Advisory board

For specific issues, Musoni has access to the knowledge and contacts of our Advisory Board. The role of the Advisory Board is to provide the Senior Management with specialist assistance in each of the Board’s respective areas of expertise.

Currently, the Advisory Board consists of:

Sjoerd van Keulen

Sjoerd van Keulen has helped banking become more sustainable oriented. Mr. van Keulen studied political science in Amsterdam. His first job was business advisor, first as a private consultant and later at Pierson bank. From 1990 till 1998 he was director at this bank and was successful in merging it into MeesPierson in 1994. From 1999 till 2002 Sjoerd van Keulen was chairman of the managing board at Fortis Bank Netherlands and from 2002 till 2009 he served as CEO of SNS-bank. In that position he managed the acquisition of several financial companies and brought part of the bank to the stock exchange in 2006. Since 2003 Mr. van Keulen is board member of PharmaAccess, a public private partnership to improve healthcare in Africa. Since 2009 Sjoerd van Keulen also serves at the chairman of Holland Financial Centre.

Herman Wijffels

Herman Wijffels studied economics at Tilburg University. Mr. Wijffels initially worked at the Dutch ministry of agriculture and was the general secretary of a large employers’ federations. From 1986 till 1999 Mr. Wijffels served as chairman of the executive board of the Rabobank Group. Afterwards Mr. Wijffels became chairperson of the Social and Economic Council, the main advisory body to the Dutch government and parliament on a broad range of economic and social policy issues. Between 2006 and 2008, Herman Wijffels was executive director at the Worldbank. In that period he was also involved in forming the current Dutch government. Mr. Wijffels interest is to develop an efficient and sustainable finance sector in developing markets, especially in rural areas.

Hanno Riedlin

Hanno Riedlin studied law in Leiden. Afterwards he served for 22 years in several functions at ABN Amro, mainly in Asia. His last function at ABN Amro was regional manager for South East Asia. Afterwards Mr. Riedlin joined the Rabobank and had several functions between 1994 and 2007. His last positions were head of the internal audit department and head of the risk department. Since 2007 Hanno Riedlin serves on the board of Accion. He also advises the Executive Board of the Bank Respublika in Azerbaijan and the managing board of FMO. Mr. Riedlin is concentrating on institutions that have a clear view on mitigating risks.

Hans Lemkes

Hans Lemkes studied horticulture in Aalsmeer (The Netherlands) and Odense (Denmark). In 1970 he joined the horticultural family business ‘Royal Lemkes’. Under his management, the company evolved from a business specialised in the cultivation of houseplants into a service provider focused on supply chain integration in the horticultural sector. Royal Lemkes Group is currently one of the largest horticultural service providers to the major European retail companies.

In 2007, the year in which Royal Lemkes Group celebrated its 125th anniversary, Hans handed the company over to new management. He is still associated with Royal Lemkes Group as a senior advisor.

Hans was member of various boards of directors in the horticultural sector. He was at the leading edge of the development of the current European logistical standard ‘Container Centralen’. He also pioneered reverse supply chain logistics in the horticultural sector.

In 2008, Hans started a demonstration farm in Sierra Leone as part of the Private Sector Investment (PSI) programme of the Dutch Ministry for Development Cooperation. He is introducing advanced agricultural technology to achieve sustainable crop production in a country ravaged by 12 years of civil war.

Willem Stolwijk

Willem Stolwijk studied economics at Erasmus University Rotterdam. He is also a registered CPA. After graduation he worked for ABN Amro and ING in the Netherlands and abroad in the field of ICT. He became CEO of Datatrafic in 1986, the company that started electronic payments in the Netherlands. Afterwards he became CEO of Eurocard and BeaNet and developed the debitcard concept (PIN) for financial institutions. In 1994 he merged these companies with Bank Giro Center into Interpay and was its CEO until 2004. He is now involved in advising small companies in developing countries. In 2008 he started Water Right Foundation aiming at improving drinking water systems for poor families based on Low Cost Technology and Micro Credits.

Harm Slomp

Harm Slomp studied accountancy at NivRA and Groningen University (The Netherlands) and worked as junior auditor for Moret & Limperg (now Ernst & Young). After ten years he changed, accepting senior financial management positions. In the period 1992-1998 Harm was the CFO for the continental operations of (then London listed) Kwik-Fit (automobile car repair retail), based in Edinburgh.
In 1998 he founded consultancy firm @AVenture Interim Managers, specialized in corporate recovery, assisting law firms and banks. Upon invitation of the Leadership of Leger des Heils (The Salvation Army) in The Netherlands he accepted the position of Finance Secretary in 2003, in combination with the responsibility representing Leger des Heils in the international Salvation Army community development partnership. In this responsibility Harm now leads the The Netherlands team, partnering with International Headquarters in London and many of the 120 countries worldwide with Salvation Army presence.

Rinze Verbeek

Rinze Verbeek studied economics at Tilburg University. In 1996 Rinze started his working career as a corporate management trainee within ABN AMRO Bank NV. Until 2008 he held different corporate positions within ABN AMRO. In his last job he was a district director, responsible for SME clients.
In 2008 he joined the Luxembourg based family office Fidessa. There he built the private equity management services for their clients. In 2009 Rinze decided to start his own company, rinZvest. With his company he advises High Net Worth Individuals with regards to their private equity related investments. Part of these investments are so called social ventures, an investment area which holds Rinzes particular interest.

Lukas Wellen, Musoni Founder

Lukas has almost 15 years of microfinance experience in both advisory and management roles, with extensive field experience in Africa, Eastern Europe and Asia. He studied Macro Economics and financial systems in Amsterdam and South Africa. After working at the risk department of Rabobank, he joined ProCreditBank, first in the Balkans, followed by the Ukraine. After tthis experience Lukas moved to Central Vietnam, where he was responsible for economic development and microfinance programmes. Three years later Lukas moved back to Holland and was at Triple Jump responsible for delivering technical assistance to MFIs in the Caucasus and East Africa. Since 2007 Lukas works on mobile banking and he started Musoni mobile microfinance in 2009. Lukas also has experience with governance in Cambodia, Georgia and Azerbaijan. .