Archives: Speakers

Arnaud de Lavalette is currently leading the Digital Finance Initiative at ADA, helping African MFI digitalize their operations. He is a seasoned expert in microfinance and SME funding with over 10 years of experience in this domain in Asia (Nepal, India and Philippines), West Africa and Latin America (Mexico). In the SME domain, Arnaud has… Read more »

Anusha heads up Corporate Finance, including capital raising, structuring and investor relations at Select Africa, a pan African housing-focused microfinance institution. She is a South African Chartered Accountant with specialist financial services experience across local and international markets. Prior to joining Select in 2016, Anusha worked at various PricewaterhouseCoopers (“PwC”) global offices. She spent three… Read more »

Andrew Slater is an actuarial and investment expert with 25 years’ experience. In his career in institutional investment, he has worked in many countries with pension funds, insurers and wealth management institutions, ranging from high-net-wealth private banks to mass-market defined contribution providers. During his career he has successfully deliberately sought out the areas that presented… Read more »

Andrew McCusker oversees Opportunity’s work developing financial products and programs to improve access and the quality of affordable education around the world. Andrew is responsible for scaling EduFinance to more markets, allowing more students go to and stay in better-quality schools. Prior to joining Opportunity, Andrew served in the Corporate Finance team for Bridge International… Read more »

Mr. Amro Abouesh served as the Head of Microfinance and SMEs in the Bank of Alexandria, INTESA-SanPaolo. Prior to this post, he was the Executive Advisor to the Chairman of Banque-du-Caire for Microfinance, Personal Loans and Middle Markets. Mr. Abouesh was also SME Assistant to the Minister of Economy and Foreign Trade. Mr. Abouesh received… Read more »

Ameya Upadhyay invests in organizations that advance financial health and inclusion across Africa, Myanmar, and Europe for the impact investing firm Omidyar Network. He also serves on boards of several FinTech portfolio companies, helping them expand operations and reach scale. Based out of the Mumbai office from 2012-2016, Ameya helped build Omidyar Network’s Financial Inclusion… Read more »

Alick McIntosh – Founding Shareholder and CEO TASC Alick was born and educated in Zimbabwe and South Africa. He has over 25 years as an entrepreneur setting up companies from scratch in the commodities, logistics and renewables sector not just in the UK/Jersey but throughout Africa. He currently resides in Jersey.

Afsane Jetha is the Managing Partner & CEO of Alta Semper Capital. Prior to founding Alta Semper, Afsane spent nearly five years with the Duet Group as the Managing Director of the firm’s African Private Equity platform, investing nearly US$200m across Sub-Saharan Africa. While at Duet, Afsane led the largest private equity transaction into Ethiopia,… Read more »

Aaron is an early stage investor, entrepreneur, and strategic advisor to both startups as they scale and corporates as they gain agility for innovation. Over the last 4 years he has specifically focussed on innovation in Africa, working across diverse industries, from financial services to government to agriculture. As Managing Director at MEST, dedicated to… Read more »

Nathan is a Senior Investment Officer for MicroVest, joining the team in 2011. He is responsible for pipeline development, analysis and structuring of investments, product development and market strategy. He has performed over 30 in depth due diligences of low income financial institutions in 15 different countries, resulting in 80 investments worth over $150m. His… Read more »