Panel Speakers - IESE Blog Community - IESE Business School

Panel Speakers
RAFAEL BORREGUERO FIGOLS - INSURANCE ACTUARY AND I.E.S.E.´MBA
Rafael Borreguero Figols is Insurance Actuary and MBA of IESE with extensive international
experience both in the textile sector as in the insurance sector.
He worked as Exports exports director in many compaies of the Spanish textile sector
as well as coordinated many insurance departments in different companies.
Rafael is currently developing since 2 years ago a micro-insurance project in Philippines with RIMANSI,
Organization for Asia and the Pacific, whose objective is to assist the partner micro finance institutions \
establish their own micro-insurance programs, especially mutual benefit associations that serve millions of
poor households. The first step of such project was the study for the creation of a reinsurance pool whose
objective was to cover the excess losses occurred.
Also collaborates with other international programs in Philippines all related to the improvement of life conditions
and the financial education of the impoverished population of the country. One of them, for example,
consists of give Access to population living in rural areas photovoltaic energy for professional and domestic
uses through the financing of the Micro Finance Institutions.
Monica Brand – Manager, Frontier Investments Group, ACCION
Monica Brand has spent her career in the financial services and social enterprise
sectors, expanding and enhancing the value offered to the majority. Ms. Brand
currently manages ACCION’s Frontier Investments Group, whose mandate is to
invest in early stage companies with disruptive business models that catalyze breakthrough
innovation in financial inclusion. Prior to assuming responsibility for managing this fund, Ms. Brand
launched and ran ACCION’s Marketing & Product Development Unit, where she oversaw the creation of
new financial services to move the industry beyond microcredit.
Before joining ACCION, Ms. Brand worked with Anthuri Ventures – an early stage equity fund based in Cape
Town, South Africa – and founded Anthuri Catalysts to help prepare potential portfolio companies for investment.
Ms Brand began her career in financial services in California where she worked as a commercial
loan officer of a green fund and separately, helped launch a $50 million multi-bank lending intermediary
to finance small businesses and community facilities. Ms. Brand’s professional experience also includes
training and teaching at all levels, including working as a business trainer of female entrepreneurs at the
Women’s Initiative for Self-Employment (WISE) and as a case-writer for 2nd year MBAs at Harvard Business
School. Ms Brand currently serves as an Adjunct Professor at the John Hopkins School of Advanced International
Studies (SAIS) teaching a graduate-level course on impact investing.
Ms. Brand received both a M.B.A. and a master’s of education from Stanford University and her Bachelor of Arts
degree in economics from Williams College, where she graduated with honors. Ms. Brand serves on numerous
boards including GloboKasNet (an electronic payment system provider), Paralife Holdings (a Swiss micro-insurance
company), and chairs the investment representative committee of Leap Frog, the first ever microinsurance fund.
2011 Doing Good and Doing Well
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