Explore the innovative collaboration with Opportunity International and Oikocredit to increase access to quality and affordable education.
Join us to learn more about the formation of an innovative collaboration aiming to increase impact investments in quality education. In November 2021, Opportunity International, a global leader in providing financial services to lift people out of poverty and Oikocredit, a global social impact investor launched a new USD $100 million partnership to increase access to and quality of affordable private education in low-income countries. The webinar will examine why both organizations were exploring opportunities to collaborate, how the collaboration will be different from business as usual, and the organizations’ future plans.
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Our panelists include:
Dr. Brian Carrière is a Senior Program Officer, Social Innovation and Impact Investing at Colleges and Institutes Canada (CICan) where he leads the execution of its impact investing strategy and the design of innovative financial instruments including Development Impact Bonds and a Blended Finance Facility. Brian has over 10 years of experience in policy and evaluation research focused on impact investing, community economic development and impact measurement.
Prior to joining CICan, Brian was a Researcher at the Centre on Governance, University of Ottawa where he undertook research on Canada’s first federally commissioned Social Impact Bond and led a Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark funded analysis of 23 large-scale impact investment funds leveraging and deploying private capital for sustainable development. Brian worked closely with senior level high finance professionals when he designed and implemented the Telfer Capital Markets Mentorship Program which was institutionalised by the Telfer School of Management, University of Ottawa. Brian holds a Ph.D. in Public Administration from the University of Ottawa and a M.A. in Conflict Studies from Saint Paul University.
Yves Komaclo is the Oikocredit West Africa Regional Manager where he manages a €60 million diversified development portfolio of 50+ agriculture, renewable energy and inclusive finance projects across the Ecowas region. Prior to joining Oikocredit in 2009, Yves Komaclo was division chief internal audit at UBA Bank in Benin.
He previously worked in London where he was Manager corporate accounts, Tyco International, and before that was at the management consulting firm Booz Allen & Hamilton. He is a graduate (MsEE) of Ecole Centrale de Lyon and MBA from Yale University in the USA.
Andrew McCusker is Opportunity International's Head of Education Finance, overseeing Opportunity’s work developing customized financial tools and programs to improve the accessibility, quality, and sustainability of education around the world. As one of Opportunity’s most innovative initiatives, EduFinance has grown from pilot projects to a robust portfolio invested in school proprietors, parents, students, and education quality. Andrew is responsible for scaling Opportunity’s existing footprint and further evolving outreach and program strategy, preparing us for a future where we will help even more students go to and stay in high-quality schools.
Prior to joining Opportunity, Andrew served as a Global Financial Planning Analyst for Bridge International Academies, working with over 500 low-cost schools across Africa and Asia. Splitting time between London and Nairobi, Kenya, he worked with both investors and education providers, helping to conduct financial impact analyses of key business decisions for these schools and lift education standards.
He began his career at Goldman Sachs, serving as Executive Director of Global Investment Research where he managed relationships with investors and built an international team working in a number of low-cost markets.
Mauricio Rincon leads Opportunity International’s impact investing and capital solutions efforts. Leveraging his Wall Street and cross-border business development experiences, Mauricio is responsible for furthering Opportunity's mission through structured, blended capital solutions, designing impact-first, return-yielding investment vehicles, often in partnership with other organizations. In addition, he develops, structures, negotiates, and executes bank and microfinance M&A transactions for the organization.
Prior to joining Opportunity, Mauricio spent nine years as a Director with Barclays in New York and previously worked in investment banking at HBI Banca de Inversion in his native Bogota, Colombia. During his banking career, Mauricio led business solicitation across the Americas region and handled dozens of company-transforming M&A and capital raising events for clients in the finance, real estate, infrastructure, industrials, and logistics sectors.
Mauricio holds an MBA from the Ross School of Business at University of Michigan, where he was selected as a fellow of the Social Venture Fund, one of the first student-run impact investment funds in the U.S. In addition, he holds MSc and BA degrees in Economics from Universidad de Los Andes in Bogota. While completing his bachelors’ studies, Mauricio co-founded the “Fundación Nueva Vida Para Todos”, a non-profit organization providing education and development opportunities to children in a socially vulnerable borough of Bogota.