Vitas Group
Financing a Better World

David A. Weiss became President & Chief Executive Officer of Global Communities (then CHF International) in 2010, having previously been a member of its Board since 2004 and Chairman of the Board from 2008-2010. With the merger with Project Concern International (PCI) in April 2020, David became CEO, with PCI’s President & CEO becoming President of Global Communities.

Prior to joining Global Communities, David was Senior Policy Advisor at the global law firm DLA Piper for 13 years.

David spent 18 years with the Federal Government, including Special Assistant to the Director of the Peace Corps; member of the U.S. Foreign Service; Economic Officer in Haiti; Staff Assistant to the Secretary of State; Senior Special Assistant to the Deputy Secretary of State; Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for North American Affairs in charge of NAFTA; and other senior positions in the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. David received the U.S. Department of State’s Superior Honor Award.

He has a bachelor’s from Hamilton College and a Master of Science in Foreign Service from Georgetown University. David is a member of the Board of Directors of the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition; InterAction, the largest alliance of U.S.-based NGOs; and is on the Board of Advisors of New Perimeter, DLA Piper’s Global Pro Bono Initiative.

John Duong is the Founder of Kind Capital, an impact investing platform and investment firm to drive scalable, sustainable impact profitably. He was formerly the Managing Director and Founder of Lumina Impact Ventures, the $50 million impact investing arm of Lumina Foundation.

Previously he was Program & Portfolio Officer at the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, managing a $110+ million MRI and PRI investments portfolio across funds and direct investments and making grants to further the field of impact investing. John started his career as an investment banker at J.P. Morgan, Citigroup, and Merrill Lynch in various roles, including M&A advisory, credit risk analysis, equity research, capital structure optimization, and corporate finance in debt and equity products. John has extensive for-profit and nonprofit board experience, including Cell-Ed, Upswing, BrightHive, EduNav, Credly, Global Communities, and AAPIP.

John earned his bachelor’s degree in economics and East Asian studies from Yale University and has an Executive Master of Business Administration focused on management and entrepreneurship from the Kellogg School of Management. Born in Cambodia, John immigrated to the U.S. at a young age. He grew up in La Crosse, WI, after the Catholic Sisters of St. Francis sponsored him and his parents to the United States upon surviving the Khmer Rouge concentration camp.

Diane is a seasoned private equity specialist with nearly 30 years of experience in domestic and emerging market investing and fund management, including the launching and management of several new private equity and mezzanine investment businesses in both the U.S. and Latin America. She currently serves as a Senior Advisor to Darby Overseas Investments, an emerging market fund manager specializing in private equity, infrastructure and credit strategies in Latin America, Eastern Europe and Asia. Prior to joining Darby in 2007, Diane spent the bulk of her career as senior portfolio manager and Managing Director of Electra Investment Trust PLC of the U.K., playing a key role in building the firm’s new U.S. principal investing business to over half a billion dollars in equity and mezzanine investments in a wide variety of industries. Joining Electra in 1991, Diane focused on mid-sized companies in a broad range of sectors including financial services, consumer products, industrial manufacturing, transportation, healthcare and telecom and broadcast media. In the late 1990’s Diane spearheaded Electra’s expansion into South America, forming joint venture fund management companies to invest in Argentina and Brazil where she lived for several years to co-manage those businesses. Prior to joining Electra, Diane was involved in building the new leveraged buyout business for a New York-based thrift, as well as serving in international banking and corporate finance roles with Manufacturers Hanover Trust. Before joining MHT she spent several years in Spain developing export markets for Spanish producers of industrial and consumer products. Diane holds a master in International Management from Thunderbird School of Global Management, and a BA in Communications from Washington State University. She speaks Spanish and Portuguese.

Caroline E. Blakely is President and CEO of the Washington DC non-profit Rebuilding Together. Prior to her current role, Ms. Blakely served as a partner in the Real Estate Finance Group at Cassin & Cassin, LLP and as a Vice President in Fannie Mae’s multifamily business, where she defined the strategic direction for the company’s asset management and counterparty responsibilities. Prior to joining Fannie Mae, Ms. Blakely served as Managing Director and Chief Marketing Officer at the National Cooperative Bank (NCB). Early in her career, Ms. Blakely practiced real estate, banking and corporate law at firms in the D.C. area, including a woman-owned firm she co-founded that specialized in matters related to the Resolution Trust Corporation. In addition to her role on the Vitas Board, she was recently elected to the Board of Directors of the public mortgage REIT, ARES Commercial Real Estate (ACRE), where she serves on the Audit, Governance and Nominating Committees. Ms. Blakely is also a member of the Responsible Property Investment Council (RPIC) of the Urban Land Institute (ULI).

Carrie Hessler-Radelet is the President of Global Communities. She previously served as President & CEO of Project Concern International (PCI), a global development organization that drives innovation from the ground up to enhance health, end hunger, overcome hardship and advance women & girls—resulting in a meaningful and measurable change in people’s lives. Carrie led a bold effort to bring together PCI and Global Communities to expand the scale and impact of proven programs. The merger became effective on September 1, 2021.

Prior to PCI, Carrie served as Director of the Peace Corps (2012-2017) and Deputy Director (2012-2015), leading America’s iconic international volunteer service organization with programs in over 65 countries. At Peace Corps she led historic reforms to modernize and strengthen the agency to meet the challenges and opportunities of the 21st century.

Before being appointed to the Peace Corps by President Obama, Carrie worked as the Vice President and Director of the Washington D.C. office of John Snow, Inc. (JSI), overseeing the management of public health programs in 85 countries around the world. Her decades of global health work also included serving as the lead consultant on the first Five-Year Global HIV/AIDS Strategy for President George W. Bush’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), working with USAID in Indonesia on maternal and child health and HIV programming, founding the Special Olympics in The Gambia, and serving as a Peace Corps Volunteer with her husband in Western Samoa.

Carrie is passionate about empowering communities to discover their own sustainable, innovative solutions to poverty. She holds a Master of Science in Health Policy and Management from Harvard University and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and Economics from Boston University.

Jennifer McDonald brings over 25 years of experience leading strategy, product, and operations for global organizations and startups. She currently serves as consultant and advisor to impact-driven startups in fintech and climate technology, following an exit with Moka Financial Technologies where she was Chief Operating Officer (acquired Nasdaq/TSX: MOGO).

Jennifer’s international experience spans over 20 markets in Latin America, APAC and EMEA. Prior to joining Moka in 2018, Jennifer was Director of Strategic Advisory and Product Development at Women’s World Banking, where she led development of innovative financial products targeting the over 1 billion women who lack access to bank accounts. In the Procredit Bank network, she served as Deputy General Manager responsible for introducing new products and scaling operations at banks in Mozambique and Kosovo, in addition to Bolivia, Ecuador and Ghana.

Jennifer believes in technology for impact, and she is passionate about building inclusive products and teams. She holds a Master of Arts in Development Economics from the University of Sussex and a Bachelor of Arts (Honors) in Economics and Political Science from Dalhousie University and the University of King’s College. She speaks Spanish, Portuguese and French.

Camilla serves as CEO of MCE Social Capital. She has a two-decade career enabling global development organizations to drive social change through innovative solutions, strategic partnerships, and operational excellence. Prior to joining MCE, she served as CEO of MIX, where she worked to structure a merger with the Center for Financial Inclusion. Before that, in over a decade in leadership positions at Grameen Foundation, Camilla led global programs in financial inclusion, agriculture and health. She built the organization’s impact investing arm, placing debt, equity and guarantees that generated over $250 million for financial service providers. Earlier in her career, she worked at Citigroup executing debt financing for emerging markets firms and spent four years working in Indonesia and the Balkans setting up microfinance institutions.

Camilla serves as adjunct professor of Financial Inclusion at Columbia University, where she also received an MBA and a master’s in international Affairs. She holds a B.A. from Colorado College.

Joseph Abbate is a finance executive with more than 20 years of experience in finance with companies such as ResMed, Cymer, Sunrise Medical, Brooktree Semiconductor, and Unisys, with his role just prior to ResMed as CFO of a software startup. In addition to his primary responsibilities of strategic financial planning and operational management, he has developed his roles more broadly to include operations, mergers and acquisitions, strategic alliances, and joint ventures.

He received a bachelor’s degree in Finance from San Diego State University and a Master’s of Business Administration from West Coast University. Joe served on Project Concern International’s Board of Directors since 2012 and after our merger has continued to serve on Global Communities’ Board of Directors.