Calvert Foundation CEO stepping down to join USAID

Posted: 1:23 pm Wed, August 11, 2010
By Rachel Pryzgoda
Daily Record Business Writer

The president and CEO of a Bethesda-based nonprofit that uses investments to reduce poverty said Tuesday she will leave to oversee worldwide development for a government agency.

“I am very enthusiastic about the Obama administration and USAID,” said Shari Berenbach, of her decision to leave the Calvert Foundation and join the United States Agency of International Development’s Office of Microenterprise. “We have an unparalleled opportunity to get development right, and [President Barack] Obama and Secretary of State [Hillary] Clinton understand it firsthand.”

Berenbach described microenterprise as a tool to help small business owners. She said the first step in her new position as office director is to “figure out who is doing what and create a strategy.”

Berenbach, who has been in her position at Calvert Foundation for 13 years, helped grow its assets from $5 million to more than $500 million.

“She built the organization,” said D. Wayne Silby, founder of Calvert Foundation and co-chair of its board of directors. “And her work and her leadership grabbed the attention of the Obama administration.”

The Calvert Foundation provides opportunity for investors to achieve financial return while empowering people living in low-income communities in the U.S. and around the world. The company said it has helped to create nearly 500,000 jobs and financed about 27,000 enterprises.

“My greatest achievement [at the company] is demonstrating that you can use investment as a direct tool to achieve social and environmental impact,” she said. “Not just for financial return, but social impact.”

On Oct. 17, the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, Berenbach will receive the Opportunity Collaboration’s Economic Opportunity Achievement Award. The Opportunity Collaboration is a four-day retreat in Mexico for nonprofit leaders, social entrepreneurs and investors.

“Berenbach is a leader in anti-poverty in creating solutions,” said Jonathan Lewis, founder and CEO of the Opportunity Collaboration, on why she was unanimously chosen for the award.  “With Calvert [Foundation] she has done job creation, housing and health care—she’s not narrowly focused.”

Lisa Hall, executive vice president and chief lending officer of the Calvert Foundation, will serve as interim president and CEO when Berenbach leaves on Sept. 14. Hall is on vacation and could not be reached for comment.

“[Hall] has a solid grasp of our organization,” said Carrie McGarry, marketing manager of the foundation, in an e-mail. “[The Board] has expressed their confidence in her by voting her in promptly.”

Silby said he is unsure if the board will ultimately search for a new president, but spoke highly of Hall.

“These are challenging economic times, and our work [in low-income communities] is as important as ever,” he said. “We are sorry to lose [Berenbach], but we are in good hands,” he said.