Board of Directors & Team

MFC Board of Directors currently consists of five Directors. Five Directors are selected through a nomination process involving MFC member organizations. Read more about how the Board is composed and managed in our Association Principles.

Cristian Jurma – Chairman of the Board of Directors

General Manager, SC Vitas IFN SA, Romania

Cristian Jurma is the General Manager of Vitas Romania – a nonbank financial institution headquartered in western Romania and a Global Communities entreprise. He has a strong practical experience in microfinance and has been working in the field since 1998, fulfilling over time different top management positions with different microfinance institutions.

Alisher Akbaraliev – Board Director

Executive Director, Association of Microfinance Institution, Kyrgyz Republic

Alisher Akbaraliev is a microfinance expert with 16 years of experience providing technical support to financial institutions throughout Central Asia. He is establishing relationships with relevant stakeholders in Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Kazakhstan, including government organizations, NGOs, and partner organizations. Well-versed in financial management and loan oversight, and has developed products to fit the needs to potential clients, including new deposit technologies and Sharia lending and involved in researches on country level, like the financial ombudsmen model for the Kyrgyz finance market and financial literacy issues in Kyrgyzstan (2014-2016).

Armen Gabrielyan – Board Director

CEO, Farm Credit Armenia UCO CC, Armenia

Armen Gabrielyan has almost 20 years of experience in the banking and financial sector in Armenia. His professional experience includes 10 years of banking and agriculture lending experience as a Regional and Branch manager in ACBA Credit Agricole Bank.

Izabela Norek – Board Director

Manager, CoopEst, Belgium

Izabela Norek is the Manager at CoopEst, an investment company which provides financing to sustainable, socially rooted microfinance organisations in Central and Eastern Europe and the Caucasus. She has long-term work experience in business development and microfinance, covering such areas as general management, project management, strategy, quality standards, fundraising, impact assessment, operation of networks.

Lucija Popovska – Board Director

Freelance Consultant

Lucija Popovska works as a freelance consultant in the areas of development management and development housing finance. She used to work for Habitat for Humanity International in the ECA and AME regions; the Council of Europe; and the Macedonian Center for International Cooperation. She has extensive experience in product development and program design, funding and financing, monitoring and evaluation. Lucija specialises in financial services downscale with focus on housing finance; organizational development and governance; and intercultural learning and context analysis.

Kalin Radev – Board Director

CEO, Software Group, Bulgaria

Kalin Radev is a high-level professional in Information and Communication Technology (ICT), with more than 20 years of experience in the financial sector, 14 of which dedicated to the Microfinance and Financial Inclusion. Kalin has successfully carried out various assignments as international consultant in Europe, Africa, Asia, Pacific and the Americas to perform software assessments, selection, design or implementation projects, develop IT strategies or facilitate innovation workshops.

Sanavbar Sharipova – Board Director

Board Member, IMON International, Tajikistan

Sanavbar has an over 25 years of professional experience of which the first nine years have been spent in community organizing and social development works focused on youth, poverty reduction and empowerment of women. The last fifteen years spent on progressive management experience with decision making and supervisory responsibilities in the areas of business development, marketing, human resources management and development, accounting and financial management.

Our Team

Grzegorz Galusek

Executive Director
Contact: grzegorz[at]mfc.org.pl

Grzegorz is a microfinance specialist with significant field experience gained at Fundusz Mikro, a microfinance institution based in Poland.  As director of the MFC he has designed regional and country specific access to finance programs which address the needs for financial and non-financial services among low-income people and micro-entrepreneurs in Europe and Asia.

Katarzyna Pawlak

Deputy Director
Contact: kasia[at]mfc.org.pl

Katarzyna oversees the Centre’s programs  in the area of financial inclusion and responsible finance. In the years 2005-2014, she served on the Steering Committee and then the Supervisory Board of Social Performance Task Force and took an active role in developing sector standards on responsible finance (Universal Standards for Social Performance).

Ewa Bańkowska

Responsible Finance Expert
Contact: ewa[at]mfc.org.pl

Ewa is the program manager for the SPM, managing action research projects on social performance innovation and customer protection. She works with a wide range of stakeholders on developing and pilot testing new tools and solutions, setting standards and documenting the experience of practitioners in attempts in delivering on microfinance promise in the CEE and NIS regions and beyond.

Kinga Dąbrowska

Responsible Finance, Projects Manager
Contact: kdabrowska[at]mfc.org.pl

Kinga has been working in MFC since September 2011. Prior to that, she worked in Technical Secretariat for Cross-Border Cooperation Program Poland – Belarus – Ukraine and Pontis Foundation, Slovakia where she was responsible for managing projects related to development assistance, democracy promotion and development education mostly in the Western Balkans and Central and Eastern Europe.

Justyna Pytkowska

Research, Program Manager
Contact: justyna[at]mfc.org.pl

Justyna manages research projects and is the author of the annual publication on the state of microfinance industry in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. She also conducts market research studies in the demand for microfinance products (credit, savings, microinsurance), access to finance and the use of financial services, indebtedness, using a variety of research techniques (focus group discussions, in-depth interviews, questionnaire-based surveys).

Liliya Peskova

Project Coordinator and Central Asia Relationship Officer
Contact: liliya[at]mfc.org.pl

Liliya joined MFC in January 2013. She is responsible for coordination of financial education and social performance management projects. Liliya also is a focal point for organizations from Central Asia.

Communication Coordinator
Contact: jchumachenko[at]mfc.org.pl

Julia joined MFC in September 2010. She is responsible for coordinating communication.

Ewa Romanowska

Accounting & Finance Manager
Contact: ewar[at]mfc.org.pl

Since July 2003 Ewa is responsible for MFC accounting; book-keeping, preparing accounting documents, expenses reports, accounting reports and other general accounting activity.