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Grameen Foundation : Who we are : Our People : Committees and Councils : The Philippines

The Philippines Council

Janet Thompson, Chair

Janet Thompson has been with Citibank for 25 years, serving in a variety of roles relating to the company's engagement with community building, including grant making, community relations, community development programming. She currently serves as the Corporate Community Reinvestment Director. In addition to her professional work, Ms. Thompson has served on a number of boards of organizations that focus on improving access to financial services, including the Nonprofit Finance Fund, Accion New York, Corporation for Enterprise Development, and the Community Service Society. Ms. Thompson is a graduate of Radcliffe College/Harvard University and the Columbia University School of Business.

Joe Higdon, Vice-Chair

Joe Higdon is a Senior Vice President and investment analyst for Capital Research Company responsible for covering the global beverage industry. In addition, he has country responsibility for the Philippines, where he has maintained his involvement since he was a Peace Corps Volunteer there from 1962 to 1964. Joe is a Senior Vice President and a Director of Capital Strategy Research, Inc. and a Vice President of New World Fund, Inc., where he coordinates the research portfolio.

Joe came to Capital in 1974 as the governmental policy analyst and opened Capital's Washington D.C. office. In 1986, when Capital became involved in emerging markets, his analyst responsibilities grew in this direction and evolved into his present role.

Prior to joining Capital in 1974, Joe was an executive vice president of Washington Forum. He has a bachelor's degree from the University of Tennessee. Joe enjoys cycling, reading and spending time in Maine. In addition, Joe serves as a Director of For Love of Children, a private social service agency caring for children and families at risk in the Washington D.C. area.

Janet McKinley, Member 

Janet McKinley recently retired as a director of Capital Research and Management Company (CRMC) which oversees mutual fund assets totaling over $500 billion. She was also Chairman of the Income Fund of America and a portfolio manager in this $34 billion equity-income fund, along with the global Capital Income Fund managed by CRMC. During her twenty-two year career at Capital, Ms. McKinley served as one of the company's directors of research, responsible for building the research team to support a new global investment unit in the early 90's. She also covered a number of global industries as an analyst for Capital, including paper and forest products. Prior to joining Capital in 1982, Ms. McKinley was Manager of Investor Relations and a financial analyst for International Paper Company. She graduated summa cum laude from Smith College (Phi Beta Kappa) and attended the University of Krakow, Poland, as a Fulbright Scholar. She also attended the New York University Graduate School of Business.

In the years leading up to her "retirement" Ms. McKinley became increasingly involved in efforts to help microfinance institutions access commercial financial markets in order to significantly scale up their operations. Recent examples include: one of the first and largest securitizations of non-collateralized microloans in India (a $4.2 million local currency transaction); a global $40 million securitized pool of loans to leading microlenders; and facilitation of the first guarantee to leverage an $820,000 loan by the Land Bank of the Philippines.

George E. Sycip, Member 

George E. Sycip is President of Halanna Management Corporation, a project development and investment company. He is also a Founder and Principal in Galaxaco China Group LLC and advises a variety of companies in their cross-border endeavors between the US/Europe and Asia. Mr. Sycip sits on several corporate boards, including: Bank of the Orient in San Francisco; Beneficial-PNB Life Insurance Company in the Philippines; MacroAsia Corporation, which provides catering, ground handling, aircraft maintenance and other services at the Manila and Cebu international airports; Arasor International Group, Ltd., which designs and manufactures photonic signal processing chips and optical systems & components; and Medtecs Corporation, which manufactures and distributes medical garments and consumables. Prior to setting up his own offices, Mr. Sycip had a career in banking, internationally and domestically, including serving as Chief Financial Officer & Treasurer of United Savings Bank, a leading provider of banking services to California's Asian communities and a major originator of home mortgages in the State.

In addition to his corporate work, he currently serves on the Boards of the International Institute for Rural Reconstruction, Give2Asia, the California Asia Business Council and the Stanford Institute for International Studies. He has also served as Commissioner for the City and County of San Francisco's Social Services Department. He was Director and Treasurer for many years of the San Francisco Education Fund and the Friends of the San Francisco Public Library.

Born in the Philippines, Mr. Sycip received his BA in International Relations/Economics 'With Distinction' from Stanford University and his MBA from Harvard Business School.

Darcy Kopcho, Member 

Prior to retiring in December 2003, Darcy Kopcho was a portfolio counselor and analyst for Capital Research and Management Company (CRMC), investment advisor for The American Funds, which now comprise over $600 billion in assets. She was also President and Director of Capital Research Company, the research arm of the investment advisor.

In addition, she was President of Income Fund of America, Senior Vice President of New Perspective Fund and Vice President of Capital Income Builder, three of the funds managed by CRMC. Prior to joining Capital in 1986, Ms. Kopcho was a manager of market research for Baker International.

Ms. Kopcho received a bachelor's degree in religious studies at the University of California at Santa Barbara, and an MBA from the University of California at Irvine.

Roberto Atendido, Member

Roberto (“Bobby”) Atendido is President of Asian Alliance Investment Corporation, an investment house in the Philippines duly licensed by the Central Bank of the Philippines. Mr. Atendido is currently a member of the Board of Directors of the Philippine Stock Exchange and of the Investment House Association of the Philippines, and also sits as a Director in several companies involved in IT, a savings bank, BPO, furniture export manufacturing and real estate development.

Mr. Atendido has had more than 30 years of mostly investment banking operation in the ASEAN region gained in working in the Philippines, Hong Kong and Indonesia. He received his BS Management Engineering (with honors) from the Ateneo de Manila University and an MBA from the Asian Institute of Management. His involvement in microfinance is as Treasurer and Director of BCBP Eco-Reach Foundation, Inc., a microfinance organization.

Jennifer Meehan, Interim Staff Liaison

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 brings over 14 years of experience in banking, specifically project financing with the Chase Manhattan Bank (now JP Morgan Chase), and microfinance. She has been based in Asia for the last 12 years, currently in Hong Kong. Prior to joining Grameen Foundation, she worked extensively with poverty-focused MFIs throughout Asia with 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. She graduated summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa with a B.A. in International Affairs from George Washington University.

Grameen Foundation : Who we are : Our People : Committees and Councils : The Philippines