New Horizons > June 2002

New Directors

Martín Villafuerte Kanemoto took up his post as the new Executive Director of ECLOF Peru in May 2001. Martín is an economist and studied at the University of Montreal, in Canada, and the University of San Martín Porres, in Peru. He has also completed specialised training in international commercial negotiations at the Getulio Vargas Foundation Study Centre in Brazil; and studied project evaluation and guarantee funds at the Interamerican Development Bank in Washington, D.C.

Martín previously was assistant general manager with the Industrial Bank of Peru and then a consultant for the United Nations and other international organisations, including the World Bank. He is the author of three books on industrial financing, and research and application for alternative financing and development. Martín has also worked as general manager of the Guarantee Fund of Peru, and director of the ADRA OFASA Microcredit Programme of Peru.

ECLOF Sri Lanka recently appointed Gamini Samarasinghe as its new Executive Officer. Gamini has worked in the banking industry for some 35 years, 30 of which he spent with a government bank that focused on rural development and the co-operative movement. The bank pioneered lending to small-scale farmers in Sri Lanka, and also made loans to self-employed small-scale entrepreneurs.

Gamini believes that ECLOF is a gift of God to be used to empower the poor and promote greater equity in the distribution of wealth.

Gamini was previously a member of the ECLOF Sri Lanka board, on which he represented the Baptist Church in Sri Lanka. He served as treasurer to the board for two and a half years before taking up his current post.