• Masters of Law in international Economic Law
• Bachelors of Law
• Institute of Certified Public Secretaries of Kenya (ICPS) (K)

Canon Chris is the current General Secretary of the National Church Council of Kenya (NCCK), SMEP’s greatest stakeholder. as from 1st October, 2019 to date. He was the former Clerk of the County Assembly of Murang'a County, Senior Programme Officer of NCCK and National Coordinator of EAK.

• BA Degree in Economics

• Institute of Certified Public Secretaries of Kenya (ICPSK)
• Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Kenya (ICPAK)

Victoria Cherotich, is a seasoned professional with over fifteen years experience in Financial Audits, Customer Experience, Digital Transformation, Governance Advisory Services, Company Secretarial Services, Securities Registration and Project Management.

She holds a Bachelor of Arts (Economics) Degree and a Masters of Business Administration (MBA) both from the University of Nairobi. She is a Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Certified Sustainability Professional as well as a Certified Secretary, an Accredited Governance Auditor and Certified Public Accountant.

Victoria has attended various professional management and corporate governance capacity building courses. She also serves as the Company Secretary on various Boards of Companies in diverse sectors.

• Bachelor of Science in International Business-Messiah College, Grantham, Pennsylvania USA
• Strategic Leadership in Inclusive Finance, Harvard Business School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
• Transformative Economic Empowerment Certificate, Center for Community Transformation (CCT) Tagaytay City, Philippines.
• Certification in Transformative Financial Services, University of Pennsylvania - Wharton School

Mr. Crist joined the HOPE team as a finance and accounting assistant after graduating with an international business degree from Messiah College. He was promoted to the roles of microenterprise technical advisor, senior microfinance specialist, Africa assistant regional director, and managing director of HOPE Congo before transitioning to his current role as the Senior Director of Microfinance. Mr. Crist’s expertise in program performance analysis, portfolio analytics, and training staff on the use of industry tools will be a great asset to SMEP MFB operations. In addition, he brings strong experience acquired from providing strategic direction and managing the HOPE International's global network of Christ- centered microfinance institutions.

• Masters of Business Administration (M.B.A.), Accounting and Finance- University of Nairobi

John is a CPA with good standing with the ICPAK. He also holds an MBA (Finance) and B.Com (Accounting) from the University of Nairobi. He is also a qualified Certified public Secretary of Kenya. John is currently an independent Public Finance Management consultant. He is currently the involved in several consultancy assignments leading high profile teams of consultants in various aspects of Public Financial Management.

• Master’s in finance and Investment (London School of Finance and Management and Geneva Business School).
• Postgraduate Diploma in Innovation and Design Thinking (Emeritus Institute of Management, Singapore).
• Executive MBA (Africa University, Zimbabwe).
• Diploma in Banking (Institute of Bankers in Zimbabwe).
• Certified Expert in Risk Management (Frankfurt School of Finance and Management).
• Certified Expert in Microfinance (Frankfurt School of Finance and Management).
• ACI Operations Certificate (ACI Financial Markets Association, France)
• ACI Dealing Certificate (ACI Financial Markets Association, France)

Paul is Banking and Financial Markets Expert with over eighteen years of progressive experience in the Sub-Saharan Africa region. His experience covers retail banking, microfinance and investment banking in management, advisory and non-executive director positions. He is currently the Director of MFI Risk and Compliance. Paul’s vision is to play a significant role in advancing financial systems of developing and frontier economies through innovation and sustainable finance to achieve inclusive growth and development.

• Master of Science, University of Nairobi
• Bachelor of Science (Hons), Statistics, University of Nairobi
• Fellow of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries (UK)
• Fellow of the Actuarial Society of Kenya (FeTask)

James is a Qualified Actuary with over 30 years of experience in the financial services sector in Kenya, South Africa & the United Kingdom. He has worked as a consultant for a number of retirement schemes and insurance companies. Currently he works as an independent actuarial consultant. James has a keen interest in poverty eradication

• Strategic Leadership for Microfinance Institutions, Harvard Business School
• MBA, Strategic Management and Finance, Daystar University
• Bachelor of Science, Education, Egerton University
• CPA (K)
• CISA
• Member Institute of Directors.

Symon joined SMEP on the back of a strong accounting background having begun his career as an internal auditor from Kimani Kiarie & Certified Public Accounts. Symon has become the backbone of SMEP as he climbed the ranks from being SMEP’s Internal Audit Manager in 2003 to Finance Manager and Head of Finance from 2007 and 2010 respectively. Ensuing his stellar record and alignment with SMEP’s underlying principles, Symon most fittingly assumed his current position as the CEO of the Bank since 2015.

• Master of Business Administration, Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda
• Bachelor of Arts, Social Sciences (Econs), Kyambogo University, Kampala, Uganda

Gideon is currently serving as the Africa Associate Regional Director at HOPE International. Gideon joined HOPE in February 2014, initially as director of operations at HOPE International Congo- Brazzaville, where he helped lead the program through significant growth and quality improvements. In 2016, Gideon transitioned to the role of managing director at Turame Community Finance. Previously, Gideon was the business growth and development manager at Equity Bank Uganda Limited for nearly three years before serving as operations manager with Five Talents Uganda, a Christ-centered economic development organization.

• Bachelor of Science (BSc)Computer Science- Valley View University

Mr. Wuver is experienced in Core Banking systems with a demonstrated history of working in Leadership positions in non-profit organizations, Consulting, Commercial/Microfinance banking industry. He brings to SMEP MFB broad Skills in Business Process, Oracle Database and other Databases, Windows Server, Linux/Unix, and Java. He is a Strong information technology professional currently serving as Managing Director at HOPE International (Distributed Service Unit).

• Fellow, Accion Africa Board on Governance
• Diploma in Banking, Institute of Bankers, Harare –Zimbabwe

Mr. Tsikirayi is a qualified banking professional from the Institute of Bankers of Harare, Zimbabwe, majoring in International Banking, Accounting and Management. Mr. Tsikirayi worked in the banking field for 34 years, most of which spent with Standard Chartered Group where he had spells in Zimbabwe, Sierra Leone, The Gambia, Tanzania and UK. He grew from strength to strength in terms of skills and climbed progressively the ladders of leadership within the SCB Group from a junior clerk to the Chief Executive Officer, a position which he held for 8 years in Sierra Leone, The Gambia and Tanzania. He retired from SCB in 2007 and spent a few years in consultancy services in the financial services sector. His most illuminous consultancy were the credit and risk consultancy with the Banque Commerciale du Rwanda between January 2008 and October 2009 and financial consultancy to the UK based financial services institution Mickey Tee Investments from October 2009 to January 2011. He returned to executive roles in 2011 as the CEO and Managing Director of Opportunity Tanzania, a part of Opportunity International, a global micro financing company with 53 implementing members serving nearly 4 million clients in 23 countries providing loans to the poor to lift them out of poverty. He retired in 2015 to concentrate on Board roles and consultancy services. In 2017 he was appointed as Board agent and Consultant of the strategically and operationally challenged, Shelter Afrique, a pan African finance institution created to exclusively support the development of African real estate and housing sector. Specific tasks of Mr. Tsikirayi were the creation of stability and turnaround framework which entailed analyzing the causes of the failure and identify the principles that underpin the recovery and sustainable success.