New Paths to Prosperity
By Nancy Moffit and Sharon L. Crenson
From microfinance to network creation, Wharton alumni are fostering growth and opportunity worldwide.
Rosalind Copisarow had begun to see her work
as invisible. Most of her waking hours were
spent in front of a computer screen churning
out cash-flow projections on deals financing
the extraction of oil and gas from the North
Sea. It was 1983, and Copisarow, WG'88,
G'88, was a 25-year-old commercial banker in
Citibank's oil and mining department.
"I never saw a single thing we financed—women weren't
allowed on the oil rigs anyway—and I never touched or
felt or had any idea of the impact, good or bad, of anything
I worked on," she says of that time.
This feeling that her work was disconnected from real life
planted the seeds of Copisarow's ultimate defection from commercial
banking. It also began her dramatic personal journey
toward something she now calls "soul work." Today, at 47,
Copisarow is Senior Vice President, International Operations,
Europe, Asia & Middle East for ACCION International and
a world leader in the microfinance industry. Prior to joining
ACCION last year, Copisarow founded and ran microfinance
organizations in Poland and the U.K., receiving numerous
international awards along the way, including the Officer's
Cross of the Order of Merit in recognition for her services
to the Polish economy and a special award from the U.S.
Government, presented by then-First Lady Hillary Clinton.
In the pages that follow, the Wharton Alumni Magazine
continues Copisarow's story, as well as sharing the narratives
of several other pioneering men and women, each
passionate about work they say "feeds the heart." Whether
as a day job or second-shift volunteer work, these alumni
are expanding Wharton's impact by applying business
skills and networks to open opportunities, expand education,
and create livelihoods around the world.
- Addicted to Helping the Masses
ROSALIND CAPISAROW
- Financing Better Schools in Low-Income Neighborhoods
SARA VERNON STERMAN
- Taking Microchips to Microcredit
IQBAL QUADIR
- Creating Access for the Next Generation
APURV BAGRI
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