Leadership & Staff

Tsehaye Teferra, Ph.D.

Dr. Tsehaye Teferra, founded the Ethiopian Community Development Council (ECDC) in 1983. He launched the ECDC Enterprise Development Group (EDG) in 2001, as a nonprofit subsidiary of ECDC.

20 years later EDG has matured into a strong, robust financial nonprofit that assists low-to-moderate income consumers along with immigrants, refugees, asylees to achieve self-sufficiency by funding new businesses or the expansion of one. Serving and advocating for humanitarian causes is his passion and life’s work.

Esayas Gebrehiwot

Esayas joined ECDC Enterprise Development Group (EDG) in 2017 as a Senior Manager of Loans and Technical assistance. Since 2022, he has been serving as a Managing Director of EDG. He oversees the overall lending and technical assistance services provided to the low to moderate income individuals to start and expand small businesses. He also plays a pivotal role in the development of new business strategies and supervising the activities of the loan officers and portfolio management team.

Prior to joining EDG, Esayas held senior executive leadership positions, i.e., vice president of the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia and president of the Development Bank of Ethiopia. For both banks, he led the design and implementation of multimillion-dollar projects in Ethiopia sponsored by multilateral organizations, including the World Bank to setup a line of credit dedicated to small-to-mid-size enterprises (SME) and Women Entrepreneurship Development.

Esayas holds a master’s in Banking & Finance, graduating with distinction, from the University of Wales Bangor in the United Kingdom.

Haddish Welday

Haddish joined the Ethiopian Community Development Council (ECDC) in 1995 as the finance and administration manager for its Micro-Enterprise Development Program. In 2001, as a results of the program’s success, Haddish assumed the same leadership role for the newly renamed ECDC Enterprise Development Group (EDG).

He oversees EDG’s portfolio, which today has more than $12 million in assets with an outstanding loan portfolio of over $6 million. In addition, Haddish has oversight of EDG’s annual operations budget of $2 million. In which he prepares budgets and financial projections, as well as EDG’s financial management systems and administrative policies.

Prior to joining EDG, Haddish worked for First Virginia Bank as a senior loan processor. He holds a bachelor’s in Business Administration.

Habte Michael

Habte brings 30 years of financial management experience to his role as program coordinator of loans and technical assistance for the EDG Baltimore Branch Office. Prior to joining the EDG team, Habte served as property manager of Highland Holdings, LLC, for the Ethiopian Community Development Council.

In his new capacity, Habte oversees the day-to-day Baltimore Branch operations. In addition, he personally meets with clients and helps those aspiring to own their own business achieve their dream by guiding them through the loan process from start-to-finish. Habte works tirelessly to meet the needs of his clients, taking great pride in each entrepreneur’s success story.

Abnet A. Tessema

Abnet joined the Enterprise Development Group in 2014 as the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) project coordinator. In that capacity, he is responsible for processing refugee and asylee loans, as well providing technical assistance, e.g., helping clients be in compliance with local business ordinates, and conducts trainings focused on financial literacy and business planning.

Abnet holds a master’s of business administration from Addis Ababa University where he also taught for more than 10 years.

Kidan Fekadeamlak

Hussein Ali Mahrar Mahrammi

Hussein serves as a loan and technical assistance officer for the ECDC Enterprise Development Group. In this capacity, he is responsible for assisting clients by processing loans and mentoring on new business best practices. Prior to EDG, he worked for the Federation of Afghanistan Craftsmen and Traders; and the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, specializing in international trade and export.

In addition, Hussein was a guest lecturer of economics at several universities in Kabul-Afghanistan. Hussein also is a published author and translator of numerous articles regarding the accession of Afghanistan to the World Trade Organization. Hussein speaks Farsi (Dari), Hindi, Pashto, Russian and Urdu.

Nebiyi Teferra

Elsa Desta

Fesseha Beyene

Wossen Hailu

Wossen has been a member of the Ethiopian Community Development Council (ECDC) for more than 16 years as information technology (IT) manager. He is responsible for the oversight of all IT services for headquarters and alliance offices.

Wossen manages the day-to-day operations of ECDC’s database; phone system; network; security; server; VPN; and ECDC and the ECDC Enterprise Development Group’s (EDG) Web sites. Wossen holds a bachelor’s in Electrical Engineering from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. .

Haileyesus Endeshaw

Haileyesus is in charge of setting up, managing and troubleshooting the technology systems that the Ethiopian Community Development Council (ECDC) uses to maintain computer and software networks. His duties include responding to hardware problems, updating system software, and tracking the data and communications used on ECDC’s network.

In addition, he service as Web master for the ECDC Enterprise Development Group’s Web site. Haileyesus previously served as system and database administrator for the United Nations. He bachelor’s in Management Information System from Unity University.

Mulualem Asfaw

Mulualem Joined the Enterprise Development Group in 2023 as Marketing and Program Implementation Officer. In that capacity he is responsible for Marketing, Outreach and Customer Recruitment as well as program management including tracking of EDG’s program objectives, preparing statistical and program reports to funding organizations

Mulualem is a seasoned professional with over 33 years of diverse experience in the banking industry, academia, and corporate leadership. His career spans roles as a banker in Commercial bank of Ethiopia, lecturer at Addis Ababa University, General manager of Guna trading house plc and KK plc, CEO of AGTA PLC, board member of Wegagen bank, and board chairman of United Insurance Company, showcasing his versatility and depth of expertise. With a master’s degree in business administration from Addis Ababa University, Mulualem has demonstrated a commitment to continuous learning and excellence in his field.
Mulualem holds a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree from Addis Ababa University where he also taught for more than 4 years.

Benyam Ezra

Benyam Ezra has served as a Portfolio Management Assistant since January 2023. In this role, he oversees a range of functions, including reviewing and closing loans, preparing promissory notes and amortization schedules, ensuring timely collection of outstanding loans, conducting portfolio analysis, and generating reports.
Prior to joining EDG, Benyam accrued over two decades of professional experience across government, non-profit, and private sectors. His roles have spanned various levels of responsibility, including Director of Trade and Investment at the Ethiopian Chamber of Commerce, Business Development Manager in Frankfurt Chamber, Marketing Manager in Insurance and Banking sector, Project Manager at international non-profit organizations, including USAID. UNICEF, and UNDP projects, and also owner of business promotion consultancy firm.
Benyam’s educational background includes an MBA in Marketing Management, an MA in Media, and certifications in International Trade and Investment from the International Trade Center (ITC), Security Exchange from USCIS London institute, and obtained various other trainings in the US on business analysis (BA), Power BI, digital marketing, financial and project management.

Birtukan Gebretekle

Birtukan Gebretekle joined Enterprise Development Group since March 2022 with the capacity of Senior Loan & Technical Assistant Officer. Her responsibility is to underwrite loan, follow-up and timely collection of outstanding loans. In addition, she provides pre-loan and post-loan training and technical business assistance service for low to moderate income consumers. 

Before joining EDG, she has been working in different Government & Private banks for more than three decades at different levels. She was President of Wegagen Bank, Founding Management member and Vice President of Enat Bank, Director International Banking at Bank of Abyssinia, Director International Banking at Commercial Bank of Ethiopia and so on. She has also served as board member for Metehar sugar Factory, Nefas silk Paints Factory, and Africa Insurance Company.

Her educational back ground is, she has MBA in International Business from University of Greenwich, London. She has also attended different trainings, Seminars and On-Site Education in different countries.