional teams to support our clients on financial sector development with focus on expanding access to finance for households and SMEs, fintech and payments, financial infrastructure, debt resolution and insolvency, agribusiness, and capital markets.  Earlier, Dr. Isern worked as Lead Microfinance Specialist at CGAP from 1996 to 2009, where she served as member of the senior management team, manager for CGAP’s work in Africa and China, and manager of CGAP’s network of regional representatives globally.  She led several CGAP global initiatives on payments, anti-money laundering, appraising, funding and capacity building for microfinance institutions, and African financial sector development.   Prior to joining CGAP, Dr. Isern was the Regional Technical Adviser for economic development in West and Central Africa with CARE International, and she founded and managed financial service providers while living in Niger (1990-91), and Togo (1992-1996).   From 1988-1992, Dr. Isern consulted with public and private sector clients including USAID in Costa Rica and Senegal, UNDP in New York, and AT&T’s international division.  She has authored more than 50 publications on financial sector development and broader development issues.   A CFA charterholder, Dr. Isern received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Montana, her master’s degree in development economics from Princeton University, and her doctorate in both finance and international business from Nova Southeastern University.  She serves on several boards and as advisor to foundations, investment funds, and associations in the USA, Europe, and globally. 

Kimanthi MUTUA

Director

Kimanthi Mutua  currently the CEO of the K-Rep Group; director of Sidian Bank, PAMICA_CIDR Association, MAIN Network, as well as Board Chair of ECLOF International (Geneva) and PAMIGA FINANCE S.A. (Paris). He also a faculty member of the Boulder Institute of Microfinance, where he has been teaching ‘Managing and Regulating Transformation of MFIs” since 2001.  

Mr. Mutua founded K-Rep Bank (now Sidian Bank) in 1999, the first NGO microfinance institution to transform into a regulated commercial bank specializing in microfinance, in Africa. He served as the Managing Director of Bank from 1999, until his retirement in 2010.  Previously, he also served as board member of Centenary Bank Uganda (2005 to 2017) and Capital Markets Authority in Kenya (1996-2002).  

Kimanthi has conducted several training sessions and facilitated workshops for microfinance institutions, banks and regulatory bodies globally and in Africa on various microfinance/ financial inclusion topics. He has also led teams of consultants on diverse assignments such as transformation, re-organization of banks and microfinance institution and capacity building. As a regional advisor to the Alliance for Financial Inclusion (AFI), he advised regulatory bodies on developing policies for financial inclusion.  

Kimanthi has extensive leadership experience spanning over 30 years in management, institutional building, commercialization of microfinance institutions, transformation into regulated financial institutions and governance. His hands on and practical experience has made him a widely sought-after public speaker, resource person, advisor and director of several national and international organizations. 

Makarimi ADECHOUBOU

Director

Makarimi Abissola Adechoubou is a Development Finance Expert with more than 25 years of international experience in financial inclusion and Rural Development. He worked at the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) for 20 years during which time he held a series of leadership positions, mainly Technical Advisor, Manager and Regional Office Manager for Africa.
Prior to joining UNCDF, he worked as a consultant for key development agencies in the areas of rural finance and informal finance. In addition, from 1990 to 1995, he was Director of the CLCAM – CRCAM Network, where he played a key role in the setting up of the Credit Union FECECAM-Benin.
During his international career, he has accumulated experience and expertise: (i) formulation of inclusive finance and local development programmes; (ii) negotiations, partnership agreements and resource mobilization with Governments, donors and investors in Europe, Asia and Africa, and (iii) Management oriented systems. Makarimi’s vast experience has led him to advise a number of governments, microfinance networks, foundations and banks on a broad range of agreements, financial inclusion and rural finance issues. Over the span of its career, he has visited, trained and collaborated with people spanning the Europe, America, Asia, and Africa with a special emphasis on Sub-Saharan Africa.
Since October 2017, he is the Benin’s Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador to Japan with jurisdiction over fourteen countries in Asia and Oceania including Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Fiji Islands, Indonesia, Malaysia, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Singapore, Sri Lanka, The Philippines and Timor-Leste.
He serves on the board of Directors of CIDR-PAMIGA, an international NGO based in France and he is the co-founder and CEO of “Solidarité, Finance et Développement” (SoFiDev), an Association engaged in powering durable development in Benin.
Makarimi Abissola ADECHOUBOU holds degrees in Development and International Trade (DEA, University of Abidjan), Rural Finance and Agricultural Finance (DEA, CIRES, University of Abidjan) and in Financing of SMEs (Harvard,