Dimes Consultancy was founded in 2015 in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, by Floor Elize Knoote and Sofia Ortega Tineo. Dimes started its work based on Sofia’s and Floor’s mutual commitment towards change in the global financial system, so that it is more transparent, more inclusive and supports economic, social and environmental sustainability. From there onwards, the Team broadened their work and network towards human rights and business as well as international justice projects. The Dimes Team believes that – in order to impact the rights of people at the base of the pyramid – policies must be grounded on a clear understanding of the realities of local communities’ experiences. Evidence based programming and policymaking is therefore a key focus of their work.

Floor Elize Knoote

Floor is a human rights researcher with over a decade of experience in the investigation and analysis of rights violations linked to governments and corporations. She is academically trained as a criminologist to investigate International Crimes applying legal and criminological research methods. In her consultant capacity, Floor has managed a vast number of field investigations in countries such as China, Colombia, Egypt, Ethiopia, Jordan, and Uganda to provide evidence for case development and advocacy strategies. She has built particular expertise on gender justice and on bridging the accountability gap for human rights violations committed by corporations and financial institutions. The protection of human and women human rights defenders in the context of business activities has been a large focus of this work. She has investigated violations in the extractives, garment and agribusiness industries and has studied the impacts of Combatting the Financing of Terrorism policies on the security of human rights defenders. Floor holds a BSc. in Forensic Youth Psychology, an M.A. in International Relations & Human Rights and a MSc. in International Crimes and Criminology.

Sofia Ortega Tineo

Sofia is a development practioner, who’s work has been focused on creating better relationships between people and the financial systems they live in. She has extensive experience in the coordination of national and regional initiatives. Possesses an extensive background in working in policy and programs from the stakeholder management perspective. Sofia has advised governments, international organizations, and financial institutions on financial inclusion, education, and economic empowerment policies. She has worked hand in hand with financial regulatory authorities, diverse ministries, and financial institutions in building innovative policies to increase financial access and improve levels of financial capability across Latin America and the Caribbean. More recently she has been involved in the development of knowledge management and stakeholder engagement strategies in the sustainable banking arena. Sofia holds a degree in International Studies (B.A) from Universidad Central de Venezuela, and post-graduate degrees in Tourism and Sustainable Development (M.A.) and International Development Studies (M.Sc.) from the Center for Development Studies of Universidad Central de Venezuela (CENDES-UCV) and the University of Amsterdam respectively.

Karina Avakyan

Karina joined the Dimes Team in January of 2018. She is a development practitioner with experience in the innovative finance, social and financial inclusion, and financial capability fields. Her expertise lies in building, managing and coordinating multi-stakeholder networks of policy makers, financial system regulators, ministries, financial institutions, civil society and multilateral organisations, as well as capacity building, training, peer learning and working group facilitation. She was also a lead trainer on youth product development and national financial education and financial inclusion strategies in more than 10 countries. She has served in programme manager and senior policy advisor roles with the regional focus in Eastern Europe and Central Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa regions at Child & Youth Finance International and NGO Worldgranny and Pension & Development Network. Previously she was also involved in campaign management, marketing and partnerships of a leading African online fundraising and crowdfunding platform. She holds a BSc in Economics and MSc in Business Studies and International Development from National Research University-Higher School of Economics and University of Amsterdam respectively, and is a Certified Expert in Financial Inclusion Policy from Frankfurt School of Finance & Alliance for Financial Inclusion.