Susie Miller – Chair

Susie has a Bachelor’s degree in Economics and Spanish from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and worked for many years as a high school Spanish teacher. She later earned her Master’s degree in community counseling and now works in private practice treating anxiety, depression, and substance abuse. Susie started the Friendship Circle in Mequon, Wisconsin, and has been active over the years as their Circle leader. She and her husband John have four children. They have both traveled in Guatemala on various mission and insight trips, and Susie has recent experience working on education and development programs in eastern Kenya.

Geoffrey Hoyl – Vice Chair

Geoffrey Hoyl, is a co-founder, Chairman of the board of directors, and an audit committee member for Keynetics Inc., one of Idaho’s largest private technology companies. Prior to co-founding Keynetics in 1998, Geoff had a thirty-year career in the mining industry. During that time he served as the chief executive of a series of private and publicly held mining companies with operations in the United States and around the world. He has extensive experience in corporate finance, fintech, online fraud control, mining, geological engineering, labor relations, and business operations and management. Geoff lives in Colorado.

Maryann Hunter – Treasurer

Maryann has 15 years of experience on the Federal Reserve Board, having served as both as Deputy Director and Senior Advisor. She also served as the officer in charge of bank supervision and risk management functions for the Kansas City District of the Federal Reserve. She received her Master’s Degree in Public Policy from the University of Michigan Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science and Government from Penn State University.

Betsy Thompson – Secretary

Dr. Thompson is a retired Assistant Surgeon General and Rear Admiral of the U.S. Public Health Service (PHS) with more than 30 years of experience as a physician, leader, and educator for a wide range of public health organizations. She earned her undergraduate degree from St. Lawrence University; M.D. and Master of Science in Public Health (MSPH) degrees from the University of Colorado; and a Doctorate in Public Health (DrPH) in health policy from the University of Michigan. Dr. Thompson has decades of volunteer experience for medical and educational causes and has extensive experience and training in chronic disease prevention and health care quality improvement. She currently lives in Durango, Colorado.

Susan Zimmermann – Immediate Past Chair

An internationally-known speaker and consultant, Susan Zimmermann is the coauthor of Mosaic of Thought and 7 Keys to Comprehension. She co-founded and served as the Executive Director of the Denver-based Public Education and Business Coalition, an organization that has spearheaded groundbreaking work on reading comprehension. Susan has given hundreds of workshops, keynotes, and summer institutes in nearly every US state, and internationally, on ways to deepen reading and writing experiences for adults and children. Susan is also the author of Keeping Katherine and Writing to Heal the Soul, winner of the Colorado Book Award. Susan has been a trustee of numerous nonprofits including the International Rett Syndrome Association, the Colorado Outward Bound School, and The Women’s Wilderness Institute. A mother of four and graduate of Yale Law School, Susan lives in the foothills west of Denver.

Anna De La Cruz

Anna is a Seattle-based social impact and gender expert with an emphasis on global health, microfinance and social enterprise. As Chief Impact Officer for Linked Foundation, she leads the foundation’s impact measurement work and guides and implements investment and strategy decisions. Anna also serves as consultant and advisor to global organizations looking to measure and maximize their social impact and improve gender equity. Previously, Anna worked on private sector health delivery as part of the UCSF Global Health Group, managed impact evaluations in Mexico with Innovations for Poverty Action, and helped establish the Financial Access Initiative at New York University. She holds a Master’s in Public Administration with a focus on International Policy from New York University, and a Bachelor’s with distinction in International Studies from the University of Washington. While Anna has worked globally, Latin America holds a special place in her heart having worked extensively in Mexico, Guatemala and other countries throughout the region.

Antonieta Del Cid de Bonilla

Antonieta is a Guatemalan Economist with a bachelor’s degree from San Carlos University of Guatemala and a Master of Science in Economics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Illinois. She is presently the Dean of the Faculty of Economics and Business Sciences at Universidad Rafael Landivar (URL) where she previously consulted in the research fiscal area. She has national and international experience, both in the public and the private sector. She was a representative of Central America on the board of the International Monetary Fund between 2017 and 2019 and again in 1999 and 2000. She also served as a resident expert on central banking at the Regional Center for Technical Assistance of said organization. She presided over the Banco de Guatemala and the Monetary Board between 2006 and 2010, where she had previously held the positions of Vice President (1993-1996), Manager of the Economic Area, Coordinator of the Technical Council, and Director of the Department of Economic Studies. She was Minister of Finance between 2004 and 2006. She served as executive director for Central America and Belize at the Inter-American Development Bank between 1996 and 1999. She has also served as general manager of two private banks and has chaired and served on several public and private sector boards. Between 2011 and 2013, she was a columnist for the column “Economic Prism” of the newspaper Prensa Libre.

Diane Kane

Diana Kane, M.D., has been a licensed physician in Colorado since 1998. She worked as a Primary Care Pediatrician for Kaiser Permanente for infants, children, and teens in metro Denver for nearly 20 years, and was a member of Children’s Hospital Colorado Active Referral Medical Staff. With degrees from Tufts University and University of Maryland, she completed her residency at University of Colorado School of Medicine and earned a Structural Acupuncture for Physicians certification from Harvard University School of Medicine.

Paolo Leiva

Paolo is an Industrial Engineer with an MBA from Universidad Mesoamericana and a Master in Microfinance and Social Development from Universidad de Alcalá de Henares Spain. He is Guatemalan and is a finance business manager at Cementos Progreso, a “multi-latina” cement company. He brings to Friendship Bridge 20 years of corporate finance background mainly in treasury, credits and collection, and financial planning and analysis in diverse industries. He is a social entrepreneur that co-founded Asociación Solidaridad por Guatemala and founded Asociación Emprendimiento Social, an association from which he earned seed capital from an entrepreneurship contest in Guatemala launched by the Ministry of Economy (EMPRENDEGT) to develop the first Guatemalan crowdfunding platform to raise funds for NGOs and social entrepreneurs.

Steve Miller

Steve Miller has been a member of the law firm Sherman & Howard, L.L.C. since May of 1983, practicing law in its Denver, Colorado office. He served on the firm’s Executive Committee until his resignation as a member of the committee on January 1, 2020.  He is currently a Member of the firm’s Business & Real Estate Department in its Denver office. He is primarily involved in corporate, securities, and commercial law. Mr. Miller’s practice focuses on finance, mergers and acquisitions, fiduciary obligations, and securities law compliance. He has also counseled directors and significant shareholders of public companies in negotiating support agreements and complying with applicable regulatory requirements in change-of-control transactions. Before entering law school, Mr. Miller practiced as a Certified Public Accountant with a national C.P.A. firm where he specialized in tax and accounting matters for manufacturing concerns and financial institutions.

Alexandra Neville

Alexandra has a Bachelor’s degree in English and French from the University of Colorado, Boulder. She has over 20 years of experience in financial services marketing, working with global firms, including Charles Schwab and Janus Henderson. Most recently, Alex served as Chief Marketing Officer for 361 Capital, a Denver-based alternatives asset manager (now a division of Hamilton Lane), where she was recognized as Chief Marketing Officer of the Year globally by WealthManagement.com. She currently serves in a senior advisory capacity for an alternatives asset management firm based in Minnesota. She and her husband, Shawn, live in Castle Rock, Colorado.

María Matilde Olazábal

María Matilde Olazábal is currently President and CEO of FFH Alcance AC and leads the impact analysis of Co Capital de Impacto. Ms. Olazábal works to promote initiatives that have an impact on improving the quality of life of people living in poverty. Contributing to strengthening human and community development capacities with training and education proposals for civil society organizations and community-based institutions’ staff in charge of addressing poverty issues.

María Matilde has also been developing business, negotiating strategic partnerships between FFHAlcance and other international and national development organizations in addition to supporting innovation, the improvement of comprehensive financial services for microfinance institutions, the development of training of trainers, and the development of educational products on relevant topics for people living in poverty. A focus of her work has been the promotion of development complementary services to the provision of financial services for the microfinance sector. She directed her team’s participation in evaluation (due diligence) activities for private equity investment in two microfinance institutions, focusing on the assessment of rural financial products and complementary services for the poor. Recently, she directed the organization’s Latin America Team in the development and operation of an open training E-Learning Platform to offer Development Sector Front Line Staff training programs to enhance their Key Competencies. Ms. Olazábal is a member of various Boards of Directors and Trustees of Civil Society Organizations recognized for their commitment to improving social problems.

Carolina Roca

Carolina Roca is an Economist with a Master’s Degree in Public Administration from Harvard University. She makes her home in Guatemala and is a senior partner at IDC, a Guatemala consultant firm where she focuses on the areas of finance, institutional development and innovation, and public sector reform. In addition, Carolina is an active member of the community where she has served as President of the Foundation for Women’s Development, a small NGO granting credits and training to women’s micro-business projects, and is presently a board member of FUNDASISTEMAS, Entrepreneurs for Education and Vital Voices Guatemala. Prior to IDE, Carolina served as Vice-Minister of Energy and Mines, Vice Minister of Public Finance, Technical Secretary of the Economic Cabinet and Director of External Financing. In addition, she was the Commissioner of the Guatemalan Tax and Customs Administration from 2005-2008, serving two different government administrations.

Parker Schenken

Parker Schenken is a public finance attorney with Sherman & Howard in Denver, assisting public-sector clients with financing housing, healthcare and public infrastructure projects in Colorado, New Mexico and his home state of Nebraska. Parker is a graduate of the University of Nebraska College of Law and holds a bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering from Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. Parker recently concluded his service on the board of directors of a language immersion charter school in Denver with programs in Spanish and Mandarin Chinese, and has traveled extensively throughout Guatemala (where his youngest daughter was born). Parker and his wife Alanna live in the Denver area.
Parker enjoys hiking, climbing and skiing, music, and spending time with his family.

Founders

• Connie Ning
• Ted Ning
• Mimi Schlumberger

Board of Advisors

• Chris Dunford – Co-Chair, Freedom from Hunger
• Sandy Younghans