Klaus Maurer has 25 years of work experience in financial systems development in developing and transition countries, with particular focus on rural and microfinance.

He has been leading the development and establishment of the SANAD Fund for MSME. Previously, he has been instrumental in building the European Fund for Southeast Europe (EFSE) as a flagship fund in micro and small enterprise finance, initially as a senior advisor and later as Chief Investment Officer. Most of his professional career he worked as an independent consultant and trainer in 35 countries, primarily in Asia and Eastern Europe for multilateral and bilateral development organizations such as ADB, IFAD, World Bank, CGAP, KfW, GTZ, SDC, Sida and others. He was a project manager at KfW Development Bank and also served as microfinance advisor to the Central Bank of Indonesia.

Klaus Maurer holds a doctorate in Financial Economics from the Free University Berlin and a Master of Economics from the University of Regensburg. Currently, he also teaches microfinance at the University for Applied Sciences (FHTW) in Berlin, Germany.

Furthermore, at Apax Partners he is a member of the Executive Committee, the Investment and Approval Committee and he leads the sector Financial and Business Services globally. A graduate in engineering chemistry from Queen’s University in Kingston, Canada, Michael Phillips also holds an MBA from INSEAD, where he graduated with distinction.
Upon graduating from University, he worked at Ciba Geigy Canada Ltd. as a manager in the plastics additives division. He then spent three years at OTTO Holding Ltd. in Cologne, one of Germany’s largest waste management companies, as the general manager of an operations subsidiary.

Sylvia has about 20 years of experience in development finance in more than 25 countries world-wide. After a successful consulting career at the German Technical Cooperation (GTZ), where she managed various development finance projects in East Africa and Asia, she headed up the International Advisory Services of Frankfurt School of Finance & Management from 2001 to 2008, with overall responsibility for strategy and operations. Sylvia conceptualized and executed the set-up of a specialized alternative asset management company, ConCap Connective Capital, as a spin-off of Frankfurt School. From January to July 2009, she served as Chief Executive Officer of ConCap Connective Capital. 

Sylvia holds an M.A. in Political Science and Sociology and an MBA from the University of Tübingen, Germany, as well as an M.A. in International Studies from the University of Miami (USA).

Elvira has responsibility for the investment management of the funds the company is advising, at present EFSE and the Green for Growth Fund, Southeast Europe, and oversees the operations of the regional offices of Finance in Motion.

Her master in Slavic Studies brought her to Russia in the 1980s, where she experienced first-hand the extent of transformation challenges ahead for the economies and societies of the former Soviet Union and the importance of functioning financial systems. Since that time she has devoted her professional career to financial sector development and the task of creating access to finance. Her beginnings in this area are with IPC GmbH, a leading consultancy in development finance, where she engaged for five years in Russia and Bulgaria in large-scale institution building and small business finance projects. She then moved on for four years to the EBRD in London with main responsibility for developing banking sector funding and capacity building programmes to expand small business finance in Central Asia, parts of Southeast Europe and Ukraine. In 2005 she relocated to China for one year following a call by the World Bank to develop and implement such programmes in and through the China Development Bank. After a sabbatical in 2006 she returned to Germany to work for KfW Development Bank in the financial sector team with main responsibility for Russia in the area of small business, housing and energy efficiency finance. Since late 2008 she has served for the European Fund for Southeast Europe (EFSE) responsible for the Fund's investment operations.

Elvira holds an M.A. degree from Ruprecht-Karls University Heidelberg, Germany.

 

He started his banking career with Wasserstein Perella in New York in 1989, helping this mergers & acquisitions firm build its German business, opening an office in Frankfurt/Main and advising the Treuhandanstalt on a series of privatizations in East Germany. During this time, he also advised two large privatizations for the Italian State holding company IRI. In his following positions at Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch, he advised several multi-billion DM privatizations in the fields of electricity, gas and water, and led several initial public offerings of mid-sized corporates. At Donaldson Lufkin & Jenrette, he opened the German branch as Managing Director and built the firm's franchise with German corporates, including private equity related advisory work. After moving his team to Lehman Brothers, he headed the company’s German Investment Banking arm until late 2002. Besides dedicating his time to several non-profit cultural and ecological farming activities in the following years, he became involved during 2005 as part-time advisor in the inception of the European Fund for Southeast Europe (EFSE). Between 2007 and 2008, he acted as Chief Financial Officer to the EFSE Fund Advisor. With the founding of Finance in Motion in September 2009, he became the company’s first Managing Director. On the side, to stay in touch with micro enterprises and nature, he continues his seasonal engagement running a team of 5 at 2,000 meter high, biological cheese farm in South Tyrol/ Italy - which boasts its own hydro plant. Florian holds an MBA from the INSEAD, Fontainebleau, France and a B.A. in Economics and Political Science from Swarthmore College, Philadelphia, US.

He has 25 years of work experience in financial systems development in developing and transition countries, with particular focus on rural and microfinance. Klaus has been instrumental in developing and building the EFSE as a flagship fund in micro and small enterprise finance, initially as a senior advisor and later as Chief Investment Officer. Most of his professional career he worked as an independent consultant and trainer in 35 countries, primarily in Asia and Eastern Europe for multilateral and bilateral development organizations such as ADB, IFAD, World Bank, CGAP, KfW, GTZ, SDC, Sida and others. He was a project manager at KfW Development Bank and also served GTZ as microfinance advisor to the Central Bank of Indonesia.
He holds a doctorate in Financial Economics from the Free University Berlin and a Master of Economics from the University of Regensburg. Currently, he also teaches microfinance at the University for Applied Sciences (FHTW) in Berlin, Germany.

Samir has over ten years of work experience in communications and microfinance. Prior to joining Finance in Motion he worked as a public relations consultant for a number of financial services clients, as Banking Consultant for an IPC GmbH consultancy project in the field of microfinance in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and as Research Associate at the German Institute of World Economics (DIW) in Berlin. He holds an M.Sc. in Economics from the London School of Economics & Political Science, an Advance Certificate in International Economics from the Institute of World Economics (IfW) in Kiel, Germany, and a B.Sc. in Economics from the University Heidelberg, Germany.

Klaus has over 20 years of experience in accounting and controlling. After studying Economics at the University of Applied Sciences in Wiesbaden he started his career at Kraftanlagen AG in Heidelberg and Hamburg. 1992 he moved on to Frankfurt School of Finance & Management (former Bankakademie) for 17 years. Before joining Finance in Motion, Klaus worked as Financial Director at the European Business School (EBS).

Oleg has over nine years of work experience in investment management, banking and small and medium enterprise (SME) lending. Prior to joining Finance in Motion he worked as project manager and consultant in consultancy projects for the KfW, EBRD and World Bank in the fields of banking, SME and rural lending in Ukraine, Georgia, Armenia and Lithuania. He holds a Diplom-Kaufmann degree from the Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main and a degree in economics from the Academy for National Economy in Ternopil/Ukraine. 

Matteo has gained extensive experience in Africa, working in Mozambique, Angola, Ghana and the Democratic Republic of Congo. During that time he consulted on various project including the selection and implementation of a loan tracking system for the EFSE and the improvement of management information systems (MIS) systems for SEWA Bank, India. Matteo began his professional career in IT with Hewlett-Packard. After working with Hewlett Packard, he worked on a long-term assignment as MIS adviser in Nepal. In January 2003, he joined the IT Department of IPC GmbH, as a member of the team and was part of the development team of “QUIPU CustomWare”, a comprehensive software package for target-group-oriented financial institutions. Matteo has a MS in Information Technology from the CEFRIEL Consortium at Milan Polytechnic University.

Prior to joining Finance in Motion Jasminka worked for the Central Bank of Bosnia and Herzegovina in foreign currency reserves management and in the Bosnia and Herzegovinan KfW office as a Banking Sector Analyst and Risk Manager for the EFBH fund. Since the inception of the European Fund for Southeast Europe (EFSE), she has worked on coordinating the fund’s investment and risk management activities in all countries of operation, with the focus of coaching and supervising a regional team of investment analysts in the preparation and execution of due diligence and monitoring visits, analysis and monitoring of economic and regulatory environment, corporate governance and financial and credit analysis. She holds a Master of Arts in Economics from the Central European University (Essex, UK / Budapest, Hungary)

He has over eight years of experience in financial services. Jens started his career in the Financial Services department at Deloitte & Touche. In 2006, he joined KfW as a senior manager in the risk management department, where he was in charge of the further development of the bank's internal bank rating system and institutional counterparts in Eastern Europe. Before joining Finance in Motion, he worked as a Manager (Risk Management) in the European Fund for Southeast Europe (EFSE) team at Frankfurt School of Finance & Management (later ConCap Connective Capital).

Jens studied business administration at University of Siegen (Germany), with a focus on Finance & Bank Management and obtained a degree as Diplom-Kaufmann. He has also the Certified International Investment Analyst (CIIA) designation.

Marco started his career at Commerzbank AG, working with small and medium sized enterprise financing. Before joining Finance in Motion he worked for three years for the Frankfurt School of Finance & Management (later ConCap Connective Capital) and Oppenheim Asset Management Services S. à r.l. on development finance issues, mainly with the EFSE. Marco holds a BA in Business Administration from Leibniz-Akademie Hannover and a degree as Diplom-Kaufmann from the University of Applied Sciences in Osnabrück. He also holds a MA of International & Development Economics from the University of Applied Sciences Berlin.

Milena is responsible for structuring and supervising technical assistance and training projects for the partner institutions of the funds Finance in Motion advises, including European Fund for Southeast Europe (EFSE) and Green for Growth Fund, Southeast Europe (GGF), as well as for providing assistance to Norwegian Microfinance Initiative in setting up and managing the Professional Assistance Facility. Since April 2008, Milena has managed the Development Facility of the EFSE. Prior to her assignment with the EFSE, Milena gained experience with capacity building for banks and microfinance institutions working as a Project Manager for a development finance consulting firm. She has completed various short-term assignments, with a particular focus on South Asia and Latin America. Milena has a master's degree in Political Science, Economics and History from the University of Cologne, Germany.

Heike has been working in Microfinance for more than 10 years, during which time she got to know this sector from many different vantage points. Before starting to work for the European Fund for Southeast Europe (EFSE) team and joining Finance in Motion she managed a GTZ Microfinance Project in Bolivia and worked for the IPC GmbH as consultant for information systems in Latin America. She has lived and worked for 13 years in South America, gaining experience in project management and also in other areas. Heike has a Degree in automation engineering from Technische Universität Dresden and completed her postgraduate studies in Microfinance in Bolivia. 

She heads the investment team in the local BiH office in Sarajevo. Mejra has over 10 years of work experience in banking, microfinance and auditing. Prior to joining Finance in Motion she worked as Senior Auditor for Deloitte. She was also Resident Advisor for the process of the restructuring and sale of the Privredna Banka Group of Banks, as well as an advisor for the bank privatization process in the Federation of BiH. Mejra acted as member of the working group of the Ministry of Finance dealing with the restructuring of banks in BiH. She holds a Master of Arts in Economics from the Bowling Green State University, USA and a Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration from the Bluffton College, USA.

Venera has more than 15 years of experience in development finance in Kosovo. After graduating and several years of experience with various international institutions, she worked as a project officer responsible for financial sector projects of KfW Entwicklungsbank (The German Development Bank) in Kosovo. In January 2006, Venera joined the investment management team of the European Fund for Southeast Europe (EFSE) in Kosovo as Investment Analyst at the Frankfurt School of Finance and Management/ConCap Connective Capital representative office in Prishtina. In this role, she participated in several due diligence missions in Kosovo and in the region of Southeast Europe. In September 2009, she joined Finance in Motion’s representative office in Kosovo as Investment Officer.