Posted by Root Capital  |  December 22, 2014

Our next 15 Voices interview is with Rosario Castellon, Root Capital's former senior loan officer in Nicaragua.  Born and raised in the rural town of Condega, Nicaragua, Rosario co-founded the country’s first fair trade coffee cooperative in the early 1990s.  She went on to run supplier relations for sustainable business pioneer Equal Exchange before joining Oxfam, where she led a groundbreaking collaboration between Mexico’s largest farmer cooperative, Oxfam, Starbucks and the Ford Foundation.  In 2005, Rosario brought her incredible experience and deep commitment to farm families to Root Capital as a senior loan officer. During her nine-year tenure at Root Capital from 2005 - 2014, Rosario helped build our operations in Latin America, bringing a wealth of personal and professional experience to advance our mission. 

Topics: Our Community | Staff Profiles |

Posted by Benjamin Schmerler  |  December 3, 2014

If you’ve ever been to Peru, you know that there’s almost a magical energy that permeates the country. The colors, the food, the crazy geographical diversity, the cultural heritage, pride and resilience of its remarkable people – although I’ve been to Peru many times, its novelty truly never fades and my love for it grows deeper with each plate of ceviche. A few weeks ago, I accompanied a small group of Root Capital investors on a trip to the Peruvian countryside, getting a first-hand perspective of Root Capital’s impact by visiting coffee clients and a potential nut client in the San Martin region in the central Andes. As I boarded my flight home, I left feeling inspired and energized by the things we saw, the stories we heard, and the people we met. I think we all did. Here are a few memorable moments from the trip: 

Topics: South America | Staff Profiles | Stories of Impact |

Posted by Faina Rozental  |  November 6, 2014

Root Capital’s impact associate, Faina Rozental, touring a banana cooperative in Piura, Peru. At the heart of my work as an impact associate with Root Capital is analyzing our clients’ social impact data collected by our loan officers. Aggregated, this data gives us a bird’s eye view of how clients across our portfolio likely impact farmer and employee livelihoods.

Topics: South America | Staff Profiles | Stories of Impact |

Posted by Root Capital  |  March 20, 2014

Working out of Root Capital's hub in Dakar, Senegal, Mireille William oversees our Financial Advisory Services (FAS) program throughout West Africa. Earlier this week, we had a chance to catch up with her about the experiences that brought her to Root Capital and her vision for FAS in West Africa.

Topics: Advisory Services | Staff Profiles | West Africa |

Posted by Root Capital  |  February 27, 2014

Cecilia (center) with Root Capital CEO Willy Foote (right) and a member of APBOSMAM banana association in Piura, Peru We sat down with Cecilia Yáñez, a senior investment analyst at Root Capital’s Lima-based partner organization ACCDER, to get the inside scoop on her work in northern Peru. Lately, Cecilia has been working with our Financial Advisory Services team to…

Topics: Advisory Services | South America | Staff Profiles | Stories of Impact |

Posted by Root Capital  |  February 7, 2014

  Jesse Last (left), Root Capital's value chain manager and Elizabeth Teague, senior associate for environmental performance. Last week when we released our first issue brief, Social & Environmental Due Diligence: From the Business Case to the Impact Case, we simultaneously released the scorecards used by our loan officers to evaluate clients’ social and environmental practices. To ensure the quality of the data we gather and the consistent application of due diligence standards by our loan officers, the scorecards alone are not enough, training is also required. In the case of our environmental scorecard, this has meant collaborating with the Rainforest Alliance to design and deliver three-day, field-based trainings in Costa Rica, Peru, and Kenya (next up is Ghana). Led by Rainforest Alliance agronomists, loan officers visited certified and non-certified farms in order to deepen their first-hand knowledge of sustainable agriculture.

Topics: Environment | Staff Profiles |