Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Shari Loessberg is an experienced entrepreneur in established and emerging markets. In the US, she founded and runs Big World, a strategy firm focused on new ventures in new markets. She also co-founded Zeta Networks, an optical networking firm built on technology developed at MIT. In addition, Loessberg spent five years in Moscow, where she was a partner, director, and general counsel of Brunswick (now UBS Russia), a start-up investment firm in the brutally entrepreneurial Russian equity market. She has particular experience in emerging market venture capital fund formation, entrepreneurship in emerging economies, and the evolving issues and standards of corporate governance in the US and abroad. Loessberg is a director of National Financial Partners (NYSE: NFP); chairman emerita of the board of the International Institute of Boston; and chairman of the board of overseers of the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

Director, Private Equity and Investment Funds Department, IFC

Haydee Celaya, a U.S. national, joined the International Finance Corporation (IFC) in 1991. She held various positions in IFC's Capital Markets and Latin American & Caribbean (LAC) Departments, working on capital markets projects in China and LAC. In June 2000 she became the Director of IFC's Sub-Saharan Africa Department. During her assignment, she was responsible for IFC's private sector development initiatives in Sub-Saharan Africa, for leading the development and implementation of IFC's strategy for the region, and for developing business opportunities for IFC. Since September 2004 she has served as Director of IFC's Private Equity and Investment Funds Department. The Department manages one of the largest portfolios of emerging markets investment funds in the world, and has also pioneered the creation of the first benchmarks for emerging markets private equity, established the Investors Workshop, and participated as a founder of the Emerging Markets Private Equity Association (EMPEA).

Before joining IFC, Haydée Celaya held various positions in the private financial sector, including senior executive positions in commercial and investment banking. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Languages and Linguistics from Georgetown University and a Master's Degree in Economics and Development Banking from The American University in Washington, D.C.

Senior Vice President, Director of International Investments, Portfolio Manager, Pioneer Investments

Christopher Smart is Senior Vice President, Director of International Investments at Pioneer Investment Management, Inc.  Christopher has been Portfolio Manager of Pioneer Emerging Markets Fund since July 9, 2004. Christopher has followed the political and economic transformation of emerging markets for the past 13 years specializing in the markets of Central and Eastern Europe, and those of the former Soviet Union. He has helped direct emerging markets research at Pioneer since joining the company in 1995, and managed both Emerging European and Latin American investment products. He became Director of International Research in 1997 and was promoted to Director of International Investments in 2004. In 1993, Christopher served as Moscow Director of the Macroeconomic and Finance Unit, an advisory group to the Russian Ministry of Finance.  The following year, he was appointed Deputy General Director of the Russian Privatization Center, the principal conduit for foreign technical assistance on issues of market reform.

Christopher speaks fluent French and Russian and is the author of numerous articles on the former Soviet Union, including the book, “The Imagery of Soviet Foreign Policy and the Collapse of the Russian Empire,” (Praeger Publishers, 1995). He is a Chartered Financial Analyst and received his B.A. from Yale University in 1982 and his Ph.D. in International Relations from Columbia University in 1992.  He is also a director of Accion International and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

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