Craig Churchill

Craig Churchill has over twenty years of microfinance experience, in both developed and developing countries. In his current position in the ILO’s Social Finance Programme, he focuses primarily on the role of financial services that the poor can use to manage risks and reduce their vulnerability, including savings, insurance and emergency loans. He serves as the Chair of the Microinsurance Network (formerly the CGAP Working Group on Microinsurance) and teaches at the Boulder Microfinance Training Programme in Turin. In 2008 he launched the Microinsurance Innovation Facility, a partnership with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation designed to stimulate the development of insurance to help promote decent work for tens of millions of low-income people in the developing world.

Craig has authored and edited over 40 articles, papers, monographs and training manuals on various microfinance topics including microinsurance, customer loyalty, organizational development, governance, lending methodologies, regulation and supervision, and financial services for the poorest of the poor. The publication, Protecting the poor: A microinsurance compendium (Geneva: ILO, Munich Re Foundation), which he edited, is the most authoritative book on the subject.

Maya Makanjee

Maya was appointed as Chief Executive Officer of FinMark Trust in June 2009. She sits on the boards of the Access to Insurance Initiative, Cenfri, Tiger Brands Ltd, and Worldwide Fund for Nature (South Africa). Her experience ranges across a number of areas in various industries in Africa and Asia. She has held director positions in Human Resources, Marketing Communication, Corporate Affairs, Strategy, and Business Reengineering. She has worked in the financial services, telecommunications, consulting, and fast moving consumer goods industries. 

Maya holds a Bachelor’s degree in Dance from the University of Mumbai, a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of Natal and a Master’s degree in Business Leadership (MBL), graduating cum laude, from the University of South Africa.

Anne-Marie Chidzero

Anne-Marie has over twenty years experience in private sector development, specifically financial sector, microfinance and SME development throughout Africa. In 1993 she joined the Private Sector Development Department of the World Bank in Washington DC, and was part of the team in 1995 that launched the Consultative Group to Assist the Poorest (CGAP Advancing financial access for the world’s poor), a multi-donor initiative.   At the World Bank she led numerous microfinance and SME strategy assignments, and provided training and technical assistance to a range of donor, private, and government clients.  She moved to Zimbabwe in 1997 and joined ICC, a Southern African management consulting firm. Between 1997-2004 she developed and ran the company’s consulting and training services in microfinance, SME development, and general financial sector development for clients including the World Bank, DFID, UNDP, USAID, EU, and GTZ in Southern and Eastern Africa. She was also appointed Africa Regional Advisor for the Special Unit on Microfinance, SUM, of the United Nations, in 1998, a position she held for five years. She moved from Zimbabwe to South Africa in 2001 and consulted for FinMark Trust, whose mandate is making financial markets work for the poor, and the UK Department for International Development DFID on pro-poor financial sector development in Africa. In 2004 she joined the Board of AfriCap Microfinance Investment Company, an equity fund for microfinance in Africa. She took over as Chair in 2006 and oversaw its recapitalisation from a $13 million dollar fund to a $42 million investment company in 2007.  She became the CEO of AfriCap in 2011.

Anne-Marie holds a MSc Economics from the University of Toronto and a BA Psychology from McGill University.

Frik Landman

In January 2005, Frik was appointed as the Chief Executive Officer of USB Executive Development Ltd (USB-ED). He is on the board of Cenfri, the EPAS Accreditation Board of the European Foundation for Management Development [EFMD], and on the Academic Council of the Madinah Institute for Learning & Entrepreneurship in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Frik’s passion for people and his longing for business adventure took him on a journey of a variety of positions via the ministry, the insurance industry, the motor industry, agriculture, education and consulting. He spent the last 23 years consulting to a range of SME’s and Corporates on issues of Strategic Leadership, Transformation and Organizational Development.

Frik holds a BA in Hebrew, Philosophy and Psychology from the Universities of Port Elizabeth and the University of Johannesburg and a BTh in Theology from the University of Stellenbosch. He earned his MTh in Theology and Ethics from the University of Stellenbosch and his MCert in Development from the University of Johannesburg.