telecom and media division
technology division

Telecom and Media

Stephanie Von Friedeburg, Manager
Stephanie von Friedeburg is the Manager of the GICT's Telecom and Media Division, a position she has held since 2001. Prior to her current position, she was the Manager of IFC's general manufacturing investments in Central and Eastern Europe. She joined IFC in 1992 working on India and Nepal. In 1993, she transferred to the Europe Department, working on IFC's business in the CIS and Central Europe for over nine years. Prior to joining IFC, Stephanie was employed by Equitable Bank, where she worked in a Leveraged Buy-Out group in New York, and Continental Grain, where she worked on the E3 Fund, one of the first private equity funds for Central Europe. In addition to an MBA in finance from the Wharton School, she holds a Master of Arts Degree in Russian Area Studies from the Lauder Institute at the University of Pennsylvania and an undergraduate degree in International Economics from the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University.

Andrew Bartley, Principal Investment Officer
Andrew joined GICT in 2001 as a Principal Investment Officer in the Investments unit. His current assignments include projects in Latin America and East Asia. Andrew joined the IFC in 1993. Prior to his current position, he was a Principal Investment Officer with the Power Department where he worked on transactions in South Asia, Africa, Latin America and Eastern Europe. Before joining IFC, Andrew worked as a consulting engineer for Monenco Agro where he focused on feasibility assessments, systems engineering and project management for large infrastructure projects. He has a B.Eng. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Bristol in the UK, and an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

Adrian Bastien, Associate Investment Officer
Adrian joined GICT in 2006 as an Associate Investment Officer. Previously, Adrian spent just over a year with IFC’s Health and Education department, which was his first rotation in IFC's Global Transaction Team Program. Prior to joining IFC in 2005, he was with the finance division of General Motors Acceptance Corporation - Residential Finance Corporation. Adrian has also worked at Bank of America Securities LLC with the Investment Banking group focused on Technology. Adrian holds an MBA from Columbia Business School and an MA from Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia, US.

Eric Crabtree, Senior Investment Officer
Eric joined the Telecom and Media division of GICT in 2002. Prior to joining GICT, he worked for six years on general manufacturing transactions in Central and Eastern Europe. Before joining IFC, Eric worked in Moscow as a consultant to American Standard, Owens Corning, Johnson Controls, Ryland Homes and other US construction-related companies entering the markets of the former Soviet Union. Eric holds a BA in Economics from Oberlin College and an MBA from Georgetown University. He speaks Russian.

William Kerr-Smith, Principal Industry Specialist
William joined GICT in 1998 and has worked in a number of African countries as well as countries in Asia, Central Europe and Latin America. Before joining the IFC, William held a number of senior positions in the telecommunications industry and the telecoms consulting business. Most recently he was Director of Marketing for BT's International Consulting division. He holds a BA from the Open University of the UK and a Higher National Diploma in Electrical Engineering from the Napier College of Science and Technology.

Stephanie Leydier, Investment Officer
Stephanie joined GICT in 2006 as an Investment Officer. Before joining IFC, Stephanie worked for 3 years as an Advisor to the Executive Director representing France at the Board of the World Bank Group. Prior to this, Stephanie worked for 6 years in project finance in emerging markets with Proparco, the French Investment Corporation, working on debt and equity transactions in the telecoms, power, transport and water sector in Africa and East Asia. Stephanie has a Master degree in Economics and a Master degree in Finance from the Centre for Studies and Research in International Development (CERDI) in France. She is fluent in French.

Tsige Makonnen, Program Assistant
Tsige (Meme) is currently a team assistant in the Investment Division. Tsige joined the World Bank Group in March 1999 as an Information Associate for the Vice President's Special Program Unit, which was a subgroup of Environmental Social Sustainable Development Department. Tsige holds a BA in International Affairs, with Third World Concentration, and a minor in French and political Science from James Madison University in Virginia. She speaks French and Amharic.

Wiebke Schloemer, Senior Investment Officer
Wiebke joined GICT in 2004 as an Investment Officer. Prior to joining IFC, Wiebke spent 5 years in project finance in emerging markets with the European Investment Bank in Luxembourg, and DEG, the German Investment Corporation, working on debt and equity transactions in the telecoms, power and water sector in Africa, East Asia and Eastern Europe. Wiebke has a Master degree in Economics and Finance from the University of Goettingen in Germany and holds a Postgraduate degree in Development Policy from the German Development Institute. She speaks German and French.

Aniko Szigetvari, Senior Investment Officer
Aniko joined GICT in 2002 as an Investment Officer. Previously, Aniko spent over 3 years with IFC’s restructuring and workout department, focusing on East Asia, Eastern Europe and Africa. Prior to joining IFC in 1998, she was with the finance divisions of Kraft Foods International and DHL Worldwide Express both in Austria and Hungary. She also worked at McKinsey & Company. Aniko holds an MBA from the Wharton School and an MA from the Lauder Institute of Management and International Studies at the University of Pennsylvania.

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Technology

Kent Lupberger, Senior Manager
Kent E. Lupberger is Senior Manager, Portfolio and Technology, in the Global Information and Communication Technologies Department, a joint department of the World Bank and the International Finance Corporation (IFC). Kent rejoined the Department in November 2006. Previously, he was Manager, Investments, from 1996 to 2001. The Department provides loan and equity financing and policy advice for telecommunications, IT and broadcast media activities. Kent is responsible for the Corporation’s growing portfolio of US$953.1 million of loans and equity investments. Prior to joining IFC, Kent worked for Chase Manhattan Bank in Chile and the United States. Kent holds an undergraduate degree in Anthropology from the University of Colorado, an MBA degree from ESADE (Barcelona, Spain), and a Master of International Management from Thunderbird (Arizona, USA).

Annie Butial, Program Assistant
Annie is a Program Assistant in the Portfolio and Technology Investments Group. Before joining the World Bank group in 1994, she worked at the Asian Development Bank in Manila, Philippines. Annie graduated with a Bacherlor’s degree from the Philippine College of Commerce in Manila, major in Advertising, minor in Marketing. She also obtained a Certificate in Commercial Science from the same college.

Stephen Chow, Budget and Finance Officer
Stephen joined GICT in March, 2001. His current responsibilities include planning and analysis, the fiduciary oversight of the department’s budgetary matters, and financial reporting. Prior to joining GICT, Stephen was in the Corporate Strategy and Resource Management Department and worked in the areas of strategic planning and budgeting. Before joining the World Bank Group, Stephen was involved with the development of Arco Chemical and W.R. Grace’s capital expansion plans in Asia. Much of this work required seeking new strategic opportunities, building financial models, assessing business potentials, and analyzing potential markets. He also briefly worked at American Express as their Business Development Manager for the Travel and Entertainment industry before joining the Bank. Stephen holds a BA in Economics from Simon Fraser University (Canada), an MBA from the University of Ottawa (Canada), and an MS from John Hopkins University. He speaks Cantonese.

Luc Dejonckheere, Principal Investment Officer
Luc joined the Portfolio and Technology Division of GICT in 2002 and has over 15 years of experience in corporate finance, strategic management and financial advisory services. He is currently working primarily in the Middle East and North Africa region and has carried out restructuring work in Argentina and in Morocco. Prior to his current position, Luc worked for six years at IFC’s Corporate Advisory Services department. Before joining IFC Luc worked in corporate strategy consulting with the LEK Partnership in London and in M&A advisory with Lazard in Germany. He also worked with the UNDP in Panama and in Guatemala. Luc holds an MBA degree from the MIT Sloan School of Management and a Masters degree in Economics and in Social and Cultural Anthropology from the University of Louvain, Belgium.  Luc is proficient in French, Spanish, German and Dutch.

Andi Dervishi, Investment Officer
Andi joined the Information Technologies Investments Group in August 2000 from IFC's Corporate Advisory Division. Before he joined the IFC, he worked for Deloitte & Touche in their Corporate Advisory / M&A Services Group, and for an Albanian Private Equity Fund. He has experience in starting and managing several businesses, including two in the telecommunications area. Andi holds a B.A. in English from Tirana State University and an MBA from Emory University.

Jason Downes, Senior Investment Officer
Jason joined IFC in 2004 with 12 years of private equity and investment banking experience. He is currently a Sr Investment Officer focusing on Central & Eastern Europe. Prior to joining IFC, Jason was a Co-founder and Vice President & Chief Investment Officer of ru-Net Holdings a Russian IT services investment company. At ru-Net, Jason and was responsible for fund-raising and for originating, structuring, and executing ru-Net’s investment transactions. Prior to ru-Net, Jason worked in Equity and Debt Capital Markets teams for Moscow-based investment banks Renaissance Capital and United Financial Group. Earlier in his career, Jason held investment banking positions at UBS and Credit Lyonnais Securities in London and Paris. Jason attended the City University, London.

Nikunj Jinsi, Principal Investment Officer
Nikunj joined the IFC in 2003. He has over 13 years of experience in the telecommunications, media and technology area in Asia, Europe and the US. Prior to IFC, Nikunj founded the Singapore office for AsiaTech Ventures, a leading global technology venture capital firm  managing over US $250 M, in 1999. He held the position there of Managing Director, where he was responsible for the South East Asia region representing his firm as a board director for many leading Asian technology firms. Prior to joining AsiaTech, Nikunj spent four years in the investment banking industry in Asia focusing specifically on corporate and project finance activities for telecom, media & technology companies.  Nikunj started his career working for KPN Telecom in The Netherlands. Nikunj obtained an MBA degree from Stanford University, which he attended as a Fulbright Scholar. In addition, Nikunj has a Master of Science Degree in Electrical Engineering from Delft University of Technology, Netherlands.

Pravan Malhotra, Senior Investment Officer
Pravan joined IFC in 2007 with over 10 years of private equity, debt and investment banking experience. He focuses on private equity investments in technology, media and telecommunications companies in India. Prior to joining IFC, Pravan was a Principal with ORIX Venture Finance, a New York-based subsidiary of a Japanese financial services conglomerate. At ORIX, Pravan was responsible for analyzing, structuring, and executing principal investment transactions in venture-backed technology, telecommunications, business services, health care and financial services companies. Prior to ORIX, Pravan worked with Metropolitan Venture Partners, a transatlantic venture capital fund in New York and London, and Global Bridge Ventures, an emerging markets focused venture capital fund in San Francisco. Earlier in his career, Pravan was an investment banker at BMO Nesbitt Burns and a credit analyst at the Tokai Bank in Chicago. Pravan holds a BA from Coe College and an MBA from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania

Horacio Rivera-Piza, Senior Information Officer
Horacio brings eighteen years of engineering management experience in consulting, communications and information technologies to the GICT. After several years as a consultant to IFC, Horacio joined as a staff in September 1999. Prior to joining the IFC, he founded an Internet Service Provider in Ecuador, worked as a Vice President of Systems Development for TV Answer, an interactive television startup, and as a consultant for Analysis Group with private clients and U.S. Government agencies. Horacio started his career as a real-time software engineer for Singer Link Simulation Systems in the nuclear power industry. Horacio holds a Computer Science degree from Tecnologico de Monterrey in Mexico, a Master's in Engineering Management, a Doctoral degree in Engineering Economics and International Business, both from George Washington University, and an Executive MBA from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.

Yasmina Sam, Investment Analyst
Yasmina joined the Portfolio and Technology Division of GICT in November 2005. She is responsible for the proper management of Department’s portfolio with a focus on reports, marketing write-ups, compliance requirements, data accuracy, work program, equity options and valuation, and maintenance of databases. Prior to joining GICT Yasmina worked for 5-1/2 with IFC’s Syndications Department as Investment Analyst. She holds a Bachelors Degree of Arts with a double major in Management and Economics from Guelph University, Ontario, Canada. She speaks five languages which include English, French, Amharic, Tigrigna and Italian.

Joseph Solan, Consultant
Joseph Solan was Senior Manager of the Portfolio and Technology Division at GICT. He was responsible for a US$1.4 billion portfolio of loans and equity investments in telecommunications, IT and media, as well as new investments in technology related businesses globally. Joe has over 25 years of banking experience in all regions of the world, including 12 years in the telecommunications and private infrastructure sectors. Prior to joining IFC, he worked for 3i plc, London, a major UK financial institution. Joe holds a BSc (Hons) degree in engineering from Imperial College, London, completed graduate studies at Cambridge University, and then obtained an MBA from London Business School.

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