Michael Habte 2025 Speaker

“Michael Habte is the Managing Partner of Spero Advisory and a seasoned capital markets executive with over 15 years of leadership across global and African financial institutions. He recently served as the first Chief Operating Officer of the Ethiopian Securities Exchange (ESX), where he co-led the design, establishment, and successful launch of Ethiopia’s first organized stock exchange in 2025 from inception. As part of the ESX project team, Michael helped lead a highly successful equity capital raise – with a 140% oversubscription rate – from a variety of private sector investors composed of close to 50 institutional domestic and international investors.

Prior to ESX, Michael held senior roles with BBVA, Citigroup, Moody’s, Bloomberg, and Wood Mackenzie, building deep expertise various full spectrum of asset classes covering fixed income, commodities, FX, and equities. Fully bilingual in English and Amharic, he combines international capital markets experience with a proven track record of institution building, technology deployment, and strategic advisory. Michael holds a Master’s in Economics from Johns Hopkins University.”