Managing Director
Mustafa Kazem serves as the Managing Director of The Afghan Growth Fund (AGF). Previously, he served as the Chief Operating Officer of the Afghanistan Finance Company (AFC). AFC is the first and only leasing company currently operating in Afghanistan with a disbursed portfolio of over $4 Million. In his role as COO, he managed the company's credit operations, treasury functions, investments, capital and operating expenditures, and overall strategic direction and financial management. During his tenure at AFC, he applied his experience in valuation, analysis, and relation management to build a strong portfolio of entities seeking financing in Afghanistan. Through his work in the country in the last four years, he has established excellent working relationships with the public sector, private sector, and the development community. Prior to joining AFC, he worked for four years with Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu's Emerging Markets Group. With DTT's Emerging Markets Group he worked in a number of post-conflict developing countries, such as, Kosovo and Macedonia. He has extensive experience and knowledge in a variety of accounting and financial management areas, including financial analysis, asset and company valuation, system implementation, policy development, corporate governance, and internal/external audit and compliance. Mr. Kazem holds a BS in Finance/Accounting from George Mason University.
Board of Directors
Mildred O. Callear is the Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of SEAF. In this capacity she is responsible for the day-to-day operations of SEAF worldwide including all staff and fund offices. She has oversight of corporate policies, communications, compliance, portfolio management and administration and human resources. She is actively involved in investor relations and fundraising and she sits on the Board of the SEAF Macedonia Fund and Afghan Growth Finance as well as the Investment Committees of both the Macedonia and Central Asia Funds.
Prior to joining SEAF in 2001, Ms. Callear served for 13 years as the Vice President/Treasurer and Chief Financial Officer of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), a U.S. Government corporation whose annual revenues were $400 million with a portfolio of project financing, investment funds and political risk insurance in emerging markets that exceeded $16 billion. Ms. Callear also served as the Acting President and Chief Executive Officer of OPIC during two separate political transitions. Ms. Callear participated extensively in the development and refinement of the funds program, from the first commitment to the Africa Growth Fund to the program's growth to more than 26 funds and $3 billion of exposure, and she was a member of OPIC's Investment Committee, charged with approving finance and political risk insurance projects as well as new investment funds up to $200 million per project. In addition to her financial responsibilities, Ms. Callear led OPIC's environmental and social policy implementation and review program. For six years, she served as a senior official in the legal department where she handled a wide array of both operational and project-related transactional legal work. Early in her career, Ms. Callear was a lawyer in private practice in Washington, D.C. Ms. Callear graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Illinois in 1976 and cum laude from Georgetown University Law Center in 1979.
Jonathan Carr has been the Managing Director for the Sichuan SME Fund since 2001, one of SEAF's most successful funds, which as of September 2007 was fully invested. He also oversees SEAF's recently established Afghanistan fund. Mr. Carr has been with SEAF since 1994, directing the Poznan office of SEAF's Polish Fund, and the St. Petersburg office in Russia. Mr. Carr has led and closed more than 25 equity investments, including the negotiation of complex bank debt restructuring transactions. From 1992 to 1994, he worked with the First Polish-American Bank. Before coming to Eastern Europe in 1992, Mr. Carr was a key professional in the start-up of Bank One—Chicago where he built and managed a portfolio of asset-based loans to middle-market businesses. Mr. Carr holds an M.B.A from the Wharton School, where he also served as Senior Consultant to the Wharton Small Business Development Center, and a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from the University of Wisconsin.
Svetoslav Gatchev(Delphos International)Mr. Gatchev has been with the Delphos International since January 1997 and has worked on many high-profile power, telecom, and other financings in the global emerging markets, including the $1.3 billion AES Maritza East 1 — one of the largest project financings in Central and Eastern Europe. A native of Bulgaria, Mr. Gatchev also speaks English and Russian. He received his MBA at New York University's Stern School of Business (class valedictorian) and graduated summa cum laude from Washington College.
Advisory Board Member
Bert van der Vaart was one of the co-founders of SEAF in 1989, when it was known as the CARE Small Business Assistance Corporation (CARESBAC). Mr. van der Vaart negotiated the establishment of CARESBAC/SEAF's first fund in Poland in 1992. Mr. van der Vaart joined SEAF on a full-time basis in 1994 as Director-General of CARESBAC-Polska, which under him grew to total capital under management of $15.9 million. While serving as Director-General of CARESBAC-Polska from August 1994 until May 1997, the company completed 27 investments and realized its first 6 exits. In 1997, Mr. van der Vaart became SEAF's CEO and President, where he has been involved with the establishment and supervision of each SEAF fund, including frequent visits to each SEAF fund office. Under Mr. van der Vaart, SEAF has made more than 250 investments and a total of more than 140 realizations, including 57 in the Central and Eastern Europe with a weighted average gross IRR of 24%.
From 1984 through 1994, Mr. van der Vaart was a Partner and Associate with Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher in Washington, D.C, Frankfurt, and Brussels, Belgium, where he specialized in corporate law, primarily with respect to corporate financings and mergers and acquisitions for such companies as Vortech, Waverly Publishing, General Dynamics, Investcorp, Fleetwood, Hilton International, Kellogg's, Honda Motors, Westinghouse and the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers' Association. From 1983 through 1984, he was a management consultant with Bain & Company in London and Munich. Mr. van der Vaart has practiced law in Washington, Brussels, Paris, New York, and Frankfurt. He holds a J.D. from Yale Law School, where he also studied finance at Yale School of Management; a B.A. in Politics and Economics and a M. Phil. in Economics from Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes Scholar; and a B.A. from the University of North Carolina, where he was a Morehead Scholar. A Dutch national and dual citizen of the Netherlands and the United States, he speaks Dutch, English, German, French, and some Polish.
Related Links:
Mission and Objectives
Fund Manager and Partners
Afghan Growth Finance (AGF)
Small Enterprise Assistance Funds (SEAF)
