Prior to co-founding Elevar, she was Senior Associate of UEF where she executed transactions in Asia and Latin America for seven equity investments and three follow-on rounds, including sourcing, analysis, due diligence and structuring. Johanna has years of experience working in developing countries and has long been involved in economic development: “Growing up in a developing country, I could not help but notice the inequality and injustice that poor people face on a daily basis. We can positively impact people’s lives by promoting scalable, market based solutions that address their needs. At Elevar we believe that the best way to do this is by applying our passion and investment discipline and by allocating private capital to entrepreneurs who know best how to serve the base of the pyramid and empower their clients.” Previously, Johanna was the MFI Investment Manager of Unitus, where she employed financing mechanisms and structures to remove financing constraints of several microfinance companies. Johanna was also primarily responsible for sourcing and managing the MFI pipeline investment around the globe and a team of analysts to conduct economic, financial market and institutional analysis.

Johanna came to the microfinance field in 2004 having previously worked as a Senior Financial Specialist at ExxonMobil’s Exploration Company, supporting the Africa Region. Previously she was an Economist at the Central Bank of Mexico were she focused on the creation of legal and institutional frameworks to increase the efficiency, transparency and inclusiveness of the Mexican financial sector. In collaboration with the World Bank, she co-authored a research paper “Regulation of Personal Data Protection and of Credit Reporting Firms” published in the book “Credit Reporting Systems and the International Economy” (MIT Press, 2003).

Johanna serves as a Director of Union Andina, Caja Rural Los Andes and Credex and is an observer to the board of Moksha Yug. She holds a B.A. in Economics from the ITAM (Mexico City) and an MBA from Stanford University.