A new British Chief Executive for IDE International

IDE is delighted that Rosalind Copisarow has taken over the position of CEO, International Development Enterprises, based in Denver, USA. A micro-finance practitioner and consultant with 15 years’ experience in blue chip investment banks and 12 years in the not-for-profit sector, she joined IDE in early June. Rosalind, who was born in France and grew up in the UK, brings a passion and a commitment to the vision and mission of IDE that is very exciting.

Most recently, Rosalind Copisarow was Senior Vice President of ACCION, which has pioneered a commercial approach to microfinance. She held executive positions with several major financial institutions, including Citibank/Citicorp, Midland Bank, and JP Morgan. After reading about Grameen Bank’s remarkable success in helping people escape chronic poverty through micro-lending, she left JP Morgan to found Fundusz Mikro, a micro-lending institution that helped the unemployed start small businesses in Poland. The company disbursed over 35,000 loans, valued at $35 million, achieving a consistent 98% repayment rate.

Fundusz Mikro became fully self-financing by 1999, the first such institution to do so at this scale in any transitional economy, and in 2000, Rosalind left to co-found Street(UK), a micro-lending institution in UK. Rosalind is a graduate of Oxford University and holds an M.B.A. from the Wharton School of Finance and an M.A. in Latin American Studies and Spanish from the University of Pennsylvania. In 2000, she was awarded the Officer’s Cross of the Order of Merit by the Polish government for services to the Polish economy and poverty alleviation.

Rosalind will be the second CEO in the 26-year history of IDE. She follows Paul Polak, who founded the organization to help small farm families in developing countries escape poverty by helping them access affordable, yield-enhancing technologies and markets for their products. Polak will continue to be involved with the organization in the newly created role of Founder.

In announcing Rosalind’s appointment, IDE Board Chair Paul Myers said, “We’re very pleased to have Rosalind as a part of our organization. She is as comfortable in the village as in the boardroom, and brings a passion and a commitment to the vision and mission of IDE that is very exciting.”

Rosalind sees IDE’s entrepreneurial approach as the best way to create permanent solutions to poverty in developing countries. “I am looking forward to broadening my horizons to support the creation and strengthening of rural micro-enterprises, adopting a holistic approach to the selection of appropriate interventions, and finding cutting edge, new, creative ways to stimulate rural entrepreneurship.”