Who We Are

Since joining Partners for Self Employment (PSE) in September 2001, Maria Coto has held a variety of key positions, beginning as the program’s loan underwriter, before advancing to program director and ultimately executive director.
During the course of her career she has also been closely involved in the organization’s finance office, as well as in program design and training. She played a particularly active role in designing PSE’s Individual Development Account program, and in developing client training related to the program.
When Ms. Coto joined PSE she was seeking to apply her training in psychology in an environment that offered more opportunities to provide hands-on help than the local and state-administered programs she had worked in during her training. Although she originally intended to familiarize herself with not-for-profit work in general before moving on to broaden her career in other agencies, she soon found herself engrossed by the opportunities PSE offered to help small-business owners overcome dependency and instead become financially self-sufficient.
During her years with PSE the organization has seen steady growth, and today operates satellite offices in Homestead and North Miami, along with in addition to its Miami headquarters. Along with its micro-lending services, PSE also offers training, financial counseling, savings programs for future homeowners, and peer support programs for small businesses.
Ms. Coto is active in other community organizations, particularly those targeted toward young people including His House, a program designed to provide services for at-risk children and youths. A Miami native, she joined PSE after working for three years with USAI Networks, and holds a degree in psychology from Miami-Dade Community College.

John McGuire is Chairman of the Board of Directors of Partners for Self-Employment, Inc. (PSE) since 2008 and has served on the Board as Director from 2000 to 2004 and from 2006 to the present. McGuire serves on PSE's Executive, Finance and Loan Committees.

McGuire, together with his wife and business partner, operates McGuire & McGuire Banking Consultants which provides services to community banks and the U.S. offices of large foreign banks. Their services include development of policies and procedures, strategic planning, human resources and compensation advice, regulatory compliance advice, especially in the area of anti-money laundering, and other administrative services. Since 1987, they have served over 200 banks in the United States, Latin America and the Caribbean.

McGuire, who speaks Spanish fluently, became interested in micro-credit while performing training during the late 1990s for credit unions in Bolivia, El Salvador, Nicaragua, South Africa and Suriname under contracts with the World Council of Credit Unions, mostly with funding from the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Prior to establishing his own company, McGuire worked in international banking and has served as the CEO of banks in Miami and Panama. He holds a bachelor's degree from the University of Notre Dame and a master of business administration degree from the University of Miami. He served in the United States Coast Guard attaining the rank of lieutenant commander. He has three adult children.

As a co-founder of Partners for Self Employment, Inc., Ellen Kempler Rosen draws on many of the attributes that made her so successful and highly admired during her 35-year career as a teacher in Miami area public schools. When she was one of five educators inducted into the National Teachers Hall of Fame in 2001, one of her students commented that she has the gift of finding talent and academic strength in every student and inspiring them to use their strengths to express themselves in a positive way.

In her work with Partners for Self Employment (PSE), Ms. Kempler Rosen applies that same eye for talent and potential among budding entrepreneurs who have little hope of qualifying for commercial loans. Moreover, just as she inspired students to use their strengths to express themselves, she inspires potential small-business owners to pursue their dreams of self-sufficiency, and helps them launch their businesses through an innovative micro-lending program that provides them with much-needed start-up capital.

Ms. Kempler Rosen first became interested in the concept of micro-lending in the early 1990s, when she and PSE co-founder Kathleen Gordon Close traveled to Bangladesh with the international non-profit organization, RESULTS. In Bangladesh they met with Dr. Muhammad Yunus, founder of the micro-lender Grameen Bank, who was later awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his pioneering work with the poorest of the poor.

After witnessing firsthand how loans of as little as $30 were helping to eradicate poverty and instill self-sufficiency, the two founders were determined to bring the power of micro-lending to South Florida, which at the time was struggling to dig out from the devastation of Hurricane Andrew. With initial funding through a hurricane recovery assistance program, they founded Partners for Self Employment and soon became recognized as one of the country's first small-business micro-lenders. For individuals and businesses that would otherwise be unable to qualify for a traditional loan, there was suddenly hope for a fresh start not to mention the dignity, confidence and sense of empowerment that come with self-sufficiency.

As might be expected, given Ms. Kempler Rosen's lifetime commitment to learning, education is a driving force behind PSE's activities, and clients are required to complete financial and entrepreneurial training programs in order to qualify for loans.

After retiring from teaching in 2001, Ms. Kempler Rosen has been active in a variety of community organizations in addition to PSE. She travels extensively, having recently visited China and South Africa, and also serves on the board of Temple Israel of Greater Miami. A 1966 graduate of the University of Miami, she earned her master's degree from Harvard University in 1972, and today regularly interviews prospective Harvard undergraduate students prior to admission.

Kathleen Horden Close, co-founder of Partners for Self Employment, Inc., believes there is profound wisdom in Louis Pasteur's observation that chance favors the prepared mind. In her case, her experiences as an entrepreneur and international traveler prepared her to see through the devastation of an unexpected natural disaster, and recognize instead the opportunity to help establish one of the nation's first micro-credit programs.

As owner and manager of Arts International Galleries in Beverly Hills, Calif., Ms. Close traveled extensively throughout Europe and Asia from 1964 to 1974, purchasing art for her three galleries, and observing firsthand how even very small amounts of operating capital could help talented small-business operators to break the cycle of poverty and achieve self-sufficiency. Later, her experiences as a founding board member of the international non-profit organization RESULTS provided her with direct exposure to one of the world's foremost proponents of micro-lending, Dr. Muhammad Yunus, the founder of Grameen Bank and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize for his work in Bangladesh.

With a background that combined both hands-on experience and study, Ms. Close was thus prepared when chance intervened in September 1992. After Hurricane Andrew struck South Florida, many homes and businesses were devastated, and thousands of people were thrown out of work. Working through the governor's office and area congressional delegations, she and PSE co-founder Ellen Kempler Rosen helped secure funding through a hurricane recovery assistance program to establish one of the country's first small-business micro-lending program.

Today, that program has grown into Partners for Self Employment (PSE), and has provided loans to more than 8,000 clients in Miami-Dade and South Broward counties. In addition to direct micro-lending, PSE also offers training, financial counseling, savings programs for future homeowners, and peer support programs for small businesses. Ms. Close regards this peer support as one of PSE's key services, recalling how so many of micro-entrepreneurs she has worked over the years often toiled in isolation and benefited greatly from direct interaction with others facing similar challenges.

In addition to her work as a founding board member of PSE, and her continuing work with RESULTS, Ms. Close is active in a wide variety of social and civic organizations. She is a member of the National Advisory Board of the George W. Romney Institute of Public Management at Brigham Young University, where she also serves on the Journal of Microfinance editorial board. She is a member of the Advisory Board of the Community Outreach Partnership Center at Florida International University, and is past president of the Florida's Women's Political Caucus and the Cedars Medical Center Auxiliary.

Ms. Close also has been instrumental in nurturing the concepts of community food gardens in public housing in the United States through her work as regional coordinator for The Hunger Project and as a member of the board of directors of End World Hunger Inc. She and her husband, Mel Close, Jr., are residents of Miami and Las Vegas.

Dennis Sheets is Treasurer of the Board of Directors of Partners for Self-Employment, Inc. (PSE) since 2007 and serves on PSE's Executive, Finance and Loan Committees.

Having worked in 25 countries, Sheets has more than 35 years of financial sector experience in the US and abroad with a focus on International Banking, Commercial and Development Banking, Project Finance, Financial/Capital Markets, Microfinance, Rural Finance, and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs). His wide-ranging employment provides skills in project identification, proposal preparation, financial sector consulting, report writing and editing, on-site project management, off-site supervision and evaluation of projects, and maintaining productive liaison with government agencies at all levels. He was a co-founder and director of an NGO, served as a director of a language school and is fluent in Spanish and Portuguese.

Sheets earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Yale University and a Masters of Arts degree from Tulane University. He began his banking career at Citibank in its International division, later working as a Vice President at Southeast Bank in Miami. He relocated to Ecuador to be CEO of a bank, managing a staff of over 400 employees. During the Carter Administration, Sheets worked in Washington, D.C., as an investment officer with the Overseas Private Investment Corporation - OPIC, a US Government agency, where he specialized in project finance in Latin American and the Caribbean.

During the past 15 years, Sheets has been increasingly involved with microfinance and rural finance projects. He is retired and was dedicated to family real estate investments in Ecuador from January 2000 until May 2006, when he relocated to Dania Beach, Fl.

Carolyn Clarke, Vice Chairman of the Board, is a senior Corporate Finance Executive with 30 years of experience in banking and corporate management, both domestic and international. A native New Yorker, Carolyn began a career spanning 20 years with Citigroup, with assignments in New York, Sao Paulo Brazil and Los Angeles. Her experiences included negotiating multi-million dollars credit agreements, structuring creative solutions to corporate problems, hedging foreign exchange and interest rate exposures and teaching and managing a pool of Corporate Finance Associates.

In 1995, Carolyn moved to the corporate side, as Treasurer of Viking Office Products in Los Angeles. After a 1999 buyout by Office Depot, Carolyn transferred to Delray Beach, Florida headquarters, where she became Vice President, Treasurer. At Office Depot, she continued to structure creative financial solutions, including public debt offerings, risk management such as fuel hedging, and share repurchase strategies, saving the Company millions of dollars.

Carolyn holds a B.A. and an M.B.A., both with honors, from Columbia University. She has worked with US and international multi-nationals and financial institutions worldwide, but in 2007 made a radical shift, and began to lend her expertise as a consultant for non-profit organizations. She uses her skills to advance economic and community development with a focus on international Microfinance and domestic community advancement. She has recently moved to Miami where her experience in project management, funding and project planning helps non-profits like Partners for Self Employment, Inc, to become stronger and sustainable.

Carolyn is a member of AFP (Association of Financial Professionals) and WEL (Women Executive Leadership).

Robert M. Rogers is Secretary of the Board of Directors for Partners for Self-Employment, Inc. (PSE) Rogers joined the PSE Board of Directors in 2009 after having served as a volunteer instructor with the organization since early 2008.

Rogers is the managing attorney of a single-member law firm specializing in corporate legal support to small and mid-sized businesses. With an emphasis on international corporate legal issues for Floridian as well as international companies, Rogers provides hands-on legal support to boutique companies operating domestically as well as in Brazil, Europe, the Middle East, the Caribbean and Asia. His corporate legal background, coupled with a life-long commitment to volunteerism, led him to be interested in the vision and efforts of PSE.

In addition to the two courses that he teaches at PSE, Rogers spends considerable time teaching youth organizations throughout South Florida. This passion for education, and the ability to see direct results from the PSE trainings, inspired Rogers to increase his involvement in PSE and join the Board of Directors.

Rogers became both fluent in Spanish and an advocate of micro-finance during a volunteer youth program in Mexico City. He later studied all things International as an undergraduate at Brigham Young University and went on to University of Minnesota where he took advantage of an exchange program with ESADE Law School in Barcelona before obtaining his Juris Doctorate. When not volunteering or providing legal counsel for small businesses throughout South Florida, Rogers loves camping, fishing, a night at the theatre and any opportunity to escape and explore the globe.

Danielle Romer is a member of the Board of Directors for Partners for Self-Employment, Inc. (PSE) As small business owner herself, Romer is the President and Founder of a Human Resources Training Consultants’ Firm in South Florida. She is also a Crisis Counselor assigned to the Advocates from Victims with the Miami-Dade Department of Human Services where she returned from an assignment from the Community Relations Board as a Community Relations Assistant to the Black Affairs Director. Prior to this, she was the Program Director of the Haitian Neighborhood Center/SANT-LA, the Community Outreach Coordinator with Safespace Shelters in the Haitian Community and spent 10 years as a Public Service Aide Supervisor for the Miami-Dade Police Department.

A community volunteer she has been actively involved in Haitian issues and Domestic Violence prevention since 1979 and is a member of the FEMA community trained volunteers and Community Emergency Response Team (CERT). She is a certified trainer for the Alternative to Violence, Inc., has consulted for the Anti-Defamation League, was an active Guardian Ad Litem (G.A.L.) for six years, and founded Haitian Support, Inc., a 24-hour hotline, educational and activity oriented non-profit program for families.

Ms. Romer has sat on several boards including the Miami-Dade Mental Health Association, Inc., The Rape Treatment Center and chaired the Roxcy Bolton Rape Treatment Center at Jackson Memorial Hospital prior to joining Partners for Self Employment, Inc. A native of Haiti, she is married with a son.