Nicola Armacost
Nicola Armacost is a managing director and co-founder of Arc Finance, formed to link the fields of energy and microfinance. Niki brings over 15 years experience in microfinance throughout Africa, Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe. From 1993 to 2008, she worked at Women’s World Banking (WWB), a global microfinance organization. In her last position at WWB, Niki was the director of linkages and learning and served as part of the senior management team. She was responsible for overseeing the network’s learning and knowledge agenda, for promoting the leadership role of members and for building and leveraging strategic alliances. Prior to this position Niki held a number of leadership roles at WWB in the areas of knowledge management, market development, policy and communications. She was an early advocate of linking energy and microfinance services and was an adviser to the Citi/USAID/SEEP energy and microfinance research initiative from 2004 to 2007. Currently she serves as an advisor to Parwaz, a women-led microfinance organization based in Kabul, Afghanistan and to Distributed Capital, a financial services firm, based in New York city and is on the board of directors of Global Exchange, based in San Francisco. Niki has been key note speaker and panelist on microfinance and sustainable energy at a number of international forums. Hence Niki possesses international microfinance experience with 9 years in Women’s World Banking and her existing role as a consultant for various MFIs, MIVs and Socially mobilized MF funds.
She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in International relations from University of Toronto, Canada, an LLB from Queen’s university, Canada and an LLM from Osgoode Hall Law School, Canada. Niki is both a British and American citizen and speaks English, French, Spanish and Italian.
