Brett Hudson Matthews, the Company’s managing partner, brings a unique mix of experience and skills to community-based microfinance. He has 19 years of experience in banking and development, first at Metro (now Alterna) Credit Union in Toronto, and since 2002 as a self-employed consultant. Brett’s current work is focused on improving the ‘village savings and loan associations’ in Africa. Previously, he was senior advisor for the launch of the Gates Programme at MicroSave India during 2008-09, responsible for leadership of field teams, in-house staff training, on-site mentoring and editing of the India Focus Note series. With the Canadian Co-operative Association, he led the development of the Cambodian Community Finance Network (CCFiN) from 2003-06, attracting fresh investments for credit union development in Cambodia from the World Council of Credit Unions and the Credit Union Foundation of Australia. Throughout much of the past decade, Brett has been studying the problems holding back the delivery of microfinance to poor villages where financial flows are defined by the seasons and illiteracy is prevalent. This has led to a series of conference presentations (beginning in Gujarat in 2005) and publications. As product development manager at Metro CU Brett launched several projects with multi-million dollar impacts: the mutual fund sales division, a restructuring of the car loan portfolio and the enterprise and non-profit services offerings. He has also worked in Bangladesh, Mongolia, Vietnam, Mozambique and Central America. Brett earned his MBA (finance) from the Schulich School of Business at York University, and his MA (international development) at the University of Toronto.

Why I do what I do:

To develop and transfer to poor villagers the financial management and institution-building tools they need to get out of poverty.