Anna Gogoman

Project Coordinator, ING Microfinance Support, The Netherlands

I started my career as an ING Wholesale trainee in Amsterdam two years ago. During the first year I was an assistant to the Relationship Manager responsible for ING’s largest construction and dredging clients. My most important tasks during this period were to make annual reviews for the clients in my portfolio (approximately 15), to write credit approvals and to be the main contact person alongside the relationship manager. During my one year experience I accompanied the Relationship Manager to several client visits, mostly within the Netherlands but sometimes elsewhere in Europe.

Next, I worked for six months at an Acquisition Finance department, where we structured and financed acquisitions for a corporate client. Aside from acquisitions we also financed special events such as restructuring, or management buy outs.

In July 2007 I moved from macro to micro: I started work for ING Microfinance Support as a Project Coordinator. This department is a non-commercial department in ING aiming at the social support of the microfinance idea. We do this by becoming involved in projects with microfinance institutions from developing countries that are in need of technical assistance. After defining the need of the microfinance institution and agreeing on the project details, we search internally for a suitable ING employee who is willing to do a short-term assignment (maximum of 8 weeks) at the microfinance institution in question. In addition to this exchange of knowledge we also organise several seminars and workshops per year where we promote the microfinance concept to our employees.

I enjoy working in this environment a great deal since I have the opportunity to meet many different nationalities and departments. From time to time I also have the chance to travel to foreign countries to visit the institutions we have partnerships with. Of course, this makes my job even more interesting. I now have several projects for which I am responsible and the thing I enjoy most about working here is that you get handed responsibility immediately, even as a junior employee. Furthermore, it is a very diverse job, where no day is the same as any other!