Meet Our Credit Committee

Steven White, the primary link between the Truss Fund by Beneficial Returns and the graduates of the GSBI program at the Miller Center, has been a GSBI mentor for ten years. Steve has worked with more than 20 social entrepreneurs including Nazava, a very successful water filtration intervention in Latin America and one of Beneficial Returns’ portfolio companies. He helped create the GSBI Boost program and enhanced the curriculum for the GSBI Online and Accelerator programs. Prior to the Miller Center, Steve was a founder and executive in five technology start-up companies and an active angel investor in Silicon Valley over a 35-year career. 

Brenda Santoro is the Head of Global Trade at Silicon Valley Bank. She leads a team that provides expertise to innovation economy clients doing business globally in addition to developing strategies to support client growth and success in global markets. Brenda serves on ITAC Committee 10 providing private sector input to White House policies, is a Board Member of the Bay Area Council, and has a Master’s Degree from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts.  Most importantly, she is passionate about transforming organizations, driving change, and advocating for global causes. 

Erik Schultz is the CEO and co-founder of Thriive, a nonprofit providing innovative pay-it-forward loans to support developing world entrepreneurs and vulnerable communities. Like Thriive, Erik’s focus is promoting a more compassionate brand of grassroots capitalism that harnesses the energy of the free market while coupling it with social and environmental responsibility. His background in family philanthropy with the Arthur B. Schultz Foundation includes international grants creating new opportunities for people with disabilities and disadvantaged women. We are excited to have his experience in philanthropy and social impact financing on our credit committee. 

Morgan Babbs is the Chief Innovation Officer at iluméxico, a Mexican social enterprise that provides high-quality electricity services to households currently living outside of the electricity grid. Currently, iluméxico has the largest amount of installed capacity of any off-grid consumer solar company, globally. Morgan contributes her expertise in accessible cash-in and payment networks, affordable consumer finance, and international expansion. Morgan came to iluméxico after founding another prepay solar energy company, Colibrí, in Nicaragua. As an entrepreneur, Morgan was recognized by President Clinton in 2016 for having an Exemplary Commitment to Action, and, to date, is the youngest winner of the D-Prize.  

Fernando Cortés is Grupo Bolívar’s Vice President of Corporate Social Responsibility and Fundación Bolívar's CEO, where he develops strategies on transformational social impacts in Colombia. Fernando's primary focus is The Bolívar Davivienda Foundation which supports and empowers transformative and high-impact projects that work to build a more just, equitable, and innovative society. One of Fernando’s projects has been in creating and developing one of the most relevant high-impact social entrepreneurial programs in Colombia, along with the development of the ecosystem that supports impact investing. He has been involved in creating and directing the first social investment fund in Colombia, INVERSOR. Additionally, Fernando has been assisting the Colombian Government in developing the proper initiatives for the entrepreneurial ecosystem to prosper. 

Born and raised in Lagos, Misan Rewane is no stranger to the challenges of education and social mobility. As an MBA candidate at Harvard Business School, she partnered with fellow West Africans who were passionate about tackling youth unemployment and launched WAVE in 2013. WAVE tackles youth unemployment by growing the supply of work-ready youth while growing the demand from employers, thereby levelling the playing field for African youth to access the skills and opportunity to become what they imagine. Misan is passionate about supporting social innovators in scaling their impact sustainably.

Carmina Bayombong is the CEO and Founder of InvestEd- the Philippines’ leading student loan company. Prior to InvestEd, Carmina worked with Smarter Good Inc. to raise millions of dollars for youth-focused social enterprises. Over the past 8 years, she has also trained more than 6,000 youth in topics of employment, financial literacy, and entrepreneurship. Carmina also worked on projects with leading institutions such as Ashoka, Australian National University, Lutheran World Relief, and USAID. She has a degree in Industrial Engineering from the University of the Philippines; Three certificate courses from the Asian Institute of Management in Entrepreneurship, Startup Management and Data Strategy, and a Social Entrepreneurship Certificate from INSEAD. 

Edward Mungai is the Chief Executive Officer of the Kenya Climate Innovation Center (KCIC), which supports a holistic country-driven approach to accelerate the development and deployment of locally relevant climate technologies to the private sector. Before joining KCIC, Edward was the East Africa Region head for the Danish International Investments Fund and worked for KPMG East Africa in Corporate finance and Transactions Services. He also sits in several boards and is a faculty member at Strathmore University Business School where he teaches Corporate Sustainability and Innovation to executives. Edward is an Eisenhower Fellow and author of Impact Investing in Africa, A Guide to Sustainability for Investors, Institutions, and Entrepreneurs. 

Leonard Mungarulire is a co-founding partner at Ntare Insights Ltd., a boutique business advisory firm in Rwanda focusing on private sector development. He has over 16 years’ experience at the intersection of trade policy, regional integration, technology policy formulation/implementation, and private sector development, actively promoting an environment for economic growth in Rwanda and the East African Community (EAC). He has also worked with and advised the Rwanda Development Board (RDB), Ministries of Trade and Industry, East African Community (MINEAC), TradeMark East Africa (TMEA), as well as the Private Sector Federation (PSF) in Rwanda and South Sudan. He has extensive knowledge of the business 

Alberto Irezabal is the CEO of Yomol A’tel, a group of social and solidarity businesses in Mexico. Since 2007, he has worked alongside Tseltal indigenous communities in the northern jungle of Chiapas, México in the promotion of inclusive development alternatives for the coffee, honey, cosmetics, and finance sector. Alberto is also a professor at the International Investigation Center of Social and Solidarity Economics (CIIESS) of the Universidad Iberoamericana (Ibero) at Mexico City, specializing in capacity building and multistakeholder strategies for social enterprises. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in engineering from Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City, an MBA of social economy from Mondragon Unibertsitatea in Spain, and is currently a Ph.D. candidate in advanced organizations of social economy from the same university.

Mainak Chakraborty is the CEO of GPS Renewables, one of India’s leading biogas & waste-management technology firms, with a focus on decentralized waste treatment and clean energy generation. GPS today has close to 100 urban waste to biogas projects with clientele ranging from City Corporations to Fortune 500 Companies such as Microsoft, Intel, Bosch, and many more. In 2019, GPS replaced over 3 million kg of LPG with clean fuel and mitigated over 600,000 tons of GHGs in the process. According to the MIT Technology Review, Mainak is one of the top Indian innovators under the age of 35 and Fortune Media has recently named him “The Bioenergy person of the year”. He is also an INK Fellow and has been a Global Shaper, World Economic Forum.