Managing Board

Thos Gieskes joined Oikocredit in April 2017. As Managing Director, Thos is responsible for steering and implementing the global strategy at Oikocredit. He is also responsible for the investor relations, communications and audit functions. In addition to heading the day-to-day operations, he is responsible for representing Oikocredit as the organisation’s main spokesperson.

Before coming to Oikocredit, for nearly 30 years Thos worked in leadership positions at Rabobank, an international cooperative bank including positions in the Netherlands, Chile and Australia. His thorough knowledge and expertise in international finance includes rural lending.

Thos holds a master’s degree in development economics from the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.

Bart van Eyk joined Oikocredit in August 2015. As Director of Investments he has overall responsibility for loans and equity financing, including agriculture and financial inclusion.

Bart has extensive international business and leadership experience in microfinance, business innovation and structured finance in emerging markets. Prior to joining Oikocredit, Bart was the founder and CEO of Musoni, the world’s first 100% cashless microfinance institution in Kenya. Bart began his career as an officer in the Royal Netherlands Air Force. He then joined ABN AMRO where he gained almost 10 years’ experience in international private banking and business development in new growth markets.

He holds an MBA from Nijmegen University.

Ging Ledesma joined Oikocredit in 1999 as Deputy Regional Manager for Southeast Asia, and was appointed to the managing board in 2012. As Director of Social Performance Innovation, she is responsible for monitoring the social and environmental impact of Oikocredit as well as partner capacity building.

Prior to joining Oikocredit, Ging worked for various organisations in Asia, including Asia Partnership for Human Development in Hong Kong, and the National Secretariat for Social Action, Justice and Peace in the Philippines. Ging was Oikocredit’s first Social Performance Manager. She has also headed investor relations, and has been an Interim Managing Director of Oikocredit.

She has a degree in business administration from the University of the Philippines.

Petra Lens joined Oikocredit in August 2016 as Global Head of Human Resources, and the managing board in February 2018. As director of People & Change she is responsible for human resources and business transformation functions.

She has extensive HR experience in international philanthropy and financial services. Prior to joining Oikocredit, she spent over three years as Global Human Resources Director for Porticus, an international family-owned philanthropy organisation. This followed the position of Human Resources Manager for the family office Anthos and other roles for a domestic insurance cooperative, as well as the Dutch cooperative bank Rabobank. She is a member of the European Leadership Platform in Amsterdam.

Petra holds a bachelor’s degree in human resource management from the University of Applied Sciences in Rotterdam.She also finished an executive education programme in human resources strategy and organisational change at the London Business School.

Laura Pool joined Oikocredit in December 2017. As Director of Integrated Reporting & Control, she heads a number of functions: financial accounting, investment analysis, legal, compliance, portfolio & business control, collections and treasury.

Previously Laura was a management board member at impact investor Triodos Investment Management. This followed positions as Chief Financial Officer and Chief Risk Officer at the insurance company Nationale Borg and several roles with ING Group.

Laura holds a master’s degree in tax law from the University of Leiden and a master’s in financial economics from TIAS business school.

Patrick Stutvoet joined Oikocredit in March 2019 and heads IT applications & infrastructure, as well as the business operations functions.

Patrick has over 20 years’ experience in information technology and operations for the financial services sector, including roles at the Bank of England, ABN AMRO and Cap Gemini.

Prior to joining Oikocredit he worked as an operations consultant at the Bank of England, Head of Transaction Banking (IT International) at ABN AMRO, and Head of Investments (IT International) at ABN AMRO.

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Thos Gieskes

Bart van Eyk

Ging Ledesma

Petra Lens

Laura Pool

Patrick Stutvoet

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