Currently based in Ibiza, Spain, Matteo Marinelli is the former CEO and Board member of Maha Agriculture Microfinance, an agri-focused-fintech-oriented-MFI based in Yangon, Myanmar, owned by Myanma Awba Group, and the International Finance Corporation. He began his career with Grameen Bank, in Dhaka, Bangladesh and after short term consulting assignments in Tanzania, Afghanistan, Serbia and Thailand, moved to Blue Orchard in Geneva. He then joined a wholly owned subsidiary of Temasek Holdings, Fullerton Financial Holdings, first as a Project Manager based out of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, responsible for the start-up phase of a greenfield MSME banking co-investment between Fullerton and Canadia Bank which led to the creation of Cambodia Post Bank, and then later as the Country Rep based out of Yangon, Myanmar, responsible for the set-up and launch of Fullerton Myanmar.  Here, he became interested in and familiar with the challenges faced by agri-businesses and small-scale farmers who lacked access to capital and markets, which led him towards Maha. Born and educated in Italy (Economics from Bocconi University in Milan), Matteo had academic exchange programs at the University of Niigata in Japan, at New York University, at the London School of Economics, and at the University of California in Berkeley. He also has an executive management diploma from INSEAD and speaks fluent English, Spanish and some French. In this episode Matteo describes in graphic and sometimes harrowing detail the genesis of the coup d'état in Myanmar, the true complexities of the socio-political situation and what it was like to manage an MFI under extreme crisis conditions.  This podcast is brought to you by Financial Due Diligence Associates, a multilingual consulting partnership founded by Guy Rodwell and Zinaida Vasilenko, specialised in holistic, relevant and concise analysis of financially inclusive companies.  FDDA also helps impactful asset managers access French institutions through an alliance with Oxondo, a leading Paris-based third party marketer.  You can reach FDDA by contacting Guy Rodwell or Zinaida Vasilenko on LinkedIn, or by emailing us at [email protected].