Who we are

Our People
• Staff
• Board Members
◦ Lucy Billingsley
    ◦ Peter Cowhey
    ◦ Susan Davis
    ◦ Jennifer Drogula
    ◦ Robert Eichfeld
    ◦ James L. Greenberg
    ◦ Richard S. Gunther
    ◦ Paul Maritz
    ◦ Yvette Neier
    ◦ Robert Ottenhoff
    ◦ Chris Pascucci
    ◦ Rosanna Ramos-Velita
    ◦ D. Wayne Silby
    ◦ Muhammad Yunus
    ◦ David Russell
    ◦ Vikram Gandhi
• Committees and Councils
• GF Advisory Council

Our Grameen Heritage

Values

Awards and Recognition

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Contact information

Grameen Foundation : Who we are : Our People : Board Members : Robert Eichfeld

Robert Eichfeld, Vice-Chair

During a 33 year career with Citigroup Bob managed many of Citibank’s business, country, and regional activities while being posted in Puerto Rico and elsewhere in the Caribbean, followed by Indonesia, Pakistan, Brazil, Saudi Arabia, New Zealand, India and again in Saudi Arabia.

In his last two assignments he served as Region Head for Citibank’s activities covering 22 countries throughout the Subcontinent and the Gulf/Levant areas followed by four years as Managing Director of Citibank’s affiliate in Saudi Arabia, Saudi American Bank, at that time the second largest and most profitable bank in the Middle East. While abroad he also served on the boards of several business and community affairs organizations including chairing various educational boards. Upon retirement in 2000, Bob returned to the United States and settled in eastern Pennsylvania with his wife, Lore. He and Lore have 3 children and 3 grandchildren.

Since 2000, he has continued to use the business and cultural awareness skills that arise from having lived in or traveled to over 100 countries. He advised a de-novo venture capital fund in Dubai. He helped set up a new Islamic bank in Bahrain along with a group of investors. And he recently joined the Board of the leading investment bank in the Middle East, Cairo-based EFG-Hermes, where he chairs the Bank’s Audit Committee. EFG specializes in brokerage and research, private equity, and corporate finance across the Arab world.

Bob serves as the Vice-Chair of the Grameen Foundation Board of Director in Washington DC, an organization that assists the world’s poorest individuals in establishing sustainable micro-businesses by providing them with financing, training, and technology. As a leading microfinance organization, the Foundation is active in 26 countries and is a recognized force with regard to poverty alleviation in developing nations. In addition to his Board and committee responsibilities he focuses on building the Foundation’s programs in the Subcontinent and the Arab region as well as on tapping international capital markets for funding.

He is currently a member of the Global Advisory Council at his alma mater, the Thunderbird School of International Management and serves on its global degrees committee. In addition, he has joined the Board of the Pearl S. Buck Foundation, an organization dedicated to childhood welfare throughout Asia. He also remains active in Rotary, particularly with Rotary’s international microfinance and other social development programs. Bob’s other interests include international current affairs, tennis, hiking, rafting, extensive travel.

He graduated from Wake Forest University in 1966 with an undergraduate degree in Economics, from Thunderbird in 1967 with a graduate degree in International Business Management, and from Harvard’s Executive Program for Management Development in 1985.

Grameen Foundation : Who we are : Our People : Board Members : Robert Eichfeld