New York based Women’s World Banking’s (WWB) Center for Microfinance Leadership, which designs and delivers executive education programmes focused on cultivating principled, visionary leaders in microfinance, announces its inaugural event for the “The Coaching Programme – Coaching for Mission Leadership and Performance”, co-designed and hosted near Oxford by UK company Creative Metier from June 15-17.

The six month programme will bring together 17 senior leaders and managers in microfinance from 12 institutions in 11 countries across the Middle East, Asia, Africa and Latin America to enhance their knowledge, skills, and leadership capabilities through coaching. Participants will be welcomed by the Rt Hon Lord Patten of Barnes', Chancellor of Oxford University. This is the first Center workshop to be held in the UK since it was created last year.

“The Center for Microfinance Leadership helps develop talented microfinance leaders who are prepared to meet today’s challenges in a rapidly changing microfinance industry,” said Mary Ellen Iskenderian, President and CEO of Women’s World Banking. “The Coaching Programme is a crucial addition to our line-up of workshops, which are designed to give senior managers the skills necessary to better serve the needs of the poor”.

WWB established the global Center for Microfinance Leadership in response to critical changes in microfinance—including increased commercialization and formalization, decreased presence of women staff at all levels of microfinance institutions and rapid growth—that demand skilled, trained leaders and managers. The Coaching Programme is the latest in a series organized by the Center, and will focus on overcoming the serious challenges that leaders face, including implementing core business objectives, developing future leaders and planning for succession.

The programme is based on an extensive needs analysis carried out by Creative Metier with CEOs in leading microfinance institutions globally. Creative Metier specializes in the people side of managing change in a global environment, with a strong focus on leadership development and learning design, and is a market leader in Remote International Coaching Delivery (RICD).

“Creative Metier is proud to deliver this exciting Programme in partnership with the Women’s World Banking Center for Microfinance Leadership,” said Glynis Rankin, Director, Creative Metier. “The mission of the Center is entirely consistent with our commitments as a Company, and we welcome the opportunity to work with this principled and highly-skilled group of leaders as they continue to set the vision, principles and practices for their institutions and the clients that they serve.”
   
Delegates attending the Coaching Programme have previously attended the Advanced Leadership Programme and/or the Women in Leadership Programme delivered by The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania’s Aresty Institute of Executive Education.

As the microfinance sector commercializes, mainstream corporations are starting to take note of what was once the purview of non-profits. Women’s World Banking has arranged for the delegates to meet with the Women's International Network at BP and senior officials at HSBC. Both corporations are already engaged with microfinance in some of the developing countries where they have operations.

About Women’s World Banking (WWB)

WWB is a leading global network of 40 microfinance providers and banks, working in 28 countries to bring financial products and services to low-income entrepreneurs, especially women. The network is supported by an international team of experts based in New York who deliver expertise in product design and distribution, access to capital markets, and customer care and insight. The network serves over 23 million micro-entrepreneurs.  For more information on WWB, please visit its website at
www.womensworldbanking.org