Chris Brookfield, Co-Founder and Managing Director

Chris served as the Director of the Unitus Equity Fund (UEF), a socially responsible investment fund that pioneered equity funding of microfinance institutions and led the establishment of microfinance as a desirable commercial asset class. Based on this success, he co-founded Elevar on the following principle: "We believe in fundamental investing and can think of nothing more essential than helping poor individuals create opportunities for themselves and their communities. Outstanding economic and social returns will naturally follow." At Elevar, Chris is interested in furthering this groundbreaking work to address new sectors that benefit the poor: “Look -- and you will see widespread economic exclusion. Entrepreneurs that have seen microfinance succeed are now building businesses based on the economics of inclusion. These approaches foster individual access to opportunity and will bring prosperity to poor communities."

Chris began his career in 1993 by founding a clean-tech company that created natural solutions to heavy metal contamination. A few years later, he co-founded a wireless development company that was backed by Craig McCaw, George Soros and Charles Schwab. He then became a partner at one of the most active venture capital firms in the Seattle area, where he focused on early stage investments in communications, web based marketing and software for mobile devices. Chris left venture capital behind in 2003 to focus on investments with broader and more beneficial human impact. Along the way, he co-founded Cap & Gown, a youth mentoring program, and served on the Advisory Board of American Rivers, a conservation group.

Chris is a Director of Grama Vidiyal and Ujjivan. He has also served as a Director or observer on the boards of several companies, including SKS Microfinance, AdRelevance, NetMotion Wireless and SinglePoint. Chris has a degree in Geology from Williams College in Massachusetts, USA.

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Maya Chorengel, Co-Founder and Managing Director

Prior to co-founding Elevar, she was the initial Managing Director of the Dignity Fund, a privately capitalized investment fund, where she managed fund structuring and operations and completed local currency debt financing for fifteen high-growth microfinance institutions in Asia, Latin America, Africa and Eastern Europe. Maya grew up in Asia, has long been active in international investing and is passionate about bottom up solutions to development challenges: “I believe that billions of the world’s poor still lack access to fundamental services, not because providing services to the poor is commercially unviable, but because our generation and the generations before us have not applied their imagination and will to innovate to create market based solutions for the base of the pyramid.” Maya views her role at Elevar as helping to catalyze the very innovation that will bring essential services to the poor: “A large part of what we do involves democratizing the delivery of necessary goods to those who need them most.” She also lectures at conferences, graduate schools and colleges throughout the US to inspire others to dedicate their talents to making a better life within reach of the base of the pyramid.

Before engaging in microfinance investing in 2005, Maya was a Vice President of Warburg Pincus (WP), a leading, global private equity firm, working in WP’s New York, Hong Kong and Menlo Park offices. She invested in a variety of companies (IT/business services, consumer packaged goods, food production and manufacturing) spanning venture capital to leveraged buyouts to post-Asian-crisis balance sheet restructurings. She also previously worked as an investment banker at Morgan Stanley (Hong Kong and Singapore) and James D. Wolfensohn, Incorporated.

Maya is a Director of Comat Technologies, Dignity Fund, Silicon Valley Microfinance Network and Wokai and serves as an advisor to Water.org and MicroCredit Enterprises. She has served as Director or observer on several boards, including North Pole Ltd., Eagle Family Foods, printChannel, GT Nexus and RFM, Philippines. Maya graduated with Honors in Social Studies from Harvard University and has an MBA from Harvard Business School.

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Sandeep Farias, Co-Founder and Managing Director

Prior to co-founding Elevar, he founded Unitus’ India operations in 2004. He conceptualized Unitus’ India strategy, built the India team and partnered with seven microfinance institutions that cumulatively lent to over 2.5 million women across multiple states. Subsequently, he was Chief Innovation Officer at Unitus, test piloting ideas and projects on a global basis shaping Unitus’ long term strategy. Based on these experiences, Sandeep co-founded Elevar on the view that: “For me, lack of access to basic services for any individual is really an issue of discrimination and must be challenged. If a service can be provided by a business on a low cost, high volume basis to the poor, it is imperative that we leverage the power of markets to scale and provide access to life changing services to millions of individuals and communities.” It is this idea that drives Sandeep “to provide equity to entrepreneurs who challenge discrimination, help them prove their business model, establish the right governance, and raise additional capital to grow.”

Sandeep came to the microfinance world from Nishith Desai Associates (NDA), one of India’s leading law firms where he founded the firm’s development sector practice, incubated new practice areas and led its corporate law practice (mergers and acquisitions, capital markets, and investments). He also established the firm’s offices in Palo Alto, California and Bangalore, India. Sandeep’s work after the Gujarat earthquake in 2000 on behalf of American India Foundation helped NDA win the Asian Law Firm of the Year (Pro Bono) Award by the International Financial Law Review.

Sandeep serves as a Director of Madura Microfinance and has served as a Director of Ujjivan and Comat Technologies. In different capacities, Sandeep has represented or advised organizations such as Google, Amazon, Ashoka, Singapore Telecom and IL&FS Trust Company. Sandeep has an integrated law & arts honors degree from the National Law School of India University in Bangalore, India.

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Johanna G. Posada, Co-Founder and Managing Director

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 Credex and is an observer to the board of Moksha Yug. She holds a B.A. in Economics from the ITAM (Mexico City) and a M.B.A. from Stanford University.

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Geoff Woolley, Chairman

Geoff has been active in private equity investing for over 25 years and has founded two successful venture funds, Dominion Ventures in the United States and Kreos Partners in Europe. He pioneered the concept of venture debt and has invested in over four hundred companies in his career managing in excess of $2 billion dollars. Forming Dominion in 1985 at the age of 24, he is the youngest person to raise an institutional private equity fund. His efforts have shifted to social investing over the last ten years. Geoff founded and is the Managing Director of Huntsman Gay Capital Impact which concentrates on impact investing and continues roles at Unitus, Unitus Capital, University Venture Fund, Utah Fund of Funds, and other socially oriented vehicles. He sits on the Board of SKS Microfinance, Samita Microfinance and Sorensen Housing Opportunity Fund which are based in India.

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