Speakers
2019 Featured Speakers
Ismail Ahmed
Founder and Executive Chairman, WorldRemit
Ismail Ahmed is the Founder and Executive Chairman of WorldRemit, the leading digital money transfer company that's pioneering a mobile approach to sending money around the world. Ismail founded the company in 2010. Since then, it has secured over $375 million in funding, backed by Accel, TCV and LeapFrog, and has been named the fastest growing technology company in the UK. Serving previously as a compliance adviser to the United Nations, Ismail founded the company on the principles of strong compliance procedures, recognising that the only way to meaningfully reduce the risks in the money transfer industry was to bring the entire process into the digital world. Ismail has been named one of the top ten most influential black Britons in the UK and won EY Entrepreneur of the Year, London and South.
Originally from Somaliland, he has worked with the UN in Nairobi and Dubai. He has a PhD from the University of London and an MBA from London Business School. Read more about Ismail and WorldRemit on CNN Business and VentureBeat.
Hany Assaad
ESG Community Chair, EMPEA and Co-Founder, Chief Portfolio and Risk Officer and Chief Compliance Officer, Avanz Capital
Hany Assaad is the Chief Portfolio and Risk Officer of Avanz Capital and a member of the Investment Committees of the Avanz Capital funds. He leads the sourcing, screening and negotiation of investments and risk management, including the ESG aspects of Avanz Capital. Mr. Assaad is the chair of the EMPEA ESG Member Community and was part of the working group that prepared the “Governance in Emerging Market Private Capital” report published in May 2019. Mr. Assaad has had a long career in EM investments, including two decades at International Finance Corporation. He was Chief Investment Officer at IFC’s Private Equity and Investment Funds leading the investment process for sector-specific funds. Prior to that he held various leadership investment positions at IFC covering a range of sectors and industries.
Runa Alam
Co-founder & CEO, Development Partners International (DPI)
Runa Alam is the co-founder and CEO of Development Partners International (DPI). DPI is a leading private equity firm investing throughout Africa, and manages $1.5 billion in three funds, African Development Partners I (ADP I), ADP II and ADP III. ADP I and ADP II are Cambridge benchmarked top quartile Africa funds.
Runa has more than 35 years of private equity, emerging market management and investment banking experience. She has invested in Africa for 20 years. She serves on the Boards of many African companies. She has contributed to the development of private equity in Africa as a former Chair of AVCA (the African Private Equity Association), Chair of the AVCA Sustainability Committee, and a Board and Africa Council Member of EMPEA. She also sits on the Advisory Committee to the Dean of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University, and was formerly an Advisory Council member of MIDA (Mobilizing Institutional Investors to Develop Africa’s Infrastructure) NASP-USAID Investment Partnership, and USAID’s Private Sector Partners Committee.
Ms. Alam started her career on Wall Street working for Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch. She is a development economist and is a graduate of Princeton University and Harvard Business School. She is a Harry S. Truman Congressional Scholar. Ms. Alam has won numerous industry awards including Private Equity Africa’s “Outstanding Leadership Award” and the “Woman Investor Award”, the Financial Times top women promoting women in business, and the UK Parliament Trust recognition of top women led organizations in the UK, for her leadership as DPI’s co-founder and CEO, and her work with the African and Emerging market private equity industry, as well as her role in advancing women in the industry. DPI has also won numerous industry awards including “House of the Year”, Best “Mid Cap Investor”, Best Deal, Best Exit, and Best Social Impact Deal.
Clara Barby
Chief Executive, Impact Management Project
Clara is currently serving as Chief Executive of the Impact Management Project: a forum for building global consensus on how to measure and manage impact. Clara previously led Bridges’ impact strategy throughout the investment cycle – from defining the strategy and process for selecting impact investments, to engaging with portfolio companies to create additional value through environmental and social factors, to tracking and reporting results to our investors and other stakeholders. In addition to growing impact through our funds, Clara also led Bridges Impact+’s research and development efforts to promote the growth of the wider sustainable and impact investment sector.
Prior to Bridges, Clara focused her career on investing in innovative high-impact businesses – most recently on the management team of an India-based healthcare chain and Acumen portfolio company. Clara previously worked for Acumen’s Capital Markets team in New York where she played a lead role in designing an innovative investment vehicle and later co-led the Acumen energy portfolio in India. Before Acumen, Clara worked in Colombia, promoting socially responsible investment. Clara holds a BA (Hons) in Greats from Oxford University and an MBA from INSEAD.
Natasha Buckley
Investment Practices Senior Manager, Private Equity, Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI)
Natasha joined the PRI in 2011. She is responsible for the PRI’s work in private equity, through which the PRI acts as a global platform to understand and share good practice, develop reporting practices, and establish LP-GP alignment on expectations around responsible investment. During her time at PRI, Natasha has produced the General Partner’s guide, the Limited Partners’ Responsible Investment Due Diligence Questionnaire, guidance on fund terms and on ESG monitoring, reporting and dialogue.
Before joining the responsible investment industry, Natasha held roles at UBS, the NHS and Simmons & Simmons (Paris). Natasha has an MSc in International Relations from the London School of Economics, a BA in History from University College London and has completed the University of Oxford Private Equity Programme at the Saïd Business School, under Professor Tim Jenkinson.
Geoffrey P. Burgess
Partner, Debevoise & Plimpton
Geoffrey Burgess is a corporate partner with a broad international practice that ranges from private equity and cross-border mergers & acquisitions to joint ventures and intricate financing transactions. Mr. Burgess joined the firm in 1997 and has been resident in the London office since 1999. He is a member of the Legal and Regulatory Committee of the Africa Venture Capital Association and recently served on a UN/WTO committee for the preparation of a model joint venture agreement. Mr. Burgess has been a member of the board of advisors of the Survey of East European Law, Columbia University School of Law since 1993.
Mr. Burgess graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill B.Sc., with honors, Phi Beta Kappa, Morehead Scholar; and in 1993 received his J.D. from Columbia, where he was a Stone Scholar, received a Parker School Certificate in International Law and served on the Journal of Transnational Law as head notes editor, Parker School Journal of East European Law as founding managing editor, and Survey of East European Law as managing editor. He was a Ford Foundation Fellow, Institute of State and Law (Moscow) in 1994. Mr. Burgess is a volunteer at the unLtd law clinic. Read more about Geoffrey and Debevoise & Plimpton here.
St. John James Bungey
Director, Broadreach Advisory & Capital
St.John’s career spans 25 years in financial services. St.John is currently a Director for Broadreach Advisory & Capital, an independent investment and corporate finance house. Previously, St.John worked as the CEO of Sanlam Africa Investments and as the Chief Investment Officer of Blue Ink Investments/Sanlam Multi-Manager International. His experience has been predominantly, although not exclusively, in emerging and frontier markets in roles ranging from stockbroking, banking, and asset management. In recent years, he has been engaged in the private debt and equity arena, with a particular focus on impact and responsible investments. St.John is an active private equity investor with interests and non-executive roles in private digital, solar-finance, education and African-mortgage businesses. St.John understands the “business” of asset management. In addition to roles as portfolio manager, Chief Investment and Chief Executive Officer, St.John has often assisted to refine product structures, create the sales narrative and drive the initial distribution strategy.
Wise Chigudu
Associate Director, SilverStreet Capital
Wise Chigudu is an Associate Director at SilverStreet Capital, a London and African based asset management firm focusing on impact investment into the agricultural sector. SilverStreet manages the largest African agricultural fund and has a track record in achieving a substantial social impact through its investments. Wise joined SilverStreet Capital in 2017 as part of the investment team working in various capacities including operational management of portfolio companies, risk management and portfolio company analysis and modelling.
Prior to joining SilverStreet, Wise was Head of Risk and Reinsurance at Argo International, a Lloyd’s of London Syndicate. Prior to joining Argo, Wise was Group Reinsurance Actuary for ACE European Group (a subsidiary of Chubb Group). Wise was one of the founding directors of African Risk Capacity Insurance Company Limited (ARC). ARC provides sovereign drought insurance to smallholder farmers in Africa and has provided timely assistance for over 2.1 million people and 900,000 livestock affected by extreme droughts in the Sahel and Southern Africa.
Wise completed his Bachelors in Economics and Statistics from the University of Cape Town. He is a Fellow of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries (UK) with an MBA from the University of Oxford.
Matt Christensen
Global Head of Responsible Investment, AXA Investment Managers
Matt has directed the responsible and impact investment activities of AXA Investment Managers (AXA IM) since joining in 2011. His key recent projects include the implementation of an ESG integration approach across AXA’s asset classes as well as the development of impact investment fund strategies. He has been a leading voice in the fields of responsible and impact investment and was a member of the European Commission's Co-ordination Committee to explore the future of sustainability policy and legislation in the EU.
He previously held the position of Founding Executive Director of the research institute Eurosif from 2002 until his appointment at AXA IM. Prior to that, Matt advised European clients as a strategy consultant with Braxton Associates/Deloitte Consulting, before becoming business development director of the Motley Fool, a multimedia financial-services company.
He holds MBA and MA degrees from the University of Pennsylvania through the Wharton/Lauder programme. Matt resides in Paris with his wife and 3 children and was born and raised in the United States.
David Creighton
Senior Advisor, EMPEA
David has accumulated over 35 years’ experience in international capital markets in a career that has taken him around the globe. Returning to his native Montreal in 1999, he co-founded Cordiant, a leading emerging and frontier market asset manager with a focus on private credit. He was previously a Vice-Chairman of Cordiant and has overseen more than 200 investments in 55+ emerging countries. David is a member of the Government of Canada’s Infrastructure Advisory Board. He is also a chairman of Convergence, an initiative launched by the Canadian government and the World Economic Forum to blend public and private capital for investment in the emerging markets. He is a Senior Advisor and Chair of the Private Credit Council for EMPEA, and Chairman of the Investment Committee for the BCS Foundation. He is a former director of the US Institute. David is an honours graduate from the University of Guelph (Agriculture) and a graduate of the Institute of Corporate Directors (ICD.D.). He guest lectures at McGill University and at The Wharton School and is the Commodore of the Chester Yacht Club.
Jake Cusack
Managing Partner, CrossBoundary
Jake has a Master in Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School and an MBA from the Harvard Business School. He is also a graduate of the University of Notre Dame’s Honours Program. Prior to co-founding The CrossBoundary Group, he served as a Marine Corps Officer, receiving the Bronze Star for actions in Iraq. He also worked at Abraaj Capital. Jake has written for The New Republic, The New York Times, Forbes, Harvard Business Review, and Inc. Magazine. Jake is based in CrossBoundary’s Washington, D.C. office.
James Doree
Managing Director, Lion’s Head
James Doree is a Managing Director at Lion’s Head and has primary responsibility for managing the African Local Currency Bond Fund.
Through this and other initiatives, he originates and executes transactions in financial services, housing, renewable energy, infrastructure and agriculture. Since 2015, the ALCB Fund has raised $175 million in committed capital and has made investments in more than 15 African countries. In addition to his work in Africa, the Middle East and Asia, James has advised European utilities, governments and regulators on corporate and regulatory finance issues, covering energy, rail and postal sectors. James was previously a Senior Consultant at Cambridge Economic Policy Associates and, prior to that, worked for Pricewaterhouse Coopers in Nairobi. He has a Masters in Development Economics and a first class MA in History and Economics from Balliol College, Oxford.
Gunter Fischer
Senior Investment Officer, Global Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Fund (GEEREF)
Dr. Gunter Fischer is a Senior Investment Manager in the GEEREF Front Office team. Gunter joined the GEEREF Front Office in 2008. Prior to that, he was concentrating on Venture Capital and Private Equity Fund-of-Fund operations at EIF where he focused on the management of ERP-EIF Dachfonds, the EIF’s first external Fund-of-Funds mandate. Prior to joining the EIF, Gunter was a Consultant in the corporate finance practice of Arthur D. Little in Berlin. Gunter holds a degree in business administration and a PhD in finance from the European University “VIADRINA” in Frankfurt, Germany; a degree in commerce from Reims Management School/ESC Reims, France; as well as a degree in Business Law from the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland. Since 2014, Gunter has been teaching finance courses at the University of Luxembourg.
Zachary Fond
Managing Director, Alta Semper Capital
Zachary Fond is a member of the founding team at Alta Semper and has been with firm for three years. He has stewarded all three of company’s investments, including sitting on Boards of both HealthPlus Ltd and Macro Pharmaceuticals, and also drives a number of the firm’s broader fundraising efforts. Zachary has 11+ years of advisory and investment experience, gained from making consumer, retail, and infrastructure investments for Emerging Capital Partners in Kenya, and beverage investments in South Africa Nigeria, Angola, Kenya, Ethiopia, Malawi, and Tanzania for SABMiller. Earlier in his career, he worked at UBS in New York and Goldman Sachs in Johannesburg. He has a BA in Economics from Cornell University and a MBA from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. He has extensive professional and personal ties to Sub Saharan Africa
Olubukunola Adewunmi (Bukky) George
Founder & CEO of HealthPlus Limited
Bukky George is the Founder & CEO of HealthPlus Limited, Nigeria’s first integrative pharmacy, the fastest growing pharmacy & beauty chain in West Africa. Bukky is one of the most important female role models for entrepreneurship in Nigeria. She is well-regarded as a multi-award winner for her leadership in entrepreneurship, retail, and the pharmaceutical industry in general. She has 27 years of experience in the health & beauty industry. She is a registered pharmacist with the Pharmacists Council of Nigeria, the General Pharmaceutical Council UK, a member of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain, and a Fellow of the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria. She holds an MBA from the University of Lagos. She is an alumnus of the Lagos Business School (Owner Manager Program), Harvard Business School (Owner/President Management Program) and IE Business School (Women On Boards – Africa Program). Bukky recently became the first Nigerian female Endeavor Entrepreneur.
Bukky was an Executive Council Member of and is an active Mentor for Women in Management, Business & Public Service (WIMBIZ). Bukky is a multi-award winner for Excellence in Entrepreneurship, Healthcare and Community Service; including Winner Harvard Business School Association of Nigeria (HBSAN) 2015 Leadership Awards for the Entrepreneurship Category; Winner 2015 W Entrepreneur of the Year (Access Bank), Finalist Ernst Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2015 and Finalist in the Business Woman of the Year Category of the CNBC 2014 All African Business Leaders Awards.
Neil Gregory
Chief Thought Leadership Officer, the International Finance Corporation
Neil Gregory is Chief Thought Leadership Officer of the International Finance Corporation, the private investment arm of the World Bank Group. He has held a range of senior strategy and management roles at IFC, including research, business planning, investment and advisory functions. He was previously Adviser to the UK Executive Director of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, and an Economic Adviser to the UK Government. He has extensive work experience in South Asia, China, Africa and the Caribbean. A British national, Neil has MA and MSc degrees in Economics from Cambridge and Oxford and an MBA from Georgetown.
Sean Hinton
Director, Economic Justice Program, Open Society Foundation
Sean Hinton is Chief Executive Officer of the Soros Economic Development Fund and Co-Director of the Economic Justice Program of the Open Society Foundations. Prior to this, Sean was principal of Terbish Partners which he founded in 2007 to provide strategic advisory services on cross-border transactions in China, Mongolia, and Africa focusing on the social and economic impact of large-scale extractive investments. He was a long-term senior advisor to Goldman Sachs (Asia), and the Rio Tinto group and other roles included: Deputy-Chairman of SouthGobi Resources; Special Advisor to the CEO of SOHO China; and Chairman of China Networks. Sean has 25 years of experience in China and Mongolia particularly, where he first lived from 1988-1995. He subsequently served as Mongolia's first Honorary Consul-General in Australia.
Sean began his career as a consultant at McKinsey & Company in their Sydney and London offices, and was a specialist in their Media and Entertainment practice. He studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, the University of Cambridge, and the MIT Sloan School of management. He is a Henry Crown Fellow of the Aspen Institute, and serves on the International Advisory Board of the Baha'i Chair for World Peace at the University of Maryland and is a board director of the Natural Resource Governance Institute.
Vanessa Holcomb Mann
Strategic Investment Advisor, USAID INVEST
Vanessa Holcomb Mann is a Strategic Investment Advisor with USAID INVEST—USAID’s flagship initiative to mobilize private capital for development, which is managed by DAI. In this role, Vanessa manages a range of USAID engagements that seek to identify, develop and execute models and approaches capable of unlocking private investment within USAID’s priority sectors. Vanessa has over 15 years of experience working in finance and global development. She was formerly an investment officer with USAID and part of the team that designed and launched the U.S. Presidential Initiative, Power Africa. She also served as a Foreign Affairs Officer with U.S. Department of State and Deputy Chief of Staff of the Foreign Agricultural Service. Earlier in her career, she was part of a multi-family office where she supported the management of the firm’s three funds, in addition to individual client portfolios. Vanessa is a Venture Partner with NextGen Venture Partners and holds a B.A. in International Politics and Economics from Middlebury College and a Master of Public Policy from Duke University.
Mairi Johnson
Chief of Partnerships, Babylon health
Mairi's background spans the finance, healthcare, and technology sectors, with a mix of experience in large corporates and entrepreneurial ventures. Mairi spent 8 years as an equity research analyst at Lehman Brothers and Goldman covering Europe's largest software and IT services companies. More recently, she has led business and partnership development efforts in several entrepreneurial ventures in the healthcare, media and health technology sectors, as Executive Director of Healthbox, a seed investment fund and accelerator, investing in early stage digital health ventures with health and pharma strategic partners, and before that in Circle, an AIM-listed clinical-led healthcare services company. Currently, Mairi is Chief Partnerships Officer at Babylon, and sits on the Babylon Board. She is also a member of the Investment Committee of Big Issue Invest.
Yana Kakar
Global Managing Partner, Dalberg
Yana Kakar is the Global Managing Partner of Dalberg, an impact-driven firm with offices in 23 countries that provides strategy, investment, research, data analytics, and design services. As chief executive, Yana oversees activities worldwide and leads Dalberg’s global strategy, partnerships and growth. In her client work, Yana specializes in financing and investments that generate strong financial and societal return. She advises private capital allocators, investors and asset managers, as well as international finance institutions, foundations, pension funds and endowments. Her teams support clients in creating investment strategy, analyzing sectors and markets, identifying and diligencing pipeline, designing innovative financing instruments, structuring debt and private equity funds and facilities, and facilitating public-private partnerships.
Yana serves on the Board of Directors of Convergence, a platform for blended finance transactions, The Access Challenge, a non-profit pursuing universal access to basic health care and education in Africa, and on the Frontier Markets Investors Council of the Emerging Markets Private Equity Association. She is a member of the Brookings Global Leadership Council, the Young Presidents’ Organization and the Global Impact Investing Network. In 2018, Yana was appointed to serve on the African Presidential Youth Advisory Council, advising heads of industry and state on matters of entrepreneurship and employment across Africa. Yana’s perspectives have been published in a number of media outlets including the Financial Times, Bloomberg, The Huffington Post, DevEx, The Guardian, and Forbes. Yana holds a Bachelor of Arts from McGill University and a Master of Business Administration from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
Mark D. Kenderdine-Davies
Board of Directors Secretary, Legal & Regulatory Council Chair, Chief Legal Officer, CDC Group plc
Mark Kenderdine-Davies is the Chief Legal Officer of CDC Group plc (CDC) with oversight of the company’s legal, regulatory and tax affairs. In addition to leading the company’s legal and tax team, Mark is an experienced private funds investor having advised and sat on CDC’s investment committee for many years.
CDC was established by the UK Government in 1948 and is the world’s first development finance institution (DFI). Its mission is to support the building of businesses, to create jobs and to make a lasting difference to people’s lives in some of the world’s poorest places. CDC invests from its own balance sheet of US$7.3bn and returns from its investments are recycled into new investments. CDC provides capital in all its forms, including equity, debt, mezzanine and guarantees, to meet the needs of its clients and achieve development impact. CDC targets fund, direct equity and debt investment opportunities in Africa and South Asia. It also provides project, supply chain and trade finance. As a responsible investor, it seeks to add value by helping companies achieve good standards of governance and adopt strong environmental, social and integrity policies.
Mark joined CDC in 2006 from Gartmore Investment Management plc where he focused on private equity and other alternative investments. Prior to that, he advised at Threadneedle Asset Management Limited. From 1994 to 2002, Mark lived in Vietnam working in Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar as General Counsel/Senior Investment Executive at Indochina Asset Management Limited, the manager of two private equity funds, and as Executive Director of an investment company. Mark started his legal career in London as a solicitor becoming a law firm partner. Mark has an LLB (Hons) from the University of Liverpool and an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. Mark is admitted to practice as a solicitor of the Supreme Court of England and Wales and is a Non-Executive Director of the Washington DC-based Emerging Markets Private Equity Association whose Legal and Regulatory Council he also chairs. Mark is also a Member of the Legal and Regulatory Committee of the African Venture Capital Association.
Laura Kemp-Pedersen
Chief Marketing Officer, LeapFrog Investments
Laura leads LeapFrog’s global marketing and communications strategy for the Firm, as well as providing marketing leadership as part of the investment and value creation process.
Prior to LeapFrog, Laura was with the GSMA, the global industry association for mobile operators. As Senior Director, Global Advocacy, Marketing and Industry Purpose, Laura developed a ground-breaking unified social purpose and implementation plan for the mobile industry. Under Laura’s stewardship, mobile became the first industry to work together in support of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Her work served to deepen engagements between the mobile industry and government ministers, the World Bank, the World Economic Forum and the United Nations. Laura has led global communications and marketing teams for more than 20 years, working with some of the world’s leading technology brands. She is Co-Chair of the Emerging Market Private Equity Association’s (EMPEA) Gender Parity
Heather Mae Kipnis
Entrepreneurship Lead, Gender Secretariat, International Finance Corporation
Heather is the Women’s Entrepreneurship Product Lead for IFC's Gender Secretariat. In this role, she is the global technical specialist advising project teams, clients, and partners on how to close gender gaps in access to finance, markets, and non-financial services -- with the goal of unlocking opportunities for increased profit, growth and innovation for both IFC clients and women entrepreneurs in emerging markets. Additionally, she leads global product development, partnerships, and research for new advisory and investment solutions that support women entrepreneurs such as IFC’s Mini-MBA recently piloted and evaluated with IFC investment client, Bank of Palestine.
Heather brings over 15 years of experience in international development and financial services across Latin America & the Caribbean, Sub-Saharan Africa, and the Middle East. Of those years, ten have been dedicated to scaling up access to financial and business support services for women-owned SME’s. Previously, Heather was a Global Gender Specialist with IFC’s Banking on Women (BOW) Program supporting the development of the BOW advisory solution which has been delivered to over 35 financial institution clients. Prior to IFC, Heather managed the programs and educational activities for a network of 75,000 women-led small to medium enterprises, and held positions in impact investing and private wealth management. Heather has an MBA in Global Management from Thunderbird School of Global Management and a Bachelors of Science in Decision and Information Sciences from University of Florida. She serves as a Co-lead for the Aspen Institute’s ANDE Gender Inclusion Learning Lab, and on the Advisory Committee of the Global Impact Investing Networks (GIIN) gender-lens investing initiative.
Geoffrey Kittredge
Partner, Debevoise & Plimpton LLP
Geoffrey Kittredge, a London-based partner and Chair of Debevoise’s European Private Equity Funds Group, focuses his practice on private investment fund formation. Mr. Kittredge represents a broad range of international private equity and other private investment funds and their sponsors, including buyout, infrastructure, energy, credit, real estate, secondaries, and venture funds, as well as funds of funds.
Resident in Europe since 1999 and in London since 2002, he is a member of the EMPEA Legal & Regulatory Council, and is also a member of the Legal & Accounting Committee of the BVCA.
Yasemin Saltuk Lamy
Deputy Chief Investment Officer, Catalyst Strategies, CDC
Yasemin serves as Deputy Chief Investment Officer for Catalyst Strategies at CDC, the UK’s development finance institution. She is responsible for a portfolio aimed at shaping new markets for systemic change at scale, across Africa and South Asia. Prior to CDC, she spent three years at Omidyar Network, a technology-driven philanthropic investment fund, where she developed the investment strategy for a new Digital Identity initiative and seeded the foresight function that grew into Omidyar Labs. Prior to Omidyar Network, she worked over 11 years at J.P. Morgan in exotics structuring, credit derivatives research, and impact investment. She has structured innovative funds to channel capital towards underfunded issue areas, published widely, and provided expert advice to the OECD, World Economic Forum and others. She holds a Masters in Financial Mathematics from King’s College, London and a Bachelor in Mathematics and Philosophy from the University of Pennsylvania.
Claudio Lilienfeld
Senior Director, Government Affairs, Gilead Sciences
Claudio Lilienfeld is Gilead Sciences’ Senior Director, Government Affairs - Asia Pacific. In this capacity, he leads engagement with governments and other stakeholders in support of Gilead’s Access Operations and Emerging Markets business unit, with a focus on the Asia Pacific region. Mr. Lilienfeld also manages Gilead’s work on sustainable health access models, working with NGOs, private investors, governments and multilateral institutions on innovative solutions to health access at the base of the pyramid across emerging markets.
Mr. Lilienfeld previously served as Principal at the Podesta Group, advising clients on policy, politics and government affairs, was a senior Asia and international policy advisor at Google, and headed the South Asia practice at McLarty Associates, a global strategic advisory consulting firm. Mr. Lilienfeld spent over 20 years in the U.S. Government, ending in 2010. He served as the Deputy Assistant and Acting Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for South and Central Asia from 2006 to 2010, and led South Asia policy in the Office of the Secretary of Defense from 1999 to 2006. From 1993 to 1999, he oversaw Defense Department policy for humanitarian operations.
Mr. Lilienfeld received a BA in Geophysics in 1984 and an MA in International Relations in 1987, both from the University of Chicago. In 2003-2004, Mr. Lilienfeld was an Office of the Secretary of Defense Fellow and Visiting Scholar at Johns Hopkins’ School for Advanced International Studies.
Stephen Lee
Principal, Impact Investing, TIAA
Stephen Lee is a Director in Impact Investing at Nuveen, a TIAA Company. Mr. Lee is involved with the overall portfolio management, originating, and underwriting investment opportunities related to Nuveen’s strategy of Inclusive Growth globally, particularly in sectors such as financial services, health care, and education. In addition, he is responsible for providing comprehensive research, analytical, and operational support to Nuveen’s core initiatives in impact investing. Prior to joining TIAA in 2014, Mr. Lee worked as Director of Access to Finance for Building Markets, a social enterprise based in New York that supports local businesses in post-conflict and developing countries. He has also held various positions at J.P. Morgan, Accenture, and ATX Communications. Mr. Lee holds a B.A. in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania and an M.B.A. from Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business and a M.S. in Foreign Service with a concentration in International Development from Georgetown University’s Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service. He is also a former Fulbright Scholar in Egypt.
Elizabeth L. Littlefield
Senior Counselor, Albright Stonebridge Group
Elizabeth L. Littlefield is currently a Senior Counselor at Albright Stonebridge Group, where she leads the firm’s Sustainability and Social Impact offering. She also serves on a number of boards in the conservation arena and chairs the Board of M-Kopa. In the Obama Administration, she was President and CEO of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), overseeing the agency’s portfolio of $24 billion portfolio of financing and insurance to support private investment in over 100 developing countries.
Prior to this, Ms. Littlefield was a Director at the World Bank and the CEO of the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP), and earlier in her career she served as JP Morgan’s Managing Director in charge of all capital markets and financing across Africa, the Middle East, Eastern and Central Europe, and the former Soviet Union. Read more about Elizabeth on the Financial Times.
Arjun Mallik
Managing Director, East Africa, Prudential Africa
Arjun Mallik is Managing Director of Prudential East Africa, with responsibility for Kenya and Uganda. He has been with the Prudential Group for nearly a decade in various capacities including Head of Strategy for Prudential Africa. Arjun previously worked in private equity and has a BA in Economics from Eckerd College (USA) and an MBA from Instituto de Empresa (Spain).
Joanne Manrique
President and CEO, Center for Global Health and Development
The Center for Global Health and Development (CGHD) is an organization that brings together leaders from the investment, diplomatic and development communities to develop innovative financing solutions to challenges facing emerging and frontier markets. CGHD hosts the Sustainable Financing Platform that provides advice on structuring partnerships and long-term financing for CGHD members. As of 2019, CGHD’s network includes thousands of members from the international private and public sector community.
Currently, CGHD is leading a multi-sectoral effort to increase private sector investment into global public health in the emerging markets. This effort focuses on establishing pilot projects in Uganda, Kenya, and Colombia to stimulate capital flows for health and establish business models that ensure the availability of sustainable healthcare solutions. Throughout her career, Ms. Manrique served as a foreign policy and health advisor to multiple heads of government, corporations, and civil society organizations.
John Maris
Managing Director, DAI Capital
John Maris is Managing Director of DAI Capital, the investment arm of global consulting firm DAI. DAI has been working on the frontlines of global development since 1970, making a lasting difference in the world by helping people improve their lives. DAI Capital is building on this long-standing frontier market pedigree and in-depth market knowledge to catalyze much-needed private investment fund flows, both within and into frontier markets. Through a combination of investment advisory offerings, asset management services and principal investing, DAI Capital is mobilizing commercial investments across asset classes: investing capital, people, and market expertise to drive returns whilst at the same time stimulating sustainable development and economic growth.
John has previously served as Director of DAI Europe’s Project Management Unit, where he provided strategic guidance to large scale programmes for clients including DFID, the European Commission, the Millennium Challenge Corporation, and the World Bank. John joined DAI from Relief International, where he was Senior Vice President for Programs. Prior to that he worked for tech startup Aeromesh, private equity firm H.I.G. Capital, and in the corporate strategy department of The Walt Disney Company. Mr. Maris holds a B.A. from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University and an M.B.A. from the Said School of Business at the University of Oxford.
Rilwan Meeran
Managing Director, Flat World Partners
Rilwan Meeran, is the Managing Director of Flat World Partner’s Alternative Investment Platform. Rilwan has 17 years of private equity, investment banking, and operations experience, principally in emerging and frontier markets. Prior to Flat World Partners, Rilwan was CIO of the Emerging Media Opportunity Fund. He has executed private equity transactions in the United States, Latin America, Asia, the Middle East, and Turkey. Rilwan has worked with Swicorp, Finstar Global Partners, Edison Venture Fund, and started his career with UBS. He has been profiled in a private equity textbook and has taught private equity and due diligence at several universities. Rilwan holds a BBA from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and an MBA from the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business.
Tarun Mehta
Partner, Aavishkaar Group
Tarun Mehta is a Partner and Heads of Funds and Strategy, based out of Mumbai, at the Aavishkaar Group, which is a global pioneer in taking an entrepreneurship-based approach towards development. The Group is focused on developing the impact ecosystem in the continent of Asia and Africa and manages assets in excess of USD 1 Billion across Equity and Credit, with 5,000+ employees present across India, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Kenya. Prior to joining the Aavishkaar Group, Tarun spent 18 years in private equity and investment banking in the United States, the Middle East, South and South East Asia. Tarun graduated from the University of Virginia where he majored in Accounting and Finance.
John Morris
Founding Partner and CEO, 17 Asset Management
John leads day to day operations and management of 17 AM and also serves as Managing Partner of Intentional Media. Previously, John co-founded Snowden Lane Advisors, a wealth management firm currently with USD3.5 billion in assets. He also co-founded Clearbrook Global Advisors, an institutional asset management advisory firm that grew assets to over $20 billion in AUAs. Earlier, John spent 23 years at Merrill Lynch, 15 years working in London and Dubai, then New York where he was Chairman of Latin America and Head of International Product and Marketing. He and his wife live in Princeton, New Jersey, and are most often chasing one of their four daughters or two granddaughters.
Gloria Nelund
Chief Executive Officer & Founder, TriLinc Global
Gloria Nelund spent 30 years on Wall Street as one of the most successful and visible executives in the international investment management industry. After retiring from Deutsche Bank as CEO of their $50 billion North America Private Wealth Management division, she co-founded TriLinc Global; a private investment company dedicated to creating impact investment products that will attract significant private capital to help solve some of the world’s most critical issues. Gloria has significant expertise in the creation, management and distribution of investment products for institutional, high net worth and retail investors and, throughout her career, has been a pioneer in the development of socially responsible and impact investment products.
In addition to her activities with TriLinc, Gloria is Chairman and Independent Trustee for RS Investments, a mutual fund complex with more than $20 billion in assets under management. She is also a life-long supporter of development-oriented philanthropic causes. Gloria currently sits on the board of multiple not-for-profit organizations and actively supports entrepreneurship research and education. She is an active speaker, and guest lecturer on impact investing and ethical leadership at conferences and several top business schools, including Columbia, Wheaton, Kellogg, MIT and Georgetown.
Katrina Ngo
Senior Manager, Strategic Partnerships, Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN)
Katrina Ngo serves as Senior Manager of Strategic Partnerships at the GIIN. In this role, she is responsible for supporting investors in their navigation of the impact investing industry. Katrina also oversees content work streams that engage the GIIN Membership in furthering the impact investing field, including blended finance and frontier finance working groups.
Katrina brings to her position a range of experiences and leadership in the social sector. During her time at the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI), she served in a series of roles. As a senior manager, she oversaw CGI's portfolio of Commitments to Action and leveraged innovative financial tools for social impact; and as director of CGI America, Katrina led a signature project of the Clinton Foundation dedicated to revitalizing the American economy. Immediately prior to joining the GIIN, she was Director of Strategy for Atikus investments, a financial technology start-up increasing access to credit for the un(der)served in developing countries. Additional international development experiences include the Peace Corps in Kyrgyzstan and a Kiva fellowship in Kenya. Katrina holds a BA in Biology and in Economics from the University of Virginia and an MIA from Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs.
Lynn Nguyen
Deputy Vice President of Investment Funds, Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC)
Ms. Nguyen is the Deputy Vice President of Investment Funds of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC). Ms. Nguyen serves as a member of the management team and Chair of the fund manager selection committee with responsibility for the implementation and oversight of the Investment Funds’ emerging markets private equity & venture program. Ms. Nguyen leads the formulation and evaluation of investment strategy and policies; development of the program’s asset allocation plan and risk management framework; development and recommendation of investment mandates, service providers and investment management tools and systems; and, oversight of the department’s 12 investment staff in carrying out responsibilities of origination, monitoring, performance analysis and reporting functions of the private equity program. OPIC achieves its mission by providing investors with financing, political risk insurance, and support for private equity investment funds. Established as an agency of the U.S. Government in 1971 and soon to become the International Development Finance Corporation (the successor entity to OPIC), the corporation operates on a self-sustaining basis at no net cost to American taxpayers.
Shami Nissan
Head of Responsible Investment, Actis
Shami leads Actis’ approach to responsible and impact investment which made Actis Impact Investor of the year 2019. She works closely with investment colleagues and company management to assess and manage ESG issues, helping to build world-class businesses and to deliver societal benefits.
Before joining Actis in 2014 she was as a senior consultant at PwC’s Sustainability and Climate Change team for ten years. Prior to this, Shami led the London business of Innovest Strategic Value Advisors, providing sustainability research and analytics to institutional investors and asset managers. Shami has also worked with the United Nations Development Programme in Central America.
Shami holds an MSc Environmental Technology, with Distinction, from Imperial College London and a BSc Biological Sciences from University of Durham.
Karima Ola
Partner, LeapFrog Investments
Karima is a Partner focused on African investments. A deeply experienced operator and investor, she has significant experience working across the continent. Karima is widely recognized for her work shaping the investment landscape in Africa and was recently named one of “Africa’s women to watch” by Bloomberg.
Previously, Karima was Chief Investment Officer and a member of the board at ADC African Development Corporation, where she initiated the company’s entry into Nigeria and ran a number of multimillion-dollar transactions. Prior to this, she was a Managing Partner at Chayton Capital LLP, where she led the creation of the company’s first Africa Agriculture fund. Earlier, Karima was Executive Director, Global Equities, at HSBC in a role that spanned the UK, Hong Kong, and South Africa. Karima is a Member of UK Institute of Directors and holds a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering and a postgraduate diploma in Economics from the University of London. She sits on the Sustainability Committee of Africa Private Equity & Venture Capital Association (AVCA). Karima speaks French and Yoruba and is learning Swahili.
Enitan Obasanjo-Adeleye
Director, Head of Research & Training, African Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (AVCA)
Enitan Obasanjo-Adeleye (PhD) is Head of Research at the African Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (AVCA). Ms. Obasanjo-Adeleye brings over 15 years of research, consulting, and investment banking experience gained at organisations including Accenture, Lehman Brothers, and Barclays Capital. Prior to joining AVCA, Ms. Obasanjo-Adeleye founded an investment advisory company in Lagos, Nigeria, focused on deal origination and structuring, and strategic advisory. Ms. Obasanjo-Adeleye holds a PhD in Computational Finance from Imperial College, London, and is a Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst (CAIA) charterholder.
Stephen G. Pagliuca
Co-Chairman, Bain Capital
Steve Pagliuca is Co-Chair of Bain Capital, a leading global private investment firm with approximately $105 billion in assets under management. He also serves as the global head of Bain Capital Private Equity’s technology, media, and telecommunications vertical and financial services vertical. Since joining the firm in 1989, Mr. Pagliuca has played a leading role in a wide spectrum of prominent technology, media, telecommunications, financial services, and healthcare businesses in which Bain Capital Private Equity has made investments. Prior to joining Bain Capital, Mr. Pagliuca was at Bain & Company where he advised many Fortune 500 companies on business strategy and growth initiatives.
Mr. Pagliuca is a Managing General Partner and co-owner of the World Champion Boston Celtics. He is also active in a number of charitable and civic activities. Mr. Pagliuca is President of the Boston Celtics Shamrock Foundation. The Shamrock Fund helps children gain access to housing, healthcare and other services in partnership with local charities. He is also a Trustee of Bain Capital Children's Charity. Mr. Pagliuca is a member of the HBS Board of Dean’s Advisors, the Harvard University Board of Overseers’ Committee on University Resources (COUR), and the HBS Healthcare Initiative Advisory Board. He also serves on the MGH President’s Council and is a member of the Eisenhower Fellowships and Duke University Board of Trustees. Mr. Pagliuca received a B.A. from Duke University in 1977 and an M.B.A. from the Harvard Business School in 1982.
Rob Petty
Co-Founder / Co-CEO and Co-CIO Clearwater Funds/Fiera Capital (Asia)
Rob Petty is Co-Founder of the Clearwater Funds and Co-CEO and Co-CIO of Fiera Capital (Asia). Since founding the Clearwater Funds in 2001, Rob and his partner Amit Gupta have invested profitably across cycles, sectors and geographies, building an Asia-focused business that is one of the largest credit investing firms in the region today. Over his career, Rob has focused on Asia-dedicated credit investments, with broad expertise in direct lending, secondary credit and special situations strategies. Rob’s principal responsibilities at Clearwater encompass portfolio management, origination and overall management of the Firm. Prior to founding Clearwater, Rob worked as a capital committer in Asian credit for fifteen years at Lehman Brothers and Peregrine Fixed income, before moving to the investment side of the business working for Marc Lasry at Amroc Investments for three years. Rob sits on the Board of three Clearwater portfolio companies and also serves as Chair of the Boards of two non-profit organizations, The Emerging Markets Private Equity Association (EMPEA) and EngenderHealth. Rob holds a bachelor of arts degree in Political Science from Brown University and is based in Hong Kong with his wife and they have three adult children.
Vineet Rai
Founder, Aavishkaar
Vineet Rai is the Founder of Aavishkaar group and chairs its Group Executive Council. Aavishkaar Group is an impact investment platform impacting millions of people in Asia and Africa through its interventions while managing assets in excess of USD1 billion. Vineet’s philosophy is to build an ecosystem for impact investing to deliver the Aavishkaar Group vision of “Bridging the Opportunity Group for the Emerging 3 Billion”. Vineet believes that impact investing has the potential to change the world of finance irreversibly.
Vikram Raju
Founder, Aavishkaar
Vikram Raju leads emerging markets investing for Morgan Stanley AIP and serves on advisory committees of funds in Latin America, Africa and Asia. Previously, he was a principal investment officer at the IFC, World Bank Group, where he led the investment program for climate-related funds across emerging markets. Earlier in his career, he was a management consultant with McKinsey & Company in London and a portfolio manager at Lazard Freres in New York. Vikram received degrees in economics and finance from Bombay University and has a masters in international affairs from Columbia University. He holds the CFA designation.
Dr. Rajiv Shah
Partner and Investment Committee Member, Morgan Stanley Alternative Investment Partners (AIP) and Impact Investing Council Chair, EMPEA
Dr. Rajiv Shah serves as President of the Rockefeller Foundation, a global institution with a century-long record of success applying science, technology, and innovation to lift up the world’s most vulnerable.
Dr. Shah brings over twenty years of experience in business, government, and philanthropy to The Rockefeller Foundation. In 2009, he was appointed USAID Administrator by President Obama, leading the $20 billion agency’s work delivering results for countries facing democratic transitions, post-conflict situations, and humanitarian crises. After his departure from USAID, he founded Latitude Capital, a private equity firm focused on power and infrastructure in Africa and Asia. Dr. Shah has also served as Undersecretary and Chief Scientist at the USDA, and in leadership roles at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the International Financing Facility for Immunization.
Dr. Shah is a graduate of the University of Michigan, the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, and the Wharton School of Business.
Nimit Shah
Partner, Helios Investment Partners
Mr. Shah is a partner at Helios Investment Partners. He joined Helios in 2008, and over the last 10 years has invested in the buyout, growth equity, and credit opportunities across Africa including Vivo Energy, GB Foods Africa, OVH Energy, TPay, Mall for Africa, and Continental Outdoor. He led the subsequent sale of Continental Outdoor to JCDecaux and listing of Vivo Energy on the London Stock Exchange. Prior to joining Helios, Mr. Shah was a Director within the Financial Sponsors Group at Lehman Brothers in London. His experience there spanned M&A advisory, leveraged finance, and equity capital markets. Mr. Shah started his career as a strategy consultant at Arthur D Little. Born and raised in Nairobi, Kenya, he completed his high school education at Eton College in the UK; he has an MA in Economics and Management from Oxford University and an MBA from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. Mr. Shah, a Kenyan and British national, speaks Swahili, Gujarati, and Hindi.
Dimple Sahni
Managing Director of Impact Investing, Anthos Fund & Asset Management
As Managing Director Impact Investing, Dimple is responsible for originating investments, managing relationships, and helping to execute strategies for the portfolios at Anthos Asset Management dedicated to impact investing. This includes a global, private, impact investing fund focused on measurable, positive social and environmental returns alongside financial returns, with the aim to promote human dignity, social justice, and sustainability.
Dimple is an experienced investment professional who began her career in finance at Goldman Sachs. She then launched an Edtech startup, which was acquired by Accenture. Afterwards, she was a Kauffman Fellow for L Capital Partners before joining the Omidyar Network. Most recently she advised Unilever Corporate Ventures on its exploration of a venture investment program in emerging Asia.
Dimple holds an MBA in Finance from the Wharton School and a BA in Economics from the University of Chicago. Based in Amsterdam, Netherlands she is bilingual and a dual citizen of India and the US.
Henny Senders
Chief Correspondent, International Finance, Financial Times
Henny Sender is chief correspondent for international finance at the Financial Times, based in Hong Kong. She joined the FT in 2007. Before joining the FT, Sender was the Wall Street Journal’s Senior Special Writer for Money & Investing, covering private equity, and hedge funds.
Prior to this, she spent 10 years in Hong Kong, covering regional finance for WSJ Asia and Far Eastern Economic Review, as well as five years in Tokyo at Institutional Investor. Sender was part of a team at the Journal that won a Loeb award for coverage of the meltdown of Amaranth hedge fund. Her work on the overseas Chinese received a citation from the Overseas Press Club and she was a finalist for the National Magazine Awards. Her book on India, The Kashmiri Pandits, was published by Oxford University Press. Sender holds an MS from the Columbia University School of Journalism and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Nicholas Smalle
Managing Director, Apis Partners
Nic Smalle is a Managing Director at Apis Partners, a private equity firm focused on investments in the Financial Services (FS) sector across Africa, South Asia and South East Asia. Apis invest growth equity (i.e. minority investments) in FS companies looking to expand into new geographies, complementary product verticals or across their value chain.
Prior to joining Apis, Nic was at Old Mutual (LON:OML) were he was responsible for OM's Strategic Investment Fund, an on-balance sheet investment mandate that focused on the expansion of Old Mutual's operations into key African markets via controlling and minority investments in the Financial Services sector. Preceding OML, Nic was an Associate Director at Standard Chartered (LON:STAN) and part of the Wholesale Banking Strategy team based in Singapore. The majority of his projects covered the development of SCB's African franchise through both organic and inorganic means.
Previously, Nic started his career with McKinsey and Company in London as a Business Analyst. Over the course of the two-year program, he worked largely for Mckinsey's Finance practice. Projects covered the breadth of financial services, as well as spanning clients across four continents. Nic completed his MBA at INSEAD and was a Shell Scholar at Cambridge University. He is a Belgian & South African citizen as well as a Singaporean Permanent Resident.
Anna Snider
Head of Due Diligence for the CIO, Merrill Lynch and US Trust
Anna Snider is a Managing Director and Head of Due Diligence within the Chief Investment Office (CIO) for Global Wealth & Investment Management (GWIM), a division of Bank of America Corporation. In this role, she leads the due diligence team and is responsible for manager research across all asset classes supporting Merrill Lynch Wealth Management and U.S. Trust, Bank of America Private Wealth Management. As a voting member of the GWIM Investment Strategy Committee (GWIM ISC), she defines and executes investment strategies and implementation, including Impact Investing focused strategy manager research. She also co-leads the impact investing initiative for GWIM.
Prior to this role, Anna was part of the alternative investments group where she advised clients on hedge fund and private assets portfolio construction and became head of research for externally managed alternative investment fundoffunds. She was also a senior analystin the risk management division at U.S. Trust. Anna offers many years of investment and risk analysis experience, having held positions at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, JP Morgan and UBS focusing on market, creditand operational risk management.
She graduated from Connecticut College. She holds the Chartered Alternative Investment AnalystSM(CAIASM) designation. Anna serves as chair of the board for High Water Women, a foundation based in New York City. She was cited within Barron’s magazine as one of “The 20 Most Influential People in Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance (ESG) Investing”.
Laurie J. Spengler
President and CEO, Enclude Capital UK Limited
Ms. Spengler has 25+ years’ experience in strategy and transaction services, specifically capital raising, M&A and private equity transactions where the purpose of the capital raised is linked to delivering positive impact. She has developed a particular expertise in designing, structuring and launching investment vehicles that align different types of capital to allow operating enterprises, financial institutions and various types of investors to generate positive social, environmental and development outcomes while delivering appropriate financial returns.
Ms. Spengler is an active member of the impact investing and development finance communities. Previously, Ms. Spengler was founder and CEO of Central European Advisory Group, a regional advisory firm she sold to her management team in 2005. She also worked as an attorney with the New York, Brussels and Prague offices of White & Case. Ms. Spengler has a JD from Harvard University and an undergraduate degree from Stanford University. Among her active board engagements, she serves as a member of the Executive Committee of the Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs, the UK National Advisory Board on Impact Investing (part of the Global Impact Investment Steering Group established under auspices of the G8) and the CDC Group, the UK’s Development Finance Institution. Ms Spengler is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Tania Swanepoel
ESG Advisor, African Infrastructure Investment Managers (AIIM)
Tania joined AIIM in 2018 and is responsible for undertaking Environmental, Social and Governance (“ESG”) activities across all aspects of the transactions execution and asset management of AIIM’s asset portfolio within the SADC region. Prior to joining AIIM, she was a Principal Consultant in Environmental Resources Management’s (ERM) and served on the Board of Directors at ERM Southern Africa for six years. She has over 20 years of broad-based environmental experience in the oil and gas, mining, renewable energy, power utilities, industrial, ports, and logistics sectors. Her experience spans impact assessment and planning, due diligence and contaminated land arenas providing her with a strong technical background in Environmental, Social, Health and Safety (ESHS) best practice combined with a keen understanding of the regulatory framework in South Africa. She has undertaken numerous Environmental and Social Impact Assessments (ESIAs), Environmental Management Programmes (EMPs), stakeholder engagement (public participation), environmental site investigations, risk assessments and due diligences, groundwater monitoring, contaminated land investigations, remedial system implementation and monitoring, geotechnical investigations, and rural water supply & sanitation studies. She has a strong working knowledge of international standards and guidelines on identifying and managing ESG issues including the Equator Principles, IFC Performance Standards, IFC EHS Guidelines, UNPRI, ILO Core Standards, King IV amongst others and the UN SDGs.
Adele Tilebalieva
Managing Director of Latin America, Obviam
Adele Tilebalieva is the Managing Director of Latin America at Obviam, which is the investment advisor of the Swiss Development Finance Institution SIFEM. Adele has been at Obviam since 2007, and responsible for Latin America since 2010. Adele currently manages a USD100 million+ portfolio of fund investments and leads the sourcing, due diligence, and execution of new fund investments in Latin America. Throughout her tenure overseeing the Latin American region at Obviam Adele has executed over 10 new investments and monitored as many as 20 existing portfolio deals, participating on their Boards and Advisory Committees. Prior to Obviam, Adele was involved in standardizing the operational processes of global microfinance institution FINCA International in Samara, Russia, and spent two years as an Investment Banking Analyst in the Financial Institutions Group of UBS Securities in New York, USA, where she covered Latin American bank, insurance company and asset management clients. Adele holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Economy from Barnard College, Columbia University in New York, USA.
Walter van Helvoirt
Environmental & Social Officer, FMO
Walter van Helvoirt has been working for FMO’s Private Equity department for 6+ years. The Private Equity team has invested in over 125 GPs and has a significant portfolio or direct (co-) investments, together some EUR$2b in committed capital. FMO’s PE portfolio has grown significantly during recent years, notably in Africa. Walter is a core member of the deal teams and works closely with PE Investment Officers on new and existing transactions. In close cooperation they support partners in providing that sustainable business is fully aligned with making a good long term profit. Furthermore, Walter spends a significant amount of time on training Deal Partners with PE Funds all over the globe and supporting PE funds in enhancing their E&S performance in the fund and on the investees. Before his current role, Walter worked for 12 years in Human Resources Management, acting as an Adviser to the Board on HRM and organizational change, for several medium and larger companies (>8000 employees) in The Netherlands.
Carole Welton Kaagaard
Head of ESG, AP Moller Capita
Carole Welton Kaagaard joined newly-established General Partner A.P. Moller Capital last May as ESG Manager. A.P. Moller Capital (APMC) is an affiliate of A.P. Moller Holding and was established to manage standalone funds to invest in infrastructure in emerging markets. APMC raised USD1 billion for its first fund, the Africa Infrastructure Fund, in August 2018.
Carole is an environmental and social specialist with more than 20 years experience working primarily as an international environmental consultant, and later at a Development Finance Institute for developing countries and emerging markets assessing environmental, social, socio-economic and human rights issues related to projects, companies, and private equity funds. Carole has developed sustainability/CSR policies, procedures, guidelines, tools, action plans and training/capacity building. She has practical, in-depth knowledge of, among others, the IFC Performance Standards, World Bank EHS Guidelines, and the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. APMC focuses on projects within infrastructure (transportation and energy), and Carole also has experience in the agricultural and industrial sectors.
Karen E. Wilson
Strategic Partnerships, Office of the Secretary-General, OECD
Karen has been working with the OECD since 2009 where her work has focused on innovation, entrepreneurship, and finance including angel investment, venture capital, impact investment as well as the role of private finance for sustainable development. She is also an Associate Fellow at Said Business School at Oxford University and a Visiting Lecturer at the Stockholm School of Economics in Riga. In addition to other boards and advisory positions, she serves as a board member of the European Venture Philanthropy Association (EVPA) and on the Harvard Business School Impact Investment Alumni Steering Committee.
Karen is the Founder of GV Partners, a research and consulting firm focused on entrepreneurship and finance. She was a Senior Fellow at Bruegel, an international economics think tank based in Brussels from 2012-2017 and a Senior Fellow at the Kauffman Foundation from 2008-2012. Earlier, Karen worked with international venture capital firm, Index Ventures, and before that she was part of the senior management team at the World Economic Forum in Geneva, Switzerland. Previously, she served as the Executive Director of the Global Initiative at Harvard Business School. Her earlier experience includes investment banking and consulting. She received a Bachelors of Science in Mathematics and Management with honors from Carnegie Mellon University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
David Wilton
CEO, Zheng Partners
David is an experienced investor with an exceptional track record in investing with a double-bottom-line and successfully pioneering investment programs in Investing with Impact and Emerging Market Private Equity. Zheng Partners consults on Private Equity in Emerging Markets, Impact Investing, and ESG to a range of International Organizations and Funds. Zheng Partners recently published the note “Pricing Impact” which suggests ways in which impact investing can be more easily integrated with institutional portfolio management, leading eventually to a decline in the cost of capital for more impactful investments. “Pricing Impact” is available on the Zheng Partners website https://zhengpartners.co.
Prior to forming Zheng Partners, David was Managing Director and Head of Impact Investing at Morgan Stanley Alternative Investment Partners where he created the Integro Impact Fund which as of December 2018 had a gross IRR of 18.8% since its first close in 2015 and job growth of 12% CAGR. Before joining Morgan Stanley David was Chief Investment Officer and Manager, Global Private Equity for the International Finance Corporation. David was the initial Manager of the Funds Group at its inception in 2000. At the time he left IFC in 2014 the funds’ portfolio was generating a net IRR of 19.3% since 2000 and job growth in the portfolio was running at over 15% CAGR. While at IFC David was also Acting CEO of the IFC Asset Management Company during its establishment phase and a member of the Pension Finance Committee of the World Bank Group, with oversight of the management of the World Bank Pension Fund. David was previously a member of the G8 Working Group on Impact Investing and Chairman of the Advisory Board of the Emerging Market Private Equity Association.
Ann Wyman
Director, AfricInvest
Ann Wyman is a Director at AfricInvest, a Tunis-based pan-African private equity firm which has raised USD1.5 billion in its 25-year history. She is responsible for Economic Research and Investor Engagement. Ann has previously served as the head of Emerging Markets Research in Europe for both Citi and Nomura. She is also a Senior Advisor at Gatehouse Advisory Partners, and a founding board member of the US government-funded Tunisian American Enterprise Fund supporting Tunisian SMEs. She is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, and obtained her Masters degree at Colombia University’s School of International and Public Affairs.
Joanne Yoo
Managing Director, Development Partners International (DPI)
Joanne Yoo is a senior executive at Development Partners International (DPI), a leading Pan African private equity firm with $1.5 billion under management. Prior to DPI, Ms. Yoo was most recently a Managing Director and Partner with CBO Investment Management, a private equity firm based in Lagos, Nigeria. Ms. Yoo was previously a co-founder and Managing Director of Watermark Alternative Investment Management, a private investment firm based in New York. Prior to Watermark, Ms. Yoo served as a Senior Investment Officer for the New York Common Retirement Fund. She began her career in the Financial Institutions Group at Salomon Smith Barney (now Citigroup).
Ms. Yoo is a founding Steering Committee member of PEWIN (Private Equity Women Investor Network), representing over $2.5 trillion in assets under management. She is an Advisor to the Sponsors for Educational Opportunity Alternative Investment Program. Ms. Yoo received a B.S. from the University of Virginia; an MPA from Harvard University; and an MBA from Columbia Business School, where she was awarded a Morgan Stanley Fellowship.
