About Us

Team

Nicola Armacost

Managing Director and Co-founder

Niki Armacost is the Managing Director of Arc Finance. She has 20 years of experience in development throughout Africa, Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe.

From 1993 to 2008, Niki worked at Women’s World Banking (WWB), a global microfinance organization. In her last position at WWB, Niki was the Director of Linkages and Learning and served as part of the senior management team. She was responsible for overseeing the network’s learning and knowledge agenda, for promoting the leadership role of members, and for building and leveraging strategic alliances. Prior to this position, Niki held leadership roles at WWB in the areas of knowledge management, market development, policy, and communications. Niki has has strong relationships with top MFIs, banks and investors globally as well as players in remittances and energy product companies. She has been a speaker on microfinance, impact investing, remittances, and sustainable energy at numerous international fora.

Currently Niki serves as an advisor to several organizations including Distributed Capital (financial services, USA), Frontier Markets (distribution systems, USA), SIMPA Networks (payment systems, USA), Stima Systems (micro-leasing, USA) and Ecozoom (cookstoves, USA). She also serves on the Board of Global Exchange (a human rights organization based in California) and on the Board of the Microfinance Investment Support Facility for Afghanistan (Misfa).

Niki holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in international relations from the University of Toronto, Canada, an LLB from Queen’s University, Canada and an LLM from the Osgoode Hall Law School, Canada. She is both a British and American citizen and speaks English, French, Spanish and Italian.

Board