Board of Directors

Patrick Crompton--Chairman & Co-Founder, ASAP

John Hatch--Founder, FINCA International & Co-Founder, ASAP

Laura Foose--Partner, Alternative Credit Technologies

Joel Wiest--Senior Vice President, Finance, Toys “R” Us

Wiltse Crompton--Founder, Add-A-Bands

Patrick Crompton began his professional career with FINCA International in 2002 as a research assistant to its founder, John Hatch.  Later, Mr. Crompton worked as the Research Coordinator, where he managed FINCA’s client and poverty assessment research in over twenty of FINCA’s country programs.  As a researcher he personally interviewed nearly 500 FINCA clients in Uganda, Malawi, Mexico and Ecuador.  Before leaving FINCA, Mr. Crompton served as Research Manager, where he oversaw all of FINCA’s research activities, including the development and pilot testing of FINCA’s Social Performance Measurement and Management System in Ecuador and Uganda.  Mr. Crompton recently co-founded Alliance of Students Against Poverty (ASAP) and is serving as its President.  He also currently serves as the Chair of the Social Performance Indicators Subcommittee for the Social Performance Global Taskforce.  Mr. Crompton graduated magna cum laude from the University of Minnesota in International Relations, and Spanish & Portuguese.

John Hatch is the founder of FINCA, one of the world's leading microcredit institutions with programs in 23 countries and over one million low-income families assisted since its inception in 1984. John is also known as the father of "village banking", a group loan methodology now replicated by over 800 micro-credit programs in 60 countries. John's economic development career spans 44 years, during which time he was a Peace Corps volunteer and staff member (1962-64) Fulbright scholar (PhD. Univ. Wisconsin, 1973), economist, and a consultant to small farmer development projects in some 50 countries (1973-83). In addition to his management duties at FINCA, from 1996 to 2006 John directed  FINCA's global mission support department, which features action research by summer interns armed with Palm Pilots who interview some 3,000 clients per year to document their poverty levels, business profitability, and rising living standards. John also continues to serve as co-founder and executive committee member of the Microcredit Summit global campaign to reach 175 million of the world’s poorest mothers with self-employment loans by the year 2015. He has given microcredit workshops and lectured widely at universities at home and abroad. John now lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where he pursues a lifelong interest in water coloring, has finished a screenplay, continues his public speaking activities, and actively campaigns for an end to global poverty by the year 2025.

Laura Foose has thirteen years of experience in program/policy design and advocacy promoting private sector development and poverty alleviation in developing and transition countries.  She has designed microfinance projects and conducted evaluations of MFIs.  She has led the Poverty Outreach Working Group at the SEEP Network for the last five years which is working extensively on poverty assessment and poverty downreach issues.  Ms. Foose also moderates the Social Performance Task Force which is an international group of over 150 donors, investors, practitioners and raters interested in advancing transparency and the social performance of MFIs.  She is a Founder and Executive Committee Member of the association “Woman Advancing Microfinance,” serves on the board of “Alliance of Students Against Poverty” a public awareness campaign educating students about poverty, and instructs graduate level courses on microfinance at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service and The Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.  

Joel R. Wiest is currently the Senior Vice President, Finance at Toys “R” Us. Mr. Wiest has an impressive retail career, including senior management roles in finance, distribution and operations. Wiest spent 21 years at Target Corporation, which is the parent company of a variety of retail platforms. He served in leadership roles in both their Target Stores and Department Stores divisions, including five years as Chief Financial Officer of Marshall Field & Company. Additionally, he was the Chief Operating Officer at Club Monaco, a specialty retail division of Ralph Lauren, based in New York City. Prior to his arrival at Toys R Us, Mr. Wiest was the Chief Financial Officer at KB Toys. Mr. Wiest received a Master's degree in Business Administration from Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah.

Wiltse Crompton is the inventor of Add-A-Bands, an assistive device designed to facilitate the development of normal movement patterns in children with low muscle tone and/or lax hip ligaments.  Before creating Add-A-Bands, Ms. Crompton practiced as a pediatric therapist for thirty years, during which time she worked with developmentally delayed individuals from birth to young adulthood.  During this time, Ms. Crompton was also involved in youth programs and womens groups and served in numerous leadership roles within her community.   Ms. Crompton graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Occupational Therapy from the University of Minnesota in 1965 and has completed training for the Bobath Pediatric Neuro-Developmental Treatment Program and The Feldenkrais Method.  Ms. Crompton is the mother of eight children and grandmother of twelve grandchildren.