Claude Barras, Director

Mr. Claude Barras is the Managing Director and founding partner of the Swiss Investment Fund for Emerging Markets (Sifem AG). He has 20 years of experience in development, investment and economic cooperation in developing and transition economies.

Claude began his career as an advisor to the Swiss Government in bilateral economic relations with Asian countries. Subsequently, he served as advisor to the Swiss Executive Director at the World Bank Group in Washington DC. From 1999 until the founding of Sifem Claude was in charge of managing the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs’s investment portfolio in emerging markets. Claude holds a Master’s Degree in Economics from the University of Fribourg, Switzerland.

Johanna Klein, Director

Johanna Klein is an Investment Officer in the Asian Development Bank’s Capital Markets and Financial Sectors division, which lends to and invests in financial institutions in the Asia-Pacific region. Her responsibilities include executing investments into private equity funds, and helping to monitor, via board and advisory committee presence, ADB’s portfolio of 42 funds, representing over $600 million of commitments, across Asian emerging markets.

She previously worked in investment banking at Credit Suisse First Boston, and in the microfinance funds unit of the Deutsche Bank Community Development Group. She has a BA from Harvard University, an MSc from the London School of Economics, and an MBA from MIT’s Sloan School of Management.

Pekka Juusela, Director

Mr. Pekka Juusela was Finnfund’s Regional Director based at the company’s Regional Office for South East Asia, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, from 1999 to 2005. He repatriated to Finland in March 2005 to work as Senior Investment Manager with Finnfund’s Investment Operations Division in Helsinki. Mr. Juusela first joined Finnfund in 1990, and after an interim period of some years with the United Nations in Kenya and Switzerland he rejoined the company to head their SEA Office in 1999.

Mr. Juusela was born in 1946 in Finland and holds a M.Sc. degree in Economics and Business Administration from the Helsinki School of Economics. He is also a Chartered Accountant. Prior to joining Finnfund in 1990, Mr. Juusela had acquired post-graduate working experience since 1974 particularly in Corporate Finance and Financial Administration. In addition to working in Finland, Mr. Juusela has had considerable exposure to South East Asia and East Africa.

Daniel Keller, Director

Mr. Daniel Keller is the founder and President of Swiss Consulting Co, Ltd., a Hanoi-based provider of executive counseling services and venture opportunity screening for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). His company is also specialized in institutional assessments, evaluations and project management services in the field of development cooperation.

Mr. Keller started his professional career in 1991 as a secretary in a District Court in Switzerland. Prior to establishing Swiss Consulting in 2001, he was the General Manager of Ringier – Thong Nhat Joint Venture Company, the first foreign-invested printing company in Vietnam. Mr. Keller has earned a Master’s Degree in Law in Switzerland and an MBA in the United States. Mr. Keller is fluent in Vietnamese.

Mr. Keller is also a member of the Mekong Enterprise Fund’s Investment Committee.

Nathalie Brisbois, Director

Mrs. Nathalie Brisbois is BIO's Investment Officer for Asia.

Before joining the Belgian Investment Company for Developing Countries SA/NV (“BIO”), Mrs. Brisbois worked in the banking sector at ING Belgique where she was Senior Restructuring Manager advising SMEs, Corporate, Banks and Project Finance on restructuring plans and loans. She had also gained extensive experience in SMEs and Corporate financing as Account Manager. Previously, she had worked in the consulting industry at PriceWaterhouseCoopers. Mrs. Brisbois holds a MBA in Finance and Strategy from the Solvay Business School (Brussels) and a degree in Law from the University of Louvain.

Mrs. Brisbois is also a member of the Mekong Enterprise Fund’s Investment Committee.