Valeria Budinich, Vice President
Valeria Budinich has worked for 20 years in the creation and expansion of business development programs in 22 countries worldwide. At Ashoka, as the Vice-President leading the Full Economic Citizenship Initiative, Valeria focuses on enabling commercial alliances between social entrepreneurs and private companies to deliver products and services to small producers and low-income families. Her main area of professional interest is finding ways to harness the collective power of social and business entrepreneurs. Prior to joining Ashoka, she was the Chief Operating Officer at Appropriate Technology International (ATI), a global non-profit foundation specializing in providing technical and financial assistance to small and medium sized enterprises in rural areas. She was also a founding Vice-President for Latin America at Endeavor, a foundation specialized in linking entrepreneurs in emerging economies with venture capital investors in the US. From 1999-2001, Valeria served as VP for New Initiatives at BDA, a California-based consulting firm specializing in business process redesign and technology innovations for private sector clients worldwide. She was brought up in Chile and trained as an industrial engineer.

Stephanie Schmidt, Senior Program Manager
Stephanie joined Ashoka's Full Economic Citizenship Initiative in 2004, bringing experience from both business and social sectors. Prior to joining Ashoka, Stephanie worked in Rwanda for two years where she launched a new Economic Development program to produce and market essential oils with small farmers — a formative experience that enabled her to realize the challenge to make markets work for the poor — and oversaw World Relief's country programs including HIV/AIDS and Maternal and Child Health. Before moving to Africa, Stephanie worked for several years in management consulting with Deloitte Consulting in Paris and in Boston. As a student and a professional, she has been actively involved in social work ranging from supporting Romanian orphanages to starting a coaching program for long-term unemployed workers. Stephanie holds a Master of Business Administration from ESSEC Business School in France.

Kimberly Manno Reott, Country Director, Mexico
Kimberly's main professional interest centers on creating innovative connections between the private, public and non-profit sectors that create deep social value. She joined Ashoka to lead the Full Economic Citizenship initiative in Mexico and the region. Kimberly came to Ashoka from Mumbai, India where she started a revenue-generating unit of an Indian non-profit, GIVE Foundation, to advise companies on strategic partnerships with non-profit organizations. Before Mumbai, Kimberly was the product director at Boston-based company called Imagitas and spent several years as a consultant at McKinsey & Co. She also led the policy team of a Congressional campaign in North Carolina before joining the Representative's office on Capitol Hill. Kimberly has a BA from the University of Virginia, an MBA from the Harvard Business School and Masters of Public Administration from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.

Yadira Bayona, Manager, Mexico
Yadira leads the FEC pilot projects in Mexico, devising and implementing innovative financing, distribution and marketing mechanisms to help facilitate and validate collaborations between the business and social sectors. Before joining Ashoka, Yadira worked in implementing cross-sector alliances, which allowed companies, public institutions and citizen sector organizations to share knowledge and experiences in order to reach their social and profitability goals. Her work included development projects with organizations such as the World Bank, PACT, CEMEFI, TNC, and companies as CEMEX, GAMESA, UPS and others. Yadira designed, implemented and evaluated programs for more than 1,000 leading citizen organizations focused on organization development, social marketing and fundraising, finance and project management, social partnering and community empowerment in 16 countries in Latin America. She has an MBA with a specialization in Strategies and Corporate Social Responsibility from the TEC of Monterrey's Graduate Business School EGADE.

Contact Us

Head Office:
Ashoka: Innovators for the Public
1700 North Moore Street
Suite 2000
Arlington, VA 22209
Tel: 703-527-8300
Fax: 703-527-8383
Email:

Mexico: Ashoka Mesoamérica
Tres Cruces 2E, #2
Col. Villa Coyoacán
(04333) México, D.F.
México
Tel: 52-55-5659-1271
Fax: 52-55-5658-7909
Email: