Oliver Gajda

The European Crowdfunding Network (ECN) promotes and supports the development of Crowdfunding mechanisms as a viable funding source to European companies and investors. It is a professional network for adequate (self) regulation and governance and offers a combined voice in policy discussion and public opinion building. It supports its members in carrying industry-wide initiatives and in fostering innovation.

OpenForum Europe (OFE) is a not-for-profit industry organization which was originally launched in 2002 to accelerate and broaden the use of Open Source Software (OSS) among businesses, consumers and governments. OFE's role has since evolved and its primary role now is to promote the use of open standards in ICT as a means of achieving full openness and interoperability of computer systems throughout Europe. It continues to promote open source software, as well as openness more generally as part of a vision

I managed operational change, succession & strategy planning. I restructured the financial administration and analytics, reviewed and aligned compliance and governance, and supported fundraising (we got additional +€5m long term core funding from last year's efforts). Aflatoun is a social franchise and not-for-profit Foundation, providing more than 1 million children and youth aged 6-18 with Social and Financial Education in more than 80 countries.

I have sourced and worked on a number of projects in the USA and in Europe as a business and communications consultant: - Europe Unlimited SA; Brussels, Belgium. - PERACS Ltd.; London, UK. - ACCION International; Washington DC, USA. - Microfinance Information eXchange, Inc; Washington DC, USA. - EVCA; Brussels, Belgium.

Advising on buyout and operations/staff restructuring until end of 2007, since 2008 board member in the holding company, interim COO during 2008 and strategic adviser on building a web 2.0 communications technology platform.

It was good fun as long as it lasted. We published a number great books on private equity and reviewed a few more manuscripts. But time is too short and this was never meant to make money.

Microfinance