Didier Thys, the Executive Director of the Microfinance Information eXchange announced that he will be leaving at the end of March for personal reasons. Mr. Thys took over the MIX in June of 2003 as its first Executive Director. Over the two years he has been there, the number of institutions reporting to the MIX has grown to over 400 microfinance institutions, 50 investment funds and 90 networks, raters and other types of market facilitators. The number of registered users of the MIX’ website has doubled and site visits have tripled over his tenure as new data and new features were added to the site. 

New publications co-sponsored with regional networks with development finance institutions such as the Inter-American Development Bank were also introduced to disseminate the industry benchmarks that the MIX has developed through its flagship publication, the MicroBanking Bulletin. The MIX was also able to sign a number of partnership agreements with MFI membership associations to develop their capacity as data aggregators and service agreements with public donor agencies and private investment funds to serve as the hub for their data monitoring and reporting needs.

Mr. Thys leaves an institution that has grown from 4 to 9 full-time staff members and is firmly established at its new offices at 1901 Pennsylvania Ave. NW., Washington, DC, USA.

Mr.Thys will be missed not only for his outstanding achievements but also for his unique commitment and for his warmth personality and friendship. He will spend the balance of his time concentrating on finalizing the new technology developments that the MIX has been working on and publishing the next series of MicroBanking Bulletins.

The MIX board of Directors is recruiting a new executive director and is working closely with Mr Thys to ensure a smooth and seamless leadership transition.