Blog
Fri, 06/08/2012
"01 June 2012, Apia, Samoa SPBD Microfinance (Samoa) Ltd. join the leaders and people of Samoa in celebrating the 50th Independence day celebration. The logo for the celebration - The voyaging motifs of oceans, canoes, the sun and stars, portrays Samoa's journey of the last 50 years. SPBD Staff joined commemorative march-pass at Tiafau where the Samoan flag was raised 50 years ago." photo...
Thu, 05/24/2012
SPBD's CFO - James Vanreusel - wrote an article in the bi-monthly CFA Magazine looking at microfinance and how social and financial goals should go hand-in-hand. This is a topic that is widely being used in the Impact Investing community, but which still hasn't reached mainstream thinking.
Here is the link to the article: http://viewer.zmags.com/publication/c4ecda78#/c4ecda78/69
Mon, 05/07/2012
Amy Lofgren and Elrico Munoz, the General Managers at SPBD Tonga and SPBD Fiji respectively, attended the Advanced Leadership Program hosted by Women's World Banking in Philadelphia in April. The feedback was terrific and they are looking forward to meeting their mentors in London later on this year. It was another great experience and SPBD hopes to be able to send more people to the training...
Fri, 03/30/2012
On Friday, April 27th from 9am-2pm, Greg Casagrande will be speaking at Columbia Business School's Microlumbia Fund's 5th Annual Microfinance Conference hosted at Columbia University.
Please see the preliminary schedule below.
For the last four years, Microlumbia has brought together leaders in the microfinance field for an academic discussion on the current state and future of the microfinance...
Mon, 03/05/2012
Greg Casagrande, Founder and President of SPBD, will be speaking at the 2012 Penn Microfinance Conference on March 24th. We invite you to attend and introduce yourself to Greg during the day. http://pennmicrofinance.org/conference/
About: Established as the first and largest undergraduate conference in the country, the Penn Microfinance Conference brings together talented individuals,...
Tue, 01/10/2012
We are pleased to share Greg Casagrande's speech at the inaugural Business Woman of the Year Awards in Fiji:
NisaBula Vinaka! and Welcome to the 1st ever SPBD Foundation Day Celebration.
Before we get started I want to acknowledge a few special persons.
• Thank you to Mrs Kesaia Fung for your thoughtful opening prayer and remarks.
• Thank you to our very special guest keynote speaker today, the...
Tue, 01/10/2012
Please find the transcript of the keynote address of Acting Prime Minister Afioga Fiame Naomi below:
Rev. Faafouina
President of SPBD, Mr Greg Casagrande
Distinguished Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
1. I am honored to have been invited to be a key speaker at the 11th Businesswomen of the year Awards 2011.It is encouraging when government witnesses that the efforts of businesswomen and village...
Mon, 10/03/2011
A recently published article "MDGs: UN Summit risks becoming another footnote" (http://www.punchng.com/Articl.aspx?theartic=Art201109141175490) has described 48 of the world’s poorest countries being totally off-track as the 2015 deadline approaches to meet the Millennium Development Goals. Of note, according to the MDG monitor, Samoa seems to be one of the two exceptions having already achieved...
Mon, 08/15/2011
The 2011 Microfinance Pasifika conference held in Port Vila, Vanuatu was a huge success. SPBD was very well represented by its 3 General Managers: Elrico Munoz (SPBD Fiji), Maros Parreno Apostol (SPBD Samoa), and Amy Lofgren (SPBD Tonga). Greg Casagrande, SPBD's Founder and Managing Director, was a keynote speaker at the event. (Photo of Greg and SPBD's 3 GMs)
Below is Greg's...
Fri, 06/24/2011
Blog from the field - Celine our Sustainable Energy Program Manager is in Tonga assessing energy poverty and renewable energy options.
Second week in Tonga
The second week of my investigation trip brought me to the islands group of Vava’u, located at the central part of the Kingdom, only 1 hour by plane (or about 24 hours by boat) from the capital city.
Vava’u is a group of more than 50...
