Oikocredit International’s operations are managed by a two-tier board. The Supervisory Board oversees the company and the Executive Committee. The Executive Committee handles the day-to-day operations. Members of the Supervisory Board are elected to hold office for a period of three years and are eligible for re-election for one term.
Supervisory Board
Cheryl Jackson
USA/Switzerland Chair of the Supervisory BoardCheryl Jackson has been a member of the Supervisory Board of Oikocredit since 20 June 2019. With 10 years of inflow network experience with... Read more
Cheryl Jackson has been a member of the Supervisory Board of Oikocredit since 20 June 2019. With 10 years of inflow network experience with the Suisse Romande Oikocredit support association in Switzerland, Ms Jackson brings a support association perspective to the board.
In her time as a volunteer with Oikocredit Suisse Romande, she also served for six years as a member of the Oikocredit Network Coordination Committee. Her professional career in the US was as a legal and tax adviser to small businesses.
Cheryl holds a master’s degree in tax law from Georgetown University Law Centre and a juris doctor degree from the University of Florida College of Law. Her first degree was in business administration from the University of Florida.
Gaston Aussems
The NetherlandsCurrent position: Fintech advisor and non-executive. Gaston Aussems has been a member of the Supervisory Board of Oikocredit since June... Read more
Current position: Fintech advisor and non-executive.
Gaston Aussems has been a member of the Supervisory Board of Oikocredit since June 2021. He is a trusted advisor and non-executive in fintech and a partner with several venture capital firms.
From 2013 to 2020 Gaston was CEO of Mollie, a European payment service provider focused on making enterprise-level financial services available and affordable to SMEs and smaller merchants. At Mollie he was responsible for scaling up the organisation, product development, finance, legal, commerce, human resources and relationships with supervisory bodies.
Gaston previously worked in various roles in banking and the transactional economy, trade finance, international payments, cash management, financial software, consulting, training and risk management. He holds an MSc in computer sciences and an MBA from Rotterdam School of Management and has participated in the Supervisory Board programme at Nyenrode Business University.
Myrtille Danse
The NetherlandsCurrent position: Director Latin America and the Caribbean, Hivos. Myrtille Danse has been a member of the Supervisory Board of Oikocredit... Read more
Current position: Director Latin America and the Caribbean, Hivos. Myrtille Danse has been a member of the Supervisory Board of Oikocredit since 20 June 2019. Before she joined Solidaridad Europe in October 2022, Myrtille worked for the Netherlands Food Partnership, where she led the organisation’s work to boost transformative approaches for sustainable food systems and healthy diets in low- and middle-income countries. Previously she was director for Latin America and the Caribbean at Hivos, an international humanist organisation that strives for a free, fair and sustainable world. Her experience working for the private sector, international organisations, the semi-public sector and research institutes enables Myrtille to mediate between these social actors and develop successful new value propositions and inclusive innovations. As a manager she is interested in organisational innovations, such as self-steering teams, holacracy (decentralised management) and global impact networks. Myrtille is also an executive committee member of the Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs (ANDE). She holds an MBA from Erasmus University Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
Andries Doets
Luxembourg / The NetherlandsCurrent position: Regulatory lawyer and founder of a specialised law firm. Andries Doets joined the Supervisory Board of Oikocredit on 9... Read more
Current position: Regulatory lawyer and founder of a specialised law firm. Andries Doets joined the Supervisory Board of Oikocredit on 9 June 2022. Andries is an experienced and specialised lawyer in the fields of financial regulation and legislation and corporate governance. He is the founder of Eurius, a specialised law firm located in the Netherlands and Luxembourg that has a focus on European financial regulation and advises and represents financial institutions in dealings with Dutch, Luxembourgish and European-level financial supervisory authorities. In his role as adviser to management boards and supervisory boards of financial institutions, he has gained close insight into the functioning of these bodies in practice and the importance of good corporate governance. Andries has business, legal and other qualifications from INSEAD and the universities of Lyon, Leiden and Utrecht.
Arpita Pal Agrawal
IndiaCurrent position: Managing director of a responsible development research and analytics social enterprise. Arpita Pal Agrawal joined the... Read more
Current position: Managing director of a responsible development research and analytics social enterprise. Arpita Pal Agrawal joined the Supervisory Board of Oikocredit on 9 June 2022. Arpita has 20 years’ management and risk consulting experience with the ‘Big Four’ professional services firms. Throughout her career she has held national and international leadership roles, collaborating with peers from 30-plus countries in emerging and developed markets. Her current work focuses on international issues in financial inclusion, microenterprise promotion and agricultural livelihoods in Asia and Africa. This includes research in critical areas concerning poor households such as affordable housing and water, sanitation and hygiene. She is passionate about helping improve the ESG (environmental, social and governance) performance of organisations. And she is an advocate for cost-effective and efficient solutions leveraging technology to create sustainable impact at scale. Arpita serves as an independent director on the board of India’s only multi-segment fintech operating at scale with a banking licence. She holds a postgraduate management qualification from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, and a bachelor's degree in electronics and communication engineering from Delhi College of Engineering.
Charity Chanda Lumpa
ZambiaCurrent position: Founder and managing director of an investment consultancy and a philanthropic foundation, and board chairperson of a... Read more
Current position: Founder and managing director of an investment consultancy and a philanthropic foundation, and board chairperson of a leadership company focused on coaching leaders in Africa.
Charity Chanda Lumpa joined the Supervisory Board of Oikocredit on 9 June 2022.
Charity has spent most of her career in banking. She is considered a transformational leader committed to furthering standards of excellence and governance. Her expertise encompasses most aspects of financial and business development. Including compliance, innovative financial institution strategies, credit risk management, strategy execution and leadership and financial reporting & analysis. Much of her work has involved governance and building consensus among teams and stakeholders in order to promote transparency and influence positive organizational change.
Previously managing director of Airtel Networks Zambia, Ecobank Zambia and the Zambia National Tourism Board, Charity has also served as a board member across different sectors and industries nationally and within Africa.
She has a master’s degree in business administration and finance from the Zambia Institute of Business College Trust and is a certified executive coach.
Francisco Olivares
Venezuela / PanamaCurrent position: Principal SME investment officer, CAF Development Bank of Latin America. Francisco Olivares joined the Supervisory Board... Read more
Current position: Principal SME investment officer, CAF Development Bank of Latin America.
Francisco Olivares joined the Supervisory Board of Oikocredit on 9 June 2022.
Francisco has devoted his career to financial inclusion and impact investing. He has led and managed debt and equity transactions in private equity and venture capital funds, microfinance institutions, commercial banks, SME banks, national development banks, credit guarantee funds and fintech companies in 13 Latin American countries. Previously he held managerial positions at BBVA, CANTV (Verizon Group) and a research position at INCAE Business School.
During his career, Francisco has served as a member of boards of directors, investment and advisory committees in investment funds and a microfinance institution and has interacted with government officials and banking sector regulators, financial institutions, fund managers and institutional investors. He regularly participates in global research efforts, forums, and events in the impact investing sector. He has published papers on microfinance in peer-reviewed journals and several case studies for MBA courses.
Francisco has a master’s degree in international development from the University of Pittsburgh, a master’s in business economics from INCAE Business School in Costa Rica and a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Andrés Bello Catholic University (UCAB) in Venezuela.
Lilit Gharayan
ArmeniaCurrent position: Impact finance consultant. Lilit Gharayan joined the Supervisory Board of Oikocredit on 9 June 2022. Lilit is a senior... Read more
Current position: Impact finance consultant.
Lilit Gharayan joined the Supervisory Board of Oikocredit on 9 June 2022.
Lilit is a senior international impact finance consultant with a focus on climate finance, gender finance, risk management, internal audit and operational efficiency in financial sector. She has 20 years of experience in her field including 15 years of management in the financial and financial advisory sectors. Working in impact finance as well as in cooperation with international development agencies in more than many countries.
Her corporate governance experience in senior management and board member roles includes currently serving as an independent supervisory board member and chair of the internal audit committee of Crystal Microfinance Organization, Georgia. She previously worked with ProCredit Bank as director in the management board among other management positions.
Lilit’s educational background includes several certifications in finance and strategic management as well as an MBA from the American University of Armenia (AUA).
Karen Tsang
The NetherlandsCurrent position: Global Head of Risk and Compliance at an international NGO. Karen Tsang joined the Supervisory Board of Oikocredit in June... Read more
Current position: Global Head of Risk and Compliance at an international NGO. Karen Tsang joined the Supervisory Board of Oikocredit in June 2024. With over 14 years of experience in risk, governance and compliance, spanning the finance, technology and healthcare industries, Karen is currently the Global Head of Risk and Compliance at SNV, overseeing global legal, tax, governance, compliance, contracting and procurement functions across 24 countries. Karen has previously held senior risk and compliance positions at Thomson Reuters and Manulife Financial Corporation. Her work has focused on risk strategy, enterprise risk management, corporate governance, strategic communications management and regulatory compliance. She has also contributed to the field through similar roles at Great-West Life Financial and the Bank of Montreal, developing and maturing risk management programmes. Karen holds an MSc in international management from the University of Liverpool and a bachelor’s degree in international development from York University. Originally from Toronto, Canada, she currently lives in The Hague, the Netherlands. with her partner.
Georg Schürmann
GermanyCurrent position: Freelance management consultant. Georg Schürmann joined the Supervisory Board of Oikocredit in June 2024. Georg is a... Read more
Current position: Freelance management consultant. Georg Schürmann joined the Supervisory Board of Oikocredit in June 2024. Georg is a member of the Sustainable Finance Committee of the German Government (since 2019), a member of the Diocesan Asset Management Board of the Diocese of Eichstätt (since 2017) and a member of the Sustainability Committee of Barmenia Insurance, Wuppertal (since 2014). Previously he was Managing Director of Triodos Bank N.V Deutschland, Frankfurt, and board member of Sustainalytics B.V., Amsterdam, and held positions in retail and private banking and SME business at Deutsche Bank AG. With skills in leadership and people management, communication and presentation, project management and sustainable finance, Georg has a diploma in economics and business administration from the Universities of Cologne and Wuppertal.