Olaf Kula

Senior Technical Director and West Africa Resident Representative

With 30 years of enterprise management, development and financial services experience in 45 countries worldwide, Olaf Kula serves as senior technical director and resident representative of ACDI/VOCA's West Africa regional office. Mr. Kula provides technical support to ACDI/VOCA's worldwide activities in enterprise development, trade, agricultural competitiveness, rural financial services and microfinance. He also provides intellectual leadership and practical solutions for ACDI/VOCA’s research in value chain approaches to accelerate growth and poverty reduction. Prior to joining ACDI/VOCA, Mr. Kula consulted for the World Bank, USAID, UNDP, European bilateral donors and World Trade Center organizations. He has worked with commercial banks, established a factoring program for microfinance loans, and created a rural loan brokerage service, an inventory credit facility, and multiple loan products adapting best practice to local environments. He has managed several microenterprise and SME development projects and a U.S. credit union. As emerging market manager for a trading company, Mr. Kula successfully provided U.S and European market access for a number of African companies. He has an M.S. in agricultural and natural resource economics and a B.S. in agricultural economics from the University of Missouri. He is fluent in French.