Executive Staff
Peter Bladin, Executive Vice President, Programs and Regions
Jennifer Meehan, CEO, Asia Region
Julia Soyars, General Counsel and Assistant Corporate Secretary
Joshua Tripp, Chief Financial Officer
Alex Counts is President and CEO of Grameen Foundation, a nonprofit organization focused on enabling the poor to escape poverty, using microfinance and technology. Counts founded Grameen Foundation and became its CEO in 1997, after working in microfinance and poverty reduction for 10 years.
A Cornell University graduate, Counts’ commitment to poverty eradication deepened as a Fulbright scholar in Bangladesh, where he witnessed innovative poverty solutions being developed by Grameen Bank. He trained under Dr. Muhammad Yunus, the founder and managing director of Grameen Bank, and co-recipient of the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize.
Counts has propelled Grameen Foundation’s philosophy through his writings: Small Loans, Big Dreams: How Nobel Prize Winner Muhammad Yunus and Microfinance Are Changing the World. Counts has also been published in the Washington Post, the International Herald Tribune, the Miami Herald, the Christian Science Monitor and elsewhere.
Counts chairs Project Enterprise’s board and is vice-chair of the Fonkoze USA board. He sits on the Advisory Council of the Center for Financial Inclusion and Co-Chairs the Microenterprise Coalition.
Counts previously served as the legislative director of RESULTS, as a regional project manager for CARE-Bangladesh and speaks Bengali.
Peter Bladin, Executive Vice President, Programs and Regions
Peter Bladin is Executive Vice President of Programs and Regions at Grameen Foundation and the Founding Director of the Grameen Technology Center. Under his helm, the Technology Center led the microfinance industry in driving relevant and appropriate technology innovation. They are leading experts in ICT for development initiatives that benefit people living at the “bottom of the pyramid”. Peter was a founding member of the MTN-Village Phone board, the first public-private partnership to extend telecommunications access to the rural poor. He is a frequent speaker at international telecommunication and microfinance conferences, and is an Executive Board Member of the International Telecommunications Union Connect the World initiative. Peter is also actively involved with various Seattle-based non-profits, including Global Partnerships and Social Venture Partners. Pror to Grameen Foundation, Peter worked for over 10 years for Microsoft managing various projects and departments during his tenure. Peter has a degree in Mathematics from the University of Uppsala, Sweden.
Jennifer Meehan, CEO, Asia Region
Jennifer Meehan joined Grameen Foundation in February 2005 as the founding Director of the Capital Markets Group, during which time she led the development and launch of the Growth Guarantees product. She subsequently led Grameen Foundation’s strategic planning process before taking on her current role in January 2009. She is based in Hong Kong.
Jennifer has lived in Asia – Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Japan, and China – since 1996. She started her career in the formal financial sector with Chase Manhattan Bank (now JP Morgan Chase), but made the transition to microfinance following the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis. Prior to joining Grameen Foundation, she worked extensively with poverty-focused MFIs throughout Asia including CASHPOR, the Asian network of Grameen Bank Replicators, on financial management, business planning and financing. She has also consulted for Calvert Social Investment Foundation, among others, and published a number of articles. She was a founding investor and, until October 2007, served on the Investment Committee of the Aavishkaar India Micro Venture Capital Fund.
Jennifer graduated summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa with a B.A. in International Affairs from George Washington University.
Alberto Solano joined Grameen Foundation in October 2009 and provides leadership and management oversight for our portfolio and activities across the Americas. He also serves as our senior representative in the region. He has more than 10 years experience in microfinance, principally in Latin America, and most recently was the Latin America Program Director for Global Partnerships.
He previously worked with the Central American Bank for Economic Integration’s microfinance and technical assistance programs in Honduras, and ran his own consulting company specializing in sustainable development and microfinance.
Julia Soyars, General Counsel and Assistant Corporate Secretary
Julia Soyars joined Grameen Foundation in March 2005 and started the Grameen Foundation legal department. After working five years in energy and government contracting law and litigation at Pillsbury, Madison and Sutro in Washington, Julia joined the legal department at The American National Red Cross, where she spent eleven years handling domestic and international transactions. Julia is a founding member of the Microfinance Council of Counsels and is a member of the District of Columbia Bar. Julia holds a JD Magna Cum Laude from Syracuse University.
Joshua Tripp, Chief Financial Officer
Joshua Tripp is Grameen Foundation’s Chief Financial Officer. Joshua joined Grameen in 2007 after spending seven years at Community Wealth Ventures (CWV), most recently as a Vice President. In his time at CWV, Joshua worked with dozens of innovative nonprofit organizations, helping them to assess, plan and launch for-profit business ventures to increase their sustainability. He became an expert in financial planning and capitalization of “social enterprises,” and was a presenter at several industry conferences and seminars. Before joining CWV, Joshua was a Project Manager for GS Telecom, a start-up satellite telecommunications company in Ghana. Prior to GS Telecom, Joshua worked in the investment banking division of Deutsche Bank, where he worked on a variety of public equity financings, private placements and merger and acquisition transactions in the technology industry. Joshua graduated magna cum laude with highest honors from Williams College with a BA in Economics.
Sandra Adams, Vice President, External Affairs
Sandra Adams brings three decades of nonprofit development, communications and event marketing experience to Grameen Foundation. Throughout her career her focus has been on improving the status of women in positions with the AAUW Educational Foundation, American Nurses Association, and National Breast Cancer Coalition and on environmental advocacy through her work with the National Parks Conservation Association and The Wilderness Society. An avid student and proponent of philanthropy, she was elected Chair of the Association of Fundraising Professionals national board of directors, served as President of their Washington, DC chapter and is one of only 150 people to have achieved the Advanced Certified Fundraising Executive credential. She was named Washington’s Outstanding Fund Raising Executive of the Year in 1994. Sandra has served on the boards of EarthShare and CFRE International. She holds a Bachelor’s degree from Mercyhurst College, a Master’s from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst and a certificate in Teaching English as a Second Language from Georgetown University.
Camilla Nestor, VP, Microfinance Programs
Camilla Nestor joined Grameen Foundation in August 2005 and previously served as Growth Guarantees Manager and Director of the Capital Management and Advisory Center. She was appointed Vice President for Microfinance in April 2009. She has 14 years of experience in microfinance and commercial banking. Before joining Grameen Foundation, she worked in Citigroup’s Structured Corporate Finance Department where she executed credit-enhanced debt financings for emerging markets firms in Africa, the Middle East and Eastern Europe. Prior to joining Citi, she spent five years on the ground in Southeast Asia, the Balkans, and Africa working with microfinance institutions on start-up, new product development, and capital raising. Camilla holds an MBA and a masters degree in International Affairs from Columbia University and a bachelor’s degree in Political Science and International Relations from Colorado College. She speaks Bahasa Indonesia and is conversant in French.
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