Michael is the Co-Found and Managing Partner of Community Investment Management (“CIM”), an impact investment firm focused on marketplace lending. CIM provides responsible and transparent debt financing to small and medium-sized enterprises in partnership with online marketplace lenders. CIM combines experience, innovation and values to align the interests of small business borrowers with investors. Michael received his undergraduate degree from St. John’s College in Santa Fe, New Mexico, majoring in mathematics and philosophy. After traveling extensively in Asia in 1997, he founded Minlam, Inc., a fair trade manufacturing firm designing handicraft products in Nepal in cooperation with the NGO Rugmark. Michael has worked in various entrepreneurial ventures, including the launch of Kinetix LLC in 2001, a NYC based consulting firm whose mission itis to assist businesses in the profitable alignment of financial goals with ethical and ecological principles. Michael believes that the landscape of development currently taking place in emerging economies is transforming because of the need to balance development with environmental considerations.