Our Offices

FEC Team

Our Offices

Global Headquarters

Brazil

India

Mexico

FEC Team

Global Team

Valeria Budinich, Chief Entrepreneur, Leadership Group Member

Olivier Kayser, Vice President, Leadership Group Member

Based in London, Olivier is Ashoka’s VP for Europe. Born in France, raised in Spain, Olivier graduated from HEC, a French business school in 1979. He lived in a small village in Belize, C.A. for a year before returning to France where he started his own consulting firm in 1980, working for public sector clients. In 1985, he joined McKinsey & Company where he worked in a wide variety of industries in Europe, the US, China, and South East Asia. He initiated several new practices for McKinsey, including the public sector in France, and state-owned enterprises in China. He left McKinsey & Company in 2003 as a Director (senior partner). Olivier brings very solid business experience, strategic thinking, and cross-cultural partnership building skills to Ashoka.

Stephanie Schmidt, Program Director, Change Leader

Stephanie joined FEC in February 2004 bringing experience from both business and social sectors to the initiative. Most recently she managed the FEC Changemakers competitions on market-based strategies and health as well as the Lafarge project. Prior to Ashoka, Stephanie worked in Rwanda for 2 years where she launched an Economic Development program to produce and market organic essential oils with small farmers, and oversaw World Relief’s development programs including HIV/ AIDS and Child Survival. Stephanie worked for several years in management consulting with Deloitte Consulting in Paris, and in Boston. She holds a Master of Business Administration from ESSEC Business School in France.

Luzette Jaimes, Program Associate, Senior Intrapreneur

Born and raised in Colombia, Luzette studied International Business, Economics and Foreign Policy at American University and Finance and International Relations at the Externado University in Colombia. She joined Ashoka in 2002 to support the organization in increasing its fundraising capacity. Prior to that, Luzette conducted economic research and analysis at the UN ECLAC and the OAS. She also helped the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Washington, DC foster business opportunities between US and Asian SMEs. Luzette has traveled around the world to study different cultures, and volunteered in several citizen sector organizations focused on empowering women.

Aileen Nowlan, Program Associate, Senior Intrapreneur

Aileen Nowlan is a new member of the FEC team, and will be splitting her time between India and Washington DC. She joins us from McKinsey, where she spent two years building strategic partnerships, designing organization structures, and setting pricing and compensation. Aileen came to the corporate world after studying globalization and international business at the University of Pennsylvania. Her research on participatory democracy and stakeholder dialogue with marginalized communities has been presented at the World Bank, and she spent much of her university years in anti-war organizing and launching socially responsible business initiatives. Aileen is originally from Toronto, Canada, and has lived in Hong Kong, India, and West Philadelphia.

FEC Brazil Team

Leonardo Letelier, Program Director, Change Leader

Leonardo started working as a consultant for McKinsey in Brazil in 1997 and has been involved with Ashoka on many fronts, from pro-bono consulting for fellows to coaching finalists of the Business Plan Competition for Social Entrepreneurs. In 2006, Leonardo initiated a new phase in his professional trajectory, specializing in the business-social interface within the Ashoka-McKinsey partnership and independently with other organizations. Leonardo is leading the launch of the FEC program in Braziland supporting its consolidation in other countries. He holds an Industrial Engineer degree from POLI/USP and a MBA from Harvard Business School.

Rachael Botelho, Consultant HFA, Change Manager

Rachael is responsible for the effort of creating a Hybrid Value Chain in the housing sector in Brazil and is also supporting HVC in the rural sector. She has just joined Ashoka in August 2007. During the past five years, Rachael worked as a consultant for DAI – Development Alternatives Inc. Based out of the Brazilian office, she implemented projects in several countries in South America, Central America and Africa working for clients such as USAID, IADB, and UNDP. Rachael has a B.A. in Economics and a Master degree in Marketing and Strategy. She is fluent in Portuguese, English and Spanish, and proficient in French.

Alain Delcourt, Change Manager

Alain has just joined Ashoka in January 2008. He was the co-founder and former director of Empreenda, a microcredit organization based in São Paulo. Over the past 5 years, Empreenda financed several thousands of projects from low-income microentrepreneurs. Prior to this, he worked with Schneider Electric Brazil as an eBusiness manager. Alain, a French national settled in Brazil for 9 years, married to a Brazilian, holds an electrical engineering degree from École Supérieure d’Electricité (Supélec, Paris, 1998). He is fluent in French, Portuguese, and English, and proficient in German.

FEC Colombia Team

Maria Lucia Roa, Country Director

As the Ashoka Country Director in Colombia, Maria Lucia has launched Ashoka’s Venture program, Fellowship, Business Plan competition, FEC, and ASN. Currently Maria Lucia is building a community of Fellows and companies interested in FEC and Hybrid Value Chains and has supported the launch of a housing HVC.

FEC India Team

Shivani Manaktala, Program Director, Senior FEC Advisor

With a background in rural management, Shivani brings with her over 12 years experience both in the corporate sector and in the development sector. She has worked in the field of marketing and project management in the private sector where she was a core team member to set up a cheese unit. In the development sector she has wide experience in implementing projects in enterprise development and value chains especially in irrigation and horticulture sectors with IDEI.

Aditi Pany, Program Associate, Intrapreneur

While studying engineering and economics at BITS Pilani, Aditi transformed the university’s landscape as the first female president of the student union and a founder of the Centre for Entrepreneurial Leadership. Following graduation, she interned at the National Council of Applied Economic Research and subsequently joined a social enterprise, Terawatt where she developed an e-training on entrepreneurship for rural entrepreneurs and marketed it in rural Uttar Pradesh

FEC Mexico Team

Yadira Bayona, Program Manager, Change Manager

Yadira manages the FEC pilot projects in Mexico, devising and implementing innovative financing, distribution and marketing mechanisms to demonstrate the HVC concept. Before joining Ashoka, Yadira worked with Teconologico of Monterrey (TEC) in implementing cross-sector alliances to allow companies, public institutions and citizen sector organizations to share knowledge and experiences in order to reach their social and financial goals. Her work included development projects with organizations such as the World Bank, PACT, CEMEFI, TNC, and companies such as CEMEX, GAMESA, UPS and others. She holds an MBA with a specialization in Strategies and Corporate Social Responsibility from the TEC’s Graduate Business School EGADE.

Linda Peia, Senior Intrapreneur

Linda is a recent graduate of the MPA in International Development at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, where she specialized in private sector development. Linda enjoys working with micro entrepreneurs, be it the Indonesian small furniture suppliers or the stationary store owners and mango producers in Mexico. She comes from Romania and, to the amazement of her friends, always manages to travel light.