LAMN Current Officers

Ivana Darmawan – Ivana currently works in finance in the internet industry.  Ivana is a graduate of UCLA Anderson School of Management, focusing on Entrepreneurship and Finance. Prior to UCLA Anderson, Ivana worked as a Structured Finance Analyst at Wilshire Associates, Inc and during the summer before her studies, she spent the summer in Indonesia, working as an intern in an acquisition deal of a microfinance bank. Ivana is inspired to help alleviate poverty in Indonesia through microfinance and thus has spent much time learning about how to carry it out in her home country. In her spare time, Ivana enjoys training her dog, practicing yoga as well as trying out good food.

Yimin Lai -

Crystal Lee -

Krishna Shah – Krishna first became interested in microfinance after reading Professor Yunus’ biography.  She is interested in learning more about microfinance models and how they vary from traditional banking models.  Krishna currently works as an analyst in the Corporate Banking division of a national bank.  Prior to banking, Krishna worked as Management Consultant with IBM Global Business Services.  She completed her undergraduate studies from the University of Southern California, where she majored in Business with a concentration in Finance.  In her free time, Krishna enjoys traveling, discovering new restaurants, and thinking up imaginary business plans with friends.

Rajesh Sharma -

Along with the help of various friends at UCLA, UCLA Anderson Net Impact, USC Microfinance Club and many others.

LAMN Founding Members

Ivana Darmawan

Andrew Lewis – Andrew is a technologist, writer, and analyst with 12+ years experience in the IT industry. He has held positions in software development and consulting with public companies and also worked as an independent contractor. Andrew co-founded the Los Angeles Microfinance Network in order to help build a local hub for students and other parties interested in the Microfinance community. This goal was accomplished by attracting a group of active officers and providing them with an organization within which they can contribute. As the LAMN continues to gain momentum, Andrew remains confident that talented, educated, and hard-working individuals will be connected with opportunities that matter.

Akbar Thobhani – Akbar Thobhani was a 2008 Summer Associate at Lehman Brothers’ Investment Banking Division covering Technology firms.  He is a second-year MBA student at MIT Sloan School of Management and a member of Entrepreneurship and Innovation Program.   At MIT, Akbar serves as the president of the  Finance club and has served as a VP of Venture Capital Conference. Prior to Sloan, Akbar worked as a Program Manager at Stamps.com where he focused on company’s turnaround initiatives.  His efforts on company’s e-commerce systems and postage security systems contributed to six patents in on-line fraud detection and electronic postage printing.  Previously, he was instrumental in launching Investment Technology Group’s Canadian operations.  Akbar serves as a Chairperson of Microfinance for National Alliance of Financial Services, and has served on various leadership positions with Aga Khan Education Board.  Akbar started his career as a software engineer at NASA where he pioneered a new reusable data processing system, which was published in IEEE.  He is a recipient of NASA’s group achievement award.  Akbar graduated magna cum laude with dual Bachelor of Science degrees in Business Administration and Computer Science, with a minor in Mathematics from CSU Northridge.