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Mary Jo Sentner
Fonkoze Financial Services Board Member
Mary Jo Sentner has been a principal and executive in the private equity, buyout, and venture capital industries for many years. She has started several private equity partnerships, bought and sold small and middle market companies, and raised equity and debt capital from institutions and individuals. She has also developed strategic and financial plans for start-ups and expansion plans for small businesses.
Ms. Sentner was a Managing Director of Tweedy Browne Company in New York, where she started and built a principal equity buyout business and launched a $40 million acquisition fund. She worked in the Consumer Retail Group of WR Grace as Director of Development; there she developed and executed the strategy to build a new $1.5 billion Specialty Retail Group through the acquisition of 12 companies and expansion of the acquired companies. Earlier in her career, Ms. Sentner worked at Donaldson, Lufkin and Jenrette and Gibbons Green & Rice, one of the early leveraged-buyout firms.
For the past ten years she has been an advisor to private equity investors and small companies on startup and expansion plans. She helped to develop a new concept for Socially Responsible Investments (SRI) with an investment firm. Ms. Sentner's special focus has been on advising women entrepreneurs and women investors.
In the last five years she has been deeply involved in the field of microfinance advising networks and MFIs to develop and execute capital plans. In addition to her role as a board member of Fonkoze Financial Services, Ms. Sentner worked with Pro Mujer, an international microfinance network, as interim Director of Resource Development. She is an active supporter of Accion International and serves on its President's Council. She has created, organized, and participated in several microfinance conferences and panels for the financial community. She was a founding partner of ProVentures, an international investment partnership that started the development of private equity funds and direct investments in South Africa and Ecuador. She also sits on the board of Ten Directions Inc and is an advisor to AccessAfricaNOW. Josie graduated from Wellesley College with a BA in Economics.