Jonathan Morduch
MILK Research Advisor
Professor of Public Policy and Economics, NYU Wagner Graduate School of Public Service
Managing Director, Financial Access Initiative

Jonathan is Professor of Public Policy and Economics at the NYU Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, and Managing Director of the Financial Access Initiative, a consortium of researchers focused on financial inclusion. His research centers on microfinance, social investment, and the economics of poverty. He is currently developing a theoretical framework with Jonathan Conning for understanding how governments and philanthropists can use market forces to create social change.

Jonathan is co-author of Portfolios of the Poor: How the World's Poor Live on $2 a Day (Princeton 2009) and The Economics of Microfinance (MIT Press 2005, 2nd edition 2010). He has taught on the Economics faculty at Harvard University, and has held visiting positions at Stanford, Princeton, and the University of Tokyo. Morduch has worked with the United Nations and World Bank, and advises global NGOs. He is Associate Editor of the Journal of Economic Perspectives and on the board of the Journal of Globalization and Development.

Denis Garand
MILK Research Advisor
President, Denis Garand and Associates

Since 2001 Denis has been an independent consultant, focusing on the Canadian group insurance industry and international microinsurance programs. Canadian assignments have included strategic reviews, capital management, training, product development, pricing, mergers, insurance company start up and the development of the first Canadian disability incidence study.

Internationally Denis has worked on all facets of microinsurance focusing on micro health insurance. Assignment have been conducted for ADB, AKAM, BearingPoint, CCA, CGAP, FFH, MIME, ILO, ILO-STEP, Sanasa, GTZ, The World Bank, ICMIF and many others . He has experience in India, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Philippines, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Mali, Senegal, Kenya, Benin, Rwanda, Egypt, Uganda, Tanzania, Haiti, South Africa, Dominican Republic, Colombia, Peru, Fiji and Barbados on all aspects of micro insurance. Denis is Chair of the Microinsurance Network Performance Indicator working group, a member of the Microinsurance Network Health subgroup, a member of the ILO's Microinsurance Innovation Facility steering committee and is a co-author of severl publications on topics in microinsurance.

John Wipf
MILK Research Advisor
Microinsurance Development Consultant, Denis Garand and Associates

John worked as an actuarial analyst for a cooperative life insurer in Canada where he specialized in developing actuarial evaluation models, group insurance rating manuals and quotation software, and providing actuarial support to group insurance underwriters. From 1998 to 2004 John managed a microinsurance and cooperative development project in Philippines which focused on building insurance capacity, developing competitive products, and improving distribution in the cooperative insurance and microinsurance sectors. He joined Denis Garand and Associates in 2005. His extensive experience includes product development, project development and evaluation, business planning, pricing, experience analysis, training, administration systems and actuarial software development, and many other types of microinsurance projects.

Internationally, John has worked on assignments for ADB, BearingPoint, Deloitte, USAID, CCA, CGAP, ILO, GTZ, ICMIF, and others with experience in India, Vietnam, Philippines, Cambodia, Indonesia, Nepal, China, Ghana, Kenya, Sri Lanka, Fiji, and other countries. As a consultant in microinsurance development he worked on the following: feasibility studies/business planning, market demand surveys, product design, pricing, financial and actuarial analysis, developing administration systems, developing reinsurance and actuarial software, developing microinsurance training materials, project management, and in many areas. John is member of the Microinsurance Network performance indicator working group and is co-author of several published articles and booklets on microinsurance topics.