The US-based impact investing firm MicroVest recently selected Michael Apel as its new CEO and Chief Investment Officer. In taking on these roles, Mr Apel will be in charge of the company’s daily operations, including entering into new markets to expand the company’s deployment of private capital to boost micro-, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs). Mr Apel has 25 years of experience at IDB Invest, a member of the multilateral Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) Group. IDB Invest’s goal is to “finance sustainable companies and projects to achieve financial results and maximize economic, social and environmental development” across Latin America and the Caribbean.
Gil Crawford, co-founder and board member of MicroVest, described Mr Apel as “someone who operates with a values-driven mindset, humility and a deep appreciation for the communities impacted by his investments. We are fortunate to have him lead MicroVest into its next phase of growth.”
MicroVest was founded in 2003 and specializes in wholesale lending to MSME funders in low- and middle-income countries. For 2022, the organization reported average return on assets of 20 percent, ending the period with a gross loan portfolio of USD 1 billion, nearly all invested in Africa and Asia. The firm’s investees serve 9.6 million active borrowers, about half of whom are women and about one third live in rural areas.
MicroVest is a unit of DAI Global, which is an employee-owned firm active in 100 countries in areas such as “economic development, sustainable business, climate change and the environment, governance, gender and health.” DAI Global has 16 offices and employed 5,000 people as of 2021.
By Hawra Moochhala, Research Associate
Sources and Additional Resources
MicroVest press release
https://microvestfund.com/microvest-appoints-new-ceo-michael-apel-executive-board-chair-jean-gilson/
MicroVest homepage
https://microvestfund.com/
MicroVest Impact Report (2022)
https://microvestfund.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/PRINT-VER_MicroVest-2022-Impact-Report_FINAL-compressed.pdf
DAI homepage
https://www.dai.com/
DAI Sustainability Report (2022)
https://dai-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/our-work/sustainability-report-2022.pdf
Did you know that MicroCapital publishes the MicroCapital Monitor newspaper each month? Download a sample at https://www.microcapital.org/products-page/.
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