HE PREFERS to remain out of the spotlight, but Irishman Michael Madden is playing a key role in the Clinton Global Initiative, founded by Bill Clinton.

Last September, his Dublin-based firm Ronoc – set up in 2007 – committed to launch a $130 million private equity fund to transform microfinance across eastern Europe and central Asia.

Ronoc has already invested $6 million in Tenger Financial Group in Mongolia and plans to top this up by $4 million by the end of this year. Tenger is Mongolia’s fourth-largest bank and is planning to extend into China and Russia over the next three years.

Madden describes himself as an entrepreneur with a “passion for emerging economies”.

He founded Renaissance Credit, which became the third-biggest consumer finance bank in Russia and also had a successful career with American Express.

“While we have completed this deal in Mongolia, we are also currently in discussions with a number of banks and microfinance institutions in Russia, Romania, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan,” Madden told me.