Concord, NH – MicroCredit-NH has hired Peggy O’Keefe of Rindge as Regional Manager.  O’Keefe works with MicroCredit-NH members and community partners in the southern region of the state, covering the area from Claremont and Keene to Manchester and Nashua.  MicroCredit-NH is a statewide business development program of the non-profit New Hampshire Community Loan Fund.   

As regional manager, O’Keefe is responsible for delivering MicroCredit-NH’s resources – including business skill training, access to loan capital up to $15,000, matched savings programs and expanded market opportunities – to self-employed individuals and microbusiness owners through local MicroCredit-NH business groups.  Other duties include increasing membership by providing program orientations, organizing business training events for the general public and partnering with local economic development organizations to increase accessibility to MicroCredit-NH’s services.  

“Peggy’s understanding of small business operations, along with her experience in management, will be a tremendous asset to MicroCredit-NH and to the entrepreneurs and microbusiness owners in the southern part of the state,” said David Hamel, MicroCredit-NH Director.

O’Keefe comes to MicroCredit-NH from the Keene Senior Center, where she served as Director.  Additionally, she worked for family-owned small businesses for 18 years.  More recently, O’Keefe was the Disaster Director for the American Red Cross in Leominster, MA and did extensive work in Mississippi with Hurricane Katrina.  She has maintained Red Cross volunteer status for 20 years and continues to assist in Disaster Relief nationwide.

O’Keefe may be reached at (603) 620-1269 or pokeefe@microcreditnh.org.  For more information about MicroCredit-NH, visit www.microcreditnh.org.

MicroCredit-NH is a program of the New Hampshire Community Loan Fund, Inc., a statewide non-profit organization headquartered in Concord.  To accomplish its mission of increasing the income and economic stability of microbusinesses and the self-employed, MicroCredit-NH provides business development programming, loan capital up to $15,000, and expanded marketing and networking opportunities.  MicroCredit-NH delivers its services through local business groups of self-employed individuals and small business owners.  Since program inception in 1996, MicroCredit-NH has loaned more than $1 million to New Hampshire’s entrepreneurs.  MicroCredit-NH is generously supported by the Citizens Bank Foundation, NH Community Development Finance Authority, the Community Development Block Grant Program, the Neil and Louise Tillotson Fund of the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation, among others, and is endorsed by all New Hampshire County Commissions.