Former PhD students
Marion Allet
Marion Allet successfully defended, on February 21, 2013, her PhD Thesis in Economics and Management under joint supervision between the Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management (Université libre de Bruxelles - ULB) and at the Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (IEDES-UMR 201). Her research focused on « green microfinance » and sought to assess to what extent it is relevant for microfinance to aim at an environmental bottom line.
Since 2009, Marion has also been working as a project manager, with Planet Finance and then with PAMIGA, on various programs promoting access to renewable energy, energy efficiency, and clean water through microfinance. She has extensive work experience in sub-Saharan Africa and Central America. She actively contributed to the development of the Green Index and of Dimension 7 of the Universal Standards. She is currently Head of Environment & Impact at Cerise+SPTF.
Email: marion.allet@gmail.com
Eddy Balemba Kanyurhi
Eddy BALEMBA Kanyurhi successfully defended his PhD at the Warocqué School of Business and Economics (University of Mons - UMONS) on August 25, 2015, under the supervision of Professor Marc Labie. His research focused on links between employees’ satisfaction, customers’ satisfaction and customers’ retention in South Kivu Microfinance Institutions. His also holds a complemantary in Microfinance (European Microfinance Programme) from Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management. He holds also a master in Finance and Management from “ Université Catholique de Bukavu”.
He is also working as a researcher and lecturer at Université Catholique de Bukavu. He has collaborated with some international NGOS and UN organisations ( UNDP) as individual consultant.
Email: eddinesca@yahoo.fr
Tel: +243 81 000 97 05
Tristan Caballero-Montes
Tristan Caballero-Montes defended his PhD in Economics and Management on January 27th, 2022, at the Warocqué School of Business and Economics (UMONS, Belgium). His thesis was supervised by Prs. Marc Labie and Cécile Godfroid, supported by Appui au Développement Autonome (ADA, Luxembourg) and the Fonds National pour la Recherche Scientifique (FNRS), and aimed at addressing the regulation of microfinance and how specific mechanisms could be better thought to support the sector in its double-bottom-line mission. With a mix of quantitative and qualitative methods, and a mix of fields of investigation where he carried out multiple long-term missions (Cambodia, Benin, Tanzania), Tristan focused on the imposition of interest rate restrictions, the role of competitive pressure, and the development of professional networks and codes of conduct as self-regulatory schemes in the microfinance field.
After his thesis, he carried out a post-doctoral field at Harvard University (J.F. Kennedy School of Government), where he developed research on microfinance, performance, and network theories. He is now scientific collaborator at UMONS where he works on microfinance-related research projects and lectures on research initiation courses. He also works as performance manager in the Belgian healthcare sector.
Katarzyna Cieslik
Katarzyna Cieslik successfully defended, on January 4, 2016, her PhD at the Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management (ULB, Brussels) under the joint supervision of professors Marek Hudon and Philip Verwimp. Her project focuses on issues pertaining to "social entrepreneurship and microfinance". She benefits from a fellowship from the Marie & Alain Philippson Foundation.
Her previous career has focused on translating academic research into policy-making in Latin America and the Middle East. Based on five months of fieldwork in Barranquilla, Colombia, her MSc in International Development (Unviersity of Amsterdam) investigated the inner congruity patterns of the employees and clients of a local MFI.
Katarzyna also holds a Masters Degree in Psychology from the University of Warsaw. Her dissertation was based on an experimental research on gender differences in the context of educational institutions. Following this line of research, she completed an internship at ATGENDER, a European Association for Gender Research, Education and Documention where she focused on promoting contact between academic research on gender and NGOs working in this area in the Netherlands and in Hungary.
Email: katarzynacieslik@gmail.com
Muluneh Hideto Dato
Email: mulunehh@uia.no
Tel: +32 (0) 46/541.90.10
Cyril Fouillet
Cyril Fouillet successfully defended his PhD Thesis in Economics and Management in October 2009 at the Université Libre de Bruxelles (Belgium). He was then granted a Wiener-Anspach fellowship for a two-year post-doctorate position at the University of Oxford (Contemporary South Asian Studies Programme, UK). Cyril is currently working as a lecturer and Head of the Economic Section at the ESSCA Business School (France).
As a research fellow at the French Institute of Pondicherry (program "Labour, Finance and Social Dynamics"), he spent three years in India conducting his doctoral fieldwork on economical, spatial and political dimensions of microfinance. Cyril Fouillet's research interests include the spatial dimensions of financial inclusion in South Asia, Latin America and Africa. He has an interest in the economic geography of monetary and financial practices, and he tracks the ideas and ideologies in development policies.
He also worked for the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (Rural Finance Group), the Foundation for world agriculture and rural life (FARM) and the Financial Sector Deepening Trust, Kenya.
Email: Cyril.FOUILLET@essca.fr
Cécile Godfroid successfully defended, on August 31, 2018, her PhD at the Warocqué School of Business and Economics (University of Mons - UMONS) under the supervision of Professor Marc Labie. The topic of her PhD is “Human Resources in Social Enterprises”. She mainly worked on Senegal, Ethiopia and Columbia for her doctoral research. She holds a Master's degree in Business Engineering from the University of Mons and a specialized Master’s degree in Microfinance. She is also a teaching assistant in management and organizational theory at the University of Mons.
Email: cecile.godfroid@umons.ac.be
Tel: +32 (0) 65/37.32.77
Hélène Joachain
Hélène Joachain is postdoctoral fellow at the CERMi under the supervision of Professor Marek Hudon. Her research focuses on transition to environmental sustainability, and more specifically on behavioural changes and underlying motivations and values. One of her main topics is the role complementary currencies could play in facilitating such a transition to more sustainable lifestyles, including in projects based on common-pooled resources. Hélène holds a PhD in Economics and Management Science from Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management (SBS). She holds a master in Business Engineering from SBS, a master in Environment (IGEAT) and a master in French Language and Literature (creative writing: ELICIT). Before joining the ULB, she has worked at Triodos Bank which is specialised in sustainable investments. Since she joined the ULB, she has been, amongst others, actively involved in setting up and coordinating the Innovative Instruments for Energy Saving Policies (INESPO) project funded by Belgian Science Policy. She has also contributed to the feasibility study of Eco-Iris, a complementary currency scheme in the Brussels Region developed for Brussels Environment and participated to the Smart City Block project on the motivation and governance for pooling resources in existing city blocks in Brussels. She is currently working as postdoctoral fellow on the Food4Sustainability project funded by Belgian Science Policy. With the partners to the project (UCL – CPDR and KULeuven – Division of Bioeconomics), she worked first on the role of network bridging organisations in the transition to more sustainable food systems. In the current research phase, she is focusing on the role of values and the potential for transformation of interactions between actors of the regime, organisations from the civil society and local producers.
Email: helene.joachain@ulb.ac.be
Carolina Laureti
Carolina Laureti is currently lecturer at the Department of Economics, Econometrics, and Finance of the University of Groningen. Her research focuses on behavioral finance, precisely on the design of banking contracts in the presence of agents with behavioral anomalies. Carolina is interested in elucidating the impact of behavioral anomalies on agents’ borrowing and savings decision-making. From there, Carolina explores questions related to contract design, such as moral hazard, screening with asymmetric information, pricing, etc. Carolina holds a PhD in Economics and Management Science (ULB and UMONS, 2014), a Master degree in Economics (University of Rome La Sapienza, 2001) as well as a Complementary Master in Microfinance (EMP, 2009). She did her postdoc at the University of California at Berkeley (2014-15) and at the Université libre de Bruxelles (2015-17). She has worked as consultant for the Ministry of Economics and Finance (Italy); International Fund for Agricultural Development (Italy); InterSOS—Humanitarian Aid Organization (Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Angola); Réseau Financement Alternatif (Belgium); and Microsave (India).Email: c.laureti@rug.nl
François-Xavier Ledru successfully defended his PhD Thesis on 5 September 2023 at the University of Namur (co-supervision with ULB). His research focused on the financial performance of responsible and impact investments, as well as on the motives and behavior of socially-minded economic agents. He worked under the co-supervision of Professor Marek Hudon (ULB) and Professor Oscar Bernal (UNamur). During his PhD, he was also a teaching assistant in econometrics at UNamur. François-Xavier also holds a Master’s Degree in Finance from UNamur. He now works for the Belgian Financial Services and Markets Authority (FSMA) and remains a scientific fellow at both UNamur and ULB.Camille Meyer
Camille Meyer successfully defended, on April 21, 2017, his PhD at the Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management (ULB, Brussels) under the supervision of Professor Marek Hudon. His project focuses on microfinance and common goods, particularly focusing on Brazilian community development banks. He obtained a FRESH fellowship from the Belgian National Fund for Scientific Research (FNRS). He carries out his research in the framework of an Interuniversity Attraction Pole funded by the Belgian Science Policy Office under the title "If not for Profit, for What and How?”. Previously, he completed internships at the biggest Brazilian community development bank, Palmas Institute, and at the Facilitator in social economy of the Federal University of Bahia in Brazil. He worked at the International training centre of the International Labour Organization (ILO) organizing the 3rd Social and Solidarity Economy Academy and the 19th Microfinance Training Program of the Boulder Institute of Microfinance. He holds two Masters Degrees in both European and Development studies from the Université libre de Bruxelles, and won two European awards for his dissertation on the Palmas Institute : the 2012 French award for cooperative research on development cooperation and the 2012 Belgian award for research on the social economy.Email: camillemeyer@uvic.ca
Patrick Murhula Cubaka
Patrick Murhula Cubaka successfully defended, on June 13, 2024, his PhD in Economics and Management at the Warocqué School of Business and Economics (UMONS, Belgium), under joint supervision of Prs. Marc Labie and Eddy Balemba (UCB).
He is now a teaching assistant in the Economics and Management department at the “Université Catholique de Bukavu” (UCB) in DR Congo. He also works as a research assistant at the “Laboratoire d’Economie Appliquée au Développement (LEAD-UCB)”.
Email: murhula.cubaka@ucbukavu.ac.cd
Rama Lionel Ngenzebuke
Rama Lionel Ngenzebuke successfully defended, on February 21, 2017, his PhD at the Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management (ULB, Brussels) under joint supervision of Prof. Philip Verwimp and Prof. Bram de Rock. He worked on the framework of the FNRS/FRFC research project “Microfinance services, intra-household behavior and welfare in developing countries: a longitudinal and experimental approach”; a project coordinated by Prof. Ariane Szafarz (CERMi), Prof. Marek Hudon (CERMi), Prof. Philp Verwimp (ECARES) and Prof. Bram de Rock (ECARES). He holds a Master’s degree in Economics (specialization: Economic Analysis) from ULB (2011) and a “Licence” degree (4 years) in Economics (specialization: Money, Banking and Finance) from University of Bejaia, Algérie (2007). Prior to undertaking his master studies at ULB, he worked in Burundi at an insurance company as junior economist and at University of Burundi as a teacher and research assistant.
Email: ngenzeramajlionel@yahoo.fr
Ephrem Niyongabo
Ephrem Niyongabo successfully defended his PhD Thesis in Economics and Management on January 12th, 2011, at the Warocqué School of Business and Economics (University of Mons - UMONS).
He joined the World Bank since February 15, 2018 as Economist for Burundi based in Bujumbura, within the Macroeconomics, Trade and Investment (MTI) Global Practice, East Africa Unit.
Prior to joining the World Bank, he worked as Expert Advisor to the Board in charge of Monetary Policy and Financial Markets at the Bank of the Republic of Burundi (November 2015 to mid-February 2018); as Senior Research Economist in Private Sector Development, Regional Integration and Trade Policies at the Institute for Economic Development in Burundi (May 2011 and October 2015); and as consultant and researcher for national and international institutions operating in Burundi (e.g. AfDB, UNDP, ACBF, EU, BTCCTB).
He also holds a degree in advanced development studies from University of Liège (Belgium) and a BA in International Economics from University of Bejaia (Algeria). His doctoral research has focused on public policy and microfinance in rural and agricultural development in sub-Saharan Africa. His professional experience started in the field of election planning and management as a United Nations Official in Burundi in 2005. His experience with microfinance in the field was set in Burundi where he did research on sustainability of 3 MFIs (FENACOBU, CECM, and COSPEC) and got in touch with the microfinance actors at the macro and meso levels
Email: ephremniyongabo@yahoo.fr
Tel:+257 22 20 62 00
Samuel Anokye Nyarko
Samuel Anokye Nyarko is currently an Assistant Professor at the Montpellier Business School in France. He successfully defended his PhD dissertation on 23rd April 2020. He worked under the joint supervision of Professor Ariane Szafarz (Université Libre de Bruxelles) and Professor Roy Mersland (University of Agder). He worked on the hybridity of microfinance institutions by focusing on performance, subsidization, and internationalization perspectives. He is also interested in corporate governance, institutional logics, and gender issues in microfinance. Samuel holds a master’s degree in Business Administration from the University of Agder, Norway, and a bachelor’s degree in Accounting from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana. He is also an Associate of the Institute of Chartered Accountants, Ghana. In the prior years, he has served as a teaching assistant for several bachelor and master courses at the University of Agder, and at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology. Also, Samuel worked as a Deputy Coordinator of Educational Pathways International (EPI), Ghana.
Email: s.nyarko@montpellier-bs.com
Tel.: +33 (0)4 67 10 26 45
Anaïs Périlleux
Anaïs Périlleux is currently doing a postdoctoral research in the Department of Economics/Economic Growth Center at Yale University as a visiting fellow working with Prof. Timothy Guinnane and supported by a fellowship of the Belgian American Educational Foundation (BAEF). She completed her Ph.D. in economic and management as a FNRS Research Fellow at the Warocqué School of Business and Economics (UMONS) under the supervision of Prof. Marc Labie. Her Ph.D. Thesis, titled "Governance and Growth of Cooperatives in Microfinance", has been honored by the "Edgard Milhaud Prize 2012" awarded by the CIRIEC (International Centre of Research and Information on the Public, Social and Cooperative Economy).
Anaïs Périlleux holds a Master Degree in Economics (Université libre de Bruxelles - ULB), and also graduated from the European Microfinance Programme (EMP). For the completion of her academic studies, she worked with a cooperative of cotton producers in South Mali and with a microfinance institution in Calcutta. Other professional engagements included the study of a network of cooperatives in Senegal on behalf of the Belgian NGO, SOS Faim, and the Senegalese farmers movement "FONGS") and a mission in Kinshasa. She also realized multiple field studies in West Africa, especially in Senegal, for her Ph.D. Thesis.
Email: anais.perilleux@uclouvain.be
Luminita Postelnicu
Luminita Postelnicu successfully defended, on January 20, 2016, her PhD at the Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management (ULB, Brussels), under the joint supervision of Professor Ariane Szafarz (Université Libre de Bruxelles) and Professor Niels Hermes (University of Groningen).
She holds a Master Degree in Economics from The Academy of Economic Studies, Bucharest (2009), and a Complementary Master Degree in Microfinance from the European Microfinance Programme, Brussels (2011).
Her PhD research, carried out in the field of microfinance, focuses on investigating the impact of social capital on the repayment performance of group lending with joint liability.
Email: luminita.postelnicu@gmail.com
Laure Radermecker
Laure Radermecker successfully defended, on August 28, 2019, her PhD at the University of Mons (Warocqué School of Business and Economics) under the supervision of Prof. Marc Labie (UMONS & ULB, BE). The topic of her PhD was “Contributions of microfinance institutions to a better financial inclusion: an approach by products conceptions and organizational strategies”. She mainly work for her doctoral research on Latin America. She is also interested in rural finance. In 2016, she conducted a four months field research on microfinance investment vehicles in Colombia. At the same time, she is finishing her doctoral school. In October 2016, she graduated from European Microfinance Program. Laure Radermecker has a Master in Business Engineering from the Université de Mons. Her first experience with microfinance was during an internship in 2015 at the economics department of Kennesaw State University, Georgia, where she worked as a research assistant in the macroeconomics and finance area, working on financial inclusion and its impacts on economic growth.
Email: laure.radermecker@umons.ac.be
Tel.: +32 65/37.32.79
Patrick Reichert
Patrick Reichert is currently the Associate Director of the elea Center for Social Innovation at IMD Business School in Lausanne, Switzerland. His current research streams span the spectrum of capital, focusing on how financial innovation can accelerate the speed, scale, and effectiveness of promising social innovations.
Patrick’s research has been published in several internationally recognized scholarly journals including the Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of Business Venturing Insights, Social Enterprise Journal, Perspectives on Public Management & Governance, and Oxford Development Studies.
He successfully defended his PhD dissertation on 3 July 2018 at the Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management (ULB, Brussels) under the joint supervision of Professors Ariane Szafarz and Marek Hudon. Patrick’s PhD research was carried out within the framework of an Interuniversity Attraction Pole funded by the Belgian Science Policy Office under the title "If not for Profit, for What and How?”. His PhD dissertation was highly commended in the finance category of the 2018 Emerald/EFMD Outstanding Doctoral Research Awards, and his paper in Oxford Development Studies was awarded the Sanjaya Lall Prize for Best Paper of the previous two years (2017-2018).
Patrick has previously worked in several areas of finance from private banking to development finance. He also worked for a social enterprise in India, helping the company grow from 10 employees to more than 500 in just over two years while also securing financing from private and public sector donors and commercial investors to help move the organization from startup to scale-up.
Patrick has a master’s degree in microfinance from Solvay and an undergraduate degree in finance from Boston University Questrom School of Business.
Email: patrick.j.reichert@gmail.com
Ariane Reyns successfully defended her PhD Thesis at the Université Libre de Bruxelles, on May 2, 2024, under the supervision of Pr. Marek Hudon (ULB, BE) and Pr. K. Schoors (UGent, BE). She started in October 2020 as a teaching assistant for advanced corporate finance courses. Since February 2021, she’s pursuing her research with a 2x2 FRESH grant from the FNRS. Her topics of interest are economic resilience and complementary currencies. More specifically, her Ph.D. dissertation aims at understanding the resilience potential of complementary currencies, and on a smaller level, the driving factors behind the use of such currencies. Ariane graduated from the ULB with the Research Master in Economics degree and holds a bachelor’s degree in applied economics from the VUB.Email: Ariane.Reyns@ulb.be
Koen Rossel-Cambier
Dr. Koen Rossel-Cambier was awarded the Doctoral Degree (PhD) in Applied Economic Sciences in 2011 by the Warcoqué School of Business and Economics (Université de Mons - UMONS) for his innovative research on combined microfinance schemes. He is an economist with Masters Degrees in respectively Applied Economic Sciences (KUL, BE), International Trade (HUB, BE) and International Relations (KUL-Université Fribourg). He began his professional career as an academic assistant for a MBA programme with the Hogeschool-Universiteit Brussels. Consequently he was employed with the Cabinet of the Secretary of State for Development Cooperation attached to the Prime Minister of Belgium. Over the last 15 years, he has worked on long-term assignments overseas in amongst others Senegal, Italy, Morocco and Barbados with international organisations such as the ILO, the World Bank, BTC and UNICEF. Currently he is employed by the European Union in Barbados. Dr.Rossel-Cambier has managed projects and undertook technical assistance missions in more than 30 developing countries, in particular in Africa and in Latin America and the Caribbean. He has authored numerous articles in peer-reviewed journals, working papers and text books tackling a wide range of applied economic challenges taking into account social development dimensions.
Email: koenrc@yahoo.com
Jessica Schicks
Jessica Schicks successfully defended her PhD Thesis in Economics and Management at the Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management, Université Libre de Bruxelles, academic year 2012/2013. Continuing in line with her previous research on the double bottom line character of the inclusive finance industry, her doctoral research has focused on the over-indebtedness of microfinance customers from a perspective of customer protection. In addition to publishing her PhD papers in highly recognized academic journals and in a peer-reviewed book, Jessica has published a practitioner-oriented report on her over-indebtedness research with the Center for Financial Inclusion and has co-authored a CGAP Occasional Paper with Richard Rosenberg.
She also holds a Masters level degree in Economics and Management (University of Witten/Herecke, Germany) and earned an MPhil in Development Studies from Cambridge, UK. Her work experience covers a broad range of topics, including microfinance work with KfW, the United Nations Capital Development Fund, and an Opportunity International MFI in Ghana. Since 2007, Jessica worked as an international banking consultant with McKinsey & Company, focusing on commercial banking for retail and corporate customers as well as inclusive finance.
Following her PhD, Jessica continued her efforts for protecting the customers of MFIs by taking over management responsibility in the field and worked for Accesbank Zambia (AB Bank) as their Chief Operations Officer for 3 years. After a short transitioning period at LFS Consulting, the microfinance consulting branch of AccessHolding, Jessica joined the Belgian Investment Company for Developing Countries (BIO) as a Senior Investment Officer in their financial instutions team, bringing debt and equity funding to banks and microfinance institutions in Africa and taking over board mandates.
Email: jschicks@uni-wh.de
Coline Serres
Coline Serres is a Postdoctoral researcher and the holder of the ChairES – ULB, a chair on social economy, at the Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management, Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB). Prior to that she was a Postdoc Researcher at the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University (Netherlands). Serres’ research interests evolve around social entrepreneurship, social ventures, governance, and common-pool resources. In particular, Serres has a strong interest for the legal forms dedicated to for-profit social ventures. She successfully defended a Ph.D. in Economics and Management at the Centre for European Research in Microfinance (CERMi), ULB, in June 2021 on the topic “Social Ventures and the Commons”. Her thesis focused on the governance mechanisms of for-profit social ventures governing commons, mostly in a Northern context.
Email: coline.serres@ulb.be
Ritha Sukadi Mata
Ritha Sukadi Mata successfully defended her PhD Thesis in Management Sciences on April 30th, 2012, at the Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management (Université libre de Bruxelles - ULB). She had undertaken a PhD on "Microfinance and Remittances" and she has occupied a position as teaching assistant at the SBS-EM.
After her PhD., she joined ADE SA., one of Europe’s leading evaluation consultancies. She has been particularly involved in strategic evaluations of private sector development and development finance.
She currently works as a freelance evaluation expert and private sector consultant. She is also a visiting professor in DRC universities. Her previous work experience includes microfinance work with the Luxemburgish Non-profit organization ADA (Appui au développement autonome), the microfinance network PlaNet Finance, and field missions in Ecuador (TRIAS and Fundacion MARCO), Burkina-Faso (CIF and ADA) and Mali (PASECA-Kayes and Phillipson Foundation).
Email: rithasukadi@hotmail.com
Ludovic Urgeghe
Ludovic Urgeghe studied Economics and Management at the Warocqué School of Business and Economics of the University of Mons. After having worked for one year for a major auditing company, Ludovic came back at UMONS and started a PhD under the supervision of prof. Marc Labie, and has been his teaching assistant at the Department of Management for five years. He also successfully graduated from the European Microfinance Programme, and was a permanent researcher at the Center for European Research in Microfinance. His research, situated in the context of microfinance commercialization, aimed at exploring the influence of emerging specialized investment vehicles on the financial and social performances of microfinance institutions.
After having successfully defended his PhD thesis, Ludovic took a different turn and is now a Business Development Advisor for the University of Mons at the Research Support and Technology Transfer Department where he helps researchers in the commercialization process of their technologies.
Email: Ludovic.Urgeghe@umons.ac.be
Annabel Vanroose
Annabel Vanroose holds a PhD in Applied Economics and Management Sciences from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) and the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB). She holds a Degree in Advanced Business Management (ULB) and is a graduate of the European Microfinance Programme (EMP). She worked as a professor at the Universidad de Piura (UDEP) in Peru, where she also engaged in research on impact evaluation. She has been lecturing on a part-time basis at the ULB in the framework of the EMP. Currently, she is benefiting from a one-year postdoctoral fellowship at CERMi-Brussels.
Her research focuses especially on the uneven development of the microfinance sector in developing countries and aims at identifying factors and processes that explain the development path of the sector. Her broader research interests lay in creating sustainable access to finance, impact and evaluation of development programs and aspects of socio-economic development more generally. Annabel has ample field experience in Latin America, India and South Africa.
Email: annabel.vanroose@ulb.ac.be