Elissa D McCarter-LaBorde

Background and Education

Elissa McCarter-LaBorde is an adjunct lecturer for the IDEV course on Financial Inclusion (previously Microfinance and Development).  She currently serves as Vice President of Development Finance at Global Communities, where over the last nine years she has built the technical department that manages Global Communities'' portfolio of projects in microfinance, housing, and small and medium enterprise finance worldwide.  Ms. McCarter-LaBorde also serves as CEO of Vitas Group, a commercial holding company founded by Global Communities that owns and operates high growth microfinance subsidiaries predominantly in the Middle East.  Prior to joining Global Communities, Ms. McCarter-LaBorde spent seven years in the field as a manager for Catholic Relief Services.  She started and managed two microfinance institutions in Armenia and Turkey, and has served as a trainer and advisor to more than a dozen financial institutions in Africa, the Middle East, and Eastern Europe. 
 
Ms. McCarter-LaBorde''s publications include two books on microfinance mergers and acquisitions, as well as numerous articles on market research and product development, women entrepreneurship; microfinance and climate change, financing the missing middle enterprises, and job creation in the Middle East. 
 
Ms. McCarter-Laborde received her BA from Vanderbilt University and her MS from Georgetown University School of Foreign Service.  She also holds two Masters Certificates from the Institut d''Etudes Politiques de Paris.