For nearly twenty-five  years, Kaylene Alvarez has built a career working to find and build appropriate financing mechanisms and structures in emerging markets to support SME businesses and a resilient middle class. She was first exposed to the power of financial access for small businesses as a US Peace Corps volunteer (Poland) and while living and working in Russia; she later worked in M&A in emerging markets retail banking for a large, multinational financial services company, and has spent the last nine years consulting with SME banks, niche finance companies and MFIs globally on due diligence, risk management, operational turnarounds, financial management and restructuring.  Kaylene joined the IFC (World Bank Group) to help catalyze and grow the Banking on Women program –a $1B facility to invest in and provide technical support to banks in emerging markets to develop products and services that equitably meet the needs of women entrepreneurs.  She re-joined Athena in 2018 to support growth in the impact investing space, with a specialty in gender lens investing and innovative use of financial products and structures to reach under-served or vulnerable populations. Kaylene holds an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania in International Finance, an MA from the Johns Hopkins School of International Studies (SAIS) in Social Change and Development, and has a BA from Michigan State University.