Investment Committee Members

David Jackson

LDFP Director,Chair LDIC

David Jackson, a British national, has over 30 years of experience in Local Development. He started his career as an urban planner in London in 1980s and later on ran a consulting company supporting local development in over 10 African and Asian countries.

The beginning of his career at UNCDF was in the 1990s in Mozambique, where he designed and piloted a national system of local government finance for capital investment that was taken to scale by government.

Since 2006, he worked as Decentralisation Advisor to the Government of Indonesia and UNDP. In 2009, he became Head of UNCDF Asia and Pacific office where he designed the Local Climate Adaptive Living Facility, a global mechanism that enables local governments in the least developed countries to access climate finance for resilient investments.

In May 2013, he was appointed Director of UNCDF’s Local Development Finance Practice in New York. In this position he manages portfolio of local development finance programmes with a focus on fiscal decentralisation, infrastructure development, climate resilience grants, municipal finance and private sector investments.

Christel Alvergne

Team Leader Africa Region

Christel Alvergne is Team Leader for the Africa region.Christel holds a PhD in Urban Economics. She is a former academic and has been a researcher and professor in academic institutions in France, Canada, Senegal and Egypt. She published several books on territorial policies, fiscal decentralization and urban development analyzing the evolutions in Europe, the US, Canada and across Africa.

Convinced about the importance of local dimension for a sustainable and human development, she has been involved in the Municipal movement in developing countries and has contributed to promote decentralization processes since their beginning in the 1990s. She has also worked for 20 years on fiscal decentralization and municipal finance in developing countries.

Prior to this involvement in Africa, she was involved in the forecast policies for the French Prime Minister agency – DATAR. She set up the “France 2020” program, an initiative to test and develop innovative approaches to decentralization and local governments involvement into time management policies, forecast plans, capital investment plans and new financing models for municipalities.

Dmitry Pozhidaev

Global Advisor for Local Government Finance and Head of UNCDF office in Uganda

Dr. Dmitry POZHIDAEV is Global Advisor for Local Government Finance and Head of UNCDF Office in Uganda. He has been working with UNCDF since 2010 guiding local development finance programmes for public and private sector in many countries in Asia and Africa. Prior to that, he worked with various international financial institutions and private sector companies, such as the World Bank, European Union, Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, and Adam Smith International as a consultant on fiscal decentralisation, development finance, and public financial management in Europe, Middle East and Southeast Asia. He served as an international municipal administrator in Kosovo where he oversaw a municipal budget and capital investment programme of €11 million annually, including a large portfolio of infrastructure PPPs.

Mr. Pozhidaev has a doctorate degree in Development Economics and authored numerous articles and book chapters on public administration, local development, finance and investment.

Suresh Balakrishnan

Regional team Leader

Suresh Balakrishnan is Regional Team Leader for UNCDF’s Local Development Finance Practice based in Kathmandu, Nepal. He supports a diverse set of local development programmes across the region, which range from local development grants, municipal finance and local economic development finance. Suresh has been with UNCDF since 2012 after a long association with UNDP in Asia, during which he worked closely with UNCDF in several countries. He played a key role in developing several financing instruments ranging from operational expenditure blocks grants to partial credit guarantees for the Local Development Finance portfolio.

Suresh holds a doctoral degree in management sciences and worked with academia and civil society before joining the UN system. He led the Public Affairs Centre in Bangalore, India for a decade during which he helped develop Citizen Report Cards emerge as a global best practice in public accountability. He has published extensively in international journals and was on the faculty of the International Programme for Development Evaluation jointly conducted by The World Bank Group and the Carleton University for a decade, from 2005. His areas of expertise include local development finance, local governance, entrepreneurship development, process re-engineering, public administration reform and development evaluation.

Paul Martin

Regional team Leader

Paul Martin is the Regional Team Leader for UNCDF’s Local Development Finance Practice based in Bangkok, Thailand. He transitioned from the private sector to UNCDF in 2015 after 20 years of global consultancy work, with an especial focus on Asia and emerging economies. Pauls began his career as a UK civil servant tasked with supporting the privation of UK nationalized industries in the 1990,s and later joined the UK governments’ international energy consultancy. He undertook assignments in Russia, regenerating mono-activity towns viz-a-viz EBRD investments and World Bank sectorial loans, in the Middle East managing large energy and transport investments and India disposing of UK ODA assets.

Since 2004 Paul worked as a senior consultant for a limited number of leading European consultancy companies, UNDP and OSCE in the areas of planning and investments, PFM, policy development and legislative and regulatory advisory within the spheres of investment, investment promotion and PPPs. This portfolio of work has included the generation of national and sub national transformative plans and investment portfolios, forecasting of national development financing and public sector capital investments, PFM and establishing regulatory bases for PPPs and credit guarantees and originating PPP investment pipelines

Paul holds an International MBA and a BSc in Energy and Law

Dr. A. Haroon Akram-Lodhi

External Expert Advisor
Women Economic Empowerment
Food Security and Nutrition

Dr. A. Haroon Akram-Lodhi is Professor of Economics and International Development Studies at Trent University in Peterborough, Canada. Haroon Akram-Lodhi is also the Editor-in-Chief of the Canadian Journal of Development Studies and an Associate Editor of Feminist Economics.
Trained as an economist, the focus of Haroon Akram-Lodhi's research interest is in the political economy of agrarian change in developing countries, on the economic dimensions of gender relations, and on the political ecology of sustainable rural livelihoods. He currently acts as a Gender and Poverty Adviser to the United Nations Development Programme's Gender Team, is a Poverty and Gender Analyst for the United Nations Environment Programme's Poverty - Environment Initiative - Africa, and a Gender and Women's Empowerment Adviser to UN Women. Haroon Akram-Lodhi has lived, taught, and conducted research in numerous countries, published extensively in peer-reviewed journals, and has undertaken advisory services for a wide variety of multilateral, bilateral and non-governmental international development organizations
Otherwise, good to go.

Gregor Paterson-Jones

External Expert Advisor
Financial Structure and Sustainability

Gregor Paterson-Jones is an independent fund establishment expert in the renewable finance and social impact sectors. He acts as a board member and investment committee member and adviser with clients including the European Investment Bank, the European Commission’s Innovation Fund, the Italian Government, the UNCDF, Mergence, InfraImpact, SE Asia Clean Energy Facility, The African Development Bank, the Asian Development Bank, the North Macedonian Innovation Fund and a number of Sovereign Wealth Funds.

With a robust career that spans over 26 years and many proven successes as a principal investor in renewable energy funds and infrastructure investment banking sectors, he now focusses on advising development banks, governments and international organisations on fund establishment and deal execution across several key industries. He was previously Managing Director the UK Green Investment Bank, and CEO of Sterling Waterford, after a career at Deloitte Consulting.

Luc Gnacadja

External Expert Advisor
Climate and resilience

Luc GNACADJA, a Benin national and a tri-sector (business, government and nonprofit) leader and manager, is the founder and president of the think-tank GPS-Dev (Governance & Policies for Sustainable Development). He has a long and high-level expertise and credentials in reflecting, advocating and mainstreaming environmental matters in public policies for the advancement of sustainable development, as well as a proven leadership ability to facilitate change and transformation in regional and multilateral contexts.

Graduated as architect in 1983, he has served as Minister of environment, housing and urban development of his country Benin (1999-2005), and as Executive Secretary of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD, 2007-13).
In this latter capacity, he has been a guiding voice for sustainable land development in the negotiations leading up to the Rio+20 Summit and is the architect of the concept of “Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN)” (cf. SDG target 15.03). As President of GPS-Dev he has, among other initiatives, supported and facilitated in 2018 a paradigm shift strategy for sustainable land management as well as the redesign of the renewable energy strategy in Benin.

Mr. Gnacadja is currently the Chairperson of the Strategic Council of the Sahara and Sahel Observatory (OSS) and the special representative of the Local Climate Adaptive Living Facility’s board.

Gina Volynsky

External Expert Advisor Local Economic Development

Gina Volynsky has 30 years of experience in international development, including 14 years of living and working in emerging economies. She dedicated much of her career to economic development and collaborating with the private sector to address development challenges. Currently, she is a Senior Director at Pact, a 50-year-old US NGO, heading up the Private Sector Practice. She is also a Public Service Professor at the State University of New York where she established a concentration in International Development and is designing and teaching graduate courses on International Development. Most recently, she served for six years at SUNY as the Executive Director of the Center for International Development. Previously, she headed a team working for USAID on private sector engagement, that examined, developed and managed development partnerships with the private sector. Ms. Volynsky also served as the UNDP Eurasia Center as Sr. Advisor on Trade and Inclusive Development where she designed and managed multi-country programs that prepared countries for international trade and created the infrastructure to partner with multinationals. While at the World Bank in Russia, she served as Country Manager for MIGA which provides political risk insurance to companies that invest in emerging economies. Also, Gina set up and managed business development divisions for Crown Agents and CARANA. Additionally, she designed, evaluated, and managed numerous inclusive economic development programs for USAID globally. Gina has an MBA, a BA in Economics, is fluent in Russian, and has a basic command of French and Italian.

Hailer Charles

Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy Capstone
Team Leader

Charles Hailer is a graduate student pursuing a Master of International Affairs (MIA) at the Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy, University at Albany, SUNY. He assists Dr. Greenhill lead a team of MIA and MPA students as they review development proposals to complete their capstone project with UNCDF. Prior to his time at Rockefeller College, Charles worked in film, television, and the arts for over a decade at institutions and firms like the Tribeca Film Festival, the Museum of the Moving Image, Robert College in Istanbul, BRIC Arts Media, and Viacom.

Rebecca Lee

Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy Capstone
Team Leader 2019

Rebecca Lee, Master in Public Administration (MPA), a 2019 graduate of Rockefeller at SUNY Albany, was approached by Rey Koslowski, Dean of the Master of International Affairs (MIA) program, to create a Capstone program between Rockefeller and UNCDF. In this capacity, Rebecca served as the grants analyst, and upon completion of her course and her degree, became the training coordinator for future capstone students.
She worked with six students and completed numerous technical reviews of grant proposals in various countries.

Due to a career opportunity in Washington state, Rebecca left the position in the hands of Robert Potts. She continues to be an active volunteer in assisting with new students and reviews if necessary. Rebecca is excited to see how this partnership develops.

Mohammad Abbadi

Senior Investment Expert

Prior to joining the UN, Mohammad Abbadi worked as an Economic Advisor to the Minister of Planning and International Cooperation of Jordan.

Mohammad Abbadi, is the Senior Investment Manager with the Local Development Finance Practice at UNCDF, spearheading the Global Award Winning “Dual Key” pipeline and approach to revenue generating investments and ensures quality control on the investments’ financial sustainability and compliance with development impact measurements. Mohammad brings over 16 years of international development and managerial experience. He continues to provide innovative approaches to Investment and Impact management, including industry standard assessment instruments, methodologies and best practices in building sustainable investment portfolios. He is an economist by practice with specific specialization in SDGs responsive Local Economic Development and Women’s Economic Empowerment, especially in the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) context.

Prior to joining UNCDF he worked as a Gender Economist with UNDP, leading their flagship programme on Gender and Macroeconomic Policy Management in Africa and Asia. Mr. Abbadi holds a master’s degree in Public Administration from Rockefeller College of Public Affairs (USA), and a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from Hampshire College (USA).

Brian Greenhill

Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy
Capstone -Programme manager

Brian Greenhill is an Associate Professor at the Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy, University at Albany, SUNY. His research focuses on international organizations, paying particular attention to the more indirect ways in which they can promote action on human rights and environmental issues.

At Rockefeller College he teaches courses on international relations, global environmental politics, human rights, and statistical methods. He serves as the supervisor for the students who are completing their capstone projects with the UNCDF as part of Rockefeller College's Master of International Affairs program.

Christian Fournier

External Expert Advisor Local Economic Development and Municipal Finance

Christian Fournier draws on over 35 years of professional experience in decentralization, state reform, municipal management, institutional and organizational development and project management, working as a technical expert and consultant with international institutions such as Global Affairs Canada, DANIDA, the World Bank, UNDP and UNCDF. The last 25 years of his career has been primarily based internationally, mainly in West and Central Africa. An urban planner by training, he also holds a graduate degree in international cooperation and a master’s degree in project management. Over his career, Christian has managed project teams, designed and developed territorial and financial planning instruments, created and implemented sectoral strategies in local governance and participated in policy dialogue on decentralization, implemented mechanisms for financial transfers to local authorities. Christian was also involved in designing and editing instruments such as the Local Authorities Financial and Institutional management System and the Guide du Registre d’Inventaire Territorial Actualisé.

Shrijna Dixon

Rockefeller capstone Coordinator

Shrijna Dixon is a doctoral student in political science at the Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy, University at Albany, SUNY. She coordinates the Rockefeller capstone where the college's Master of International Affairs and Master of Political Administration candidates review, as external experts, UNCDF's local finance transformative development proposals on Africa and Asia and the Pacific. Prior to attending Rockefeller, Shrijna worked for a decade in international development and cooperation with the United Nations in the Asia Pacific region. She managed programs in over 20 countries for mainstreaming gender and advancing social inclusion across all spheres of social, political, and economic development.

Thematic Transaction Team

Jaffer Machano

Programme Manager Municipal Finance

Jaffer Machano is the Global Programme Manager for the Municipal Investment Finance programme of UNCDF.

Jaffer oversees the UNCDF initiative charged with increasing the capacity of local governments to address key urbanization challenges through access to sustainable sources of capital financing.

Before UNCDF he was Head of Global Banking Tanzania at Standard Chartered Bank and Deputy Managing Director at TIB Development Bank. Jaffer also worked at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and Barclays Bank. He holds a master’s degree in international Economic Policy from Columbia University.

Samina Anwar

Programme Manager, Women Economic Empowerment

Samina Anwar works with the UN Capital Development Fund as Programme Manager with the Local Development Finance Team. Samina Has Over 15 Years of Work Experience in International Development with a Particular Focus on Development Finance, Gender lens investing and Rural Economic Development. In Her Current Role She Leads women’s economic empowerment portfolio and provides technical advice for implementing country-based programmes and developing inclusive financing tools. She also leads corporate’ strategic priorities related to gender equality including technical advice on the development and implementation of corporate Gender Equality Strategy and Action Plan.

Prior to this, Samina led a financing for gender equality initiative with UN Women and provided technical advice to local partners on effective integration of gender equality in policy and regulatory frameworks and budgeting processes. In the past, Samina worked with the Aga Khan Rural Support Programme in Northern Pakistan to support local economic development projects related to agriculture and rural infrastructure.

Ms. Anwar holds a master’s degree in Social Policy from the London School of Economics and a master’s degree in Economics from Pakistan.

Katiella Mai Moussa

Programme Manager,Food Security and Nutrition

Katiella Mai Moussa is currently the Global Manager for the Finance For Food (F4F) Program and Food Security Technical Advisor for the United Nations Capital Development Fund. He is supporting the implementation of public and private food security investments pipeline in Tanzania, Uganda and Benin. Prior to UNCDF, Mr. Katiella worked for a decade as Coordinator and Grant Manager of the GEF/UNDP Small Grant Program, Community based Adaptation and Community Water Initiative) with multi focal funding windows (Land Degradation, Biodiversity, Climate Change and International Waters, Persistent Organic Pollutants).

Prior to joining the UN System, Katiella worked as associate scientist (Postdoc position) at the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) where he developed strong experience on Crop, Land and Water Management and the Multi Scale Land Use System. After several consultancies and advices provided to the World Bank Natural Resources Management Projects, he joined the Faculty of Sciences (University of Niamey) as Assistant professor and nominated as Vice Chairman of the National Commission of Climate Variability and Change where he took a lead of the National Research Group of the Global GEF/World Bank Program in partnership with Yale University and CEEPA/University of Pretoria, on the Adaptation of Agriculture sector to Climate Change in Africa.

He holds a Doctorate in Ecology, a Postgraduate in Climate Change Management and Adaptation from the Technical University of Dresden (Germany), a Leadership Development Certificate from Harvard Business Publishing and a Certificate in Food Security Strategic Planning from the International Center for Parliamentary Studies (ICPS) in London (UK).

Jenifer Bukokhe

Programme Manager Local Economic Development

Jenifer Bukokhe Wakhungu is the Deputy Head of UNCDF Country Office, and Programme Manager—Development Initiative Northern Uganda. She provides technical and programme management support to the LDFP portfolio in Uganda. She is responsible for the UNCDF partnership with the Swedish International Centre for Local Democracy with whom UNCDF implements an International Training Programme in Uganda, Tanzania, Zambia and South Africa. She is a principal trainer on Fiscal Decentralization and Local Finance, a course delivered by The Hague Academy in partnership with UNCDF. She has over 20 years of experience in supporting decentralization processes, gender mainstreaming and applying financial instruments to finance local economic development.

Previously she worked with UNCDF in Lesotho as the Regional Technical Advisor, also supporting Zambia and Zimbabwe. She received a recognition award from the Ministry of Local Government in Uganda for her contribution to decentralization reforms. Prior to joining UNCDF, she worked with several non-government organization Save the Children, Concern Worldwide and Water Aid managing small grants financing local economic development, health care infrastructure, establishing revolving funds, income generating activities and savings and credit schemes.

Ms. Bukokhe Wakhungu holds a bachelor’s degree in Social Work and Social Administration, Master’s Degree in Gender and Women Studies and a Doctor of Philosophy

Sophie de Coninck

Programme Manager Climate and Resilience

Prior to joining LoCAL, Sophie worked on climate issues for the largest international development donor in the world, the European Union. Her responsibilities included overseeing the “Global Climate Change Alliance”, with a focus was on LDCs and SIDS in Africa, Asia, the Pacific and Caribbean regions.

Sophie previously worked for the United Nations Environment Programme in Kenya for five years and with the UNDP-UNEP Poverty-Environment Initiative. Sophie also has government experience, working in various ministries in her native Belgium as well as in the private sector.

Sophie holds two master’s degrees, one in engineering and applied economics and the other in environmental science and management from the University of Louvain, Belgium. She has worked in over 30 countries worldwide.

Jesmul Hasan

Country Focal Point Programme Specialist

Jesmul Hasan is the Country Focal Point for UNCDF in Bangladesh. He has a career of 23 years in social development, human rights, teaching and journalism in Bangladesh. His expertise are on infrastructure finance, credit guarantee, governance, institutional and political analysis, policy, local development finance and climate change. He leads UNCDF projects on WEE, climate change, municipal finance.

Prior to joining UNCDF, he worked for the Dutch Embassy in Bangladesh, DFID, CIDA, UNHCR, ILO, World Bank and Save the Children. He has a Master’s in Public Administration from the Harvard Kennedy School and Bachelor’s in Law from the University of Dhaka.

Carlos Barry

Programme Manager,Guinea

With 24 years of professional experience in various fields, including management, monitoring and evaluation of development projects and programs, he ensures the operational and financial monitoring of all joint UNCDF projects in Guinea as well as some UNDP projects. He ensures the optimal use of resources and their visibility to the beneficiaries, the Government and donors, through actions in the field.
Prior to his appointment to this position in 1997, Mr. Barry held several positions, including manager of the Village Water Supply Program in the Gabu region (Guinea Bissau), before being entrusted with the management of the Rural Development Support Program in Middle Guinea (PA-PDRMG), the Local Development Program in Guinea (PDLG), the Community Reinsertion and Rehabilitation Project in Forest Guinea and the Multifunctional Platform Project in Guinea.

An agronomist by profession, Carlos Barry worked for 10 years at the Ministry of Natural Resources of Guinea Bissau as Director of Planning at the National Directorate of Water Resources where he was in charge of programming the water sector and implementing the sector's master plan in the framework of resource mobilization. He also has solid experience in the identification, formulation and management of local development and micro-finance programs, as well as humanitarian programs.

Carlos Barry is an Agronomy Engineer, holding a Diploma of Higher Studies in Agronomy (DSS) from the Faculty of Agronomy of the Institute of Agro zootechnical Sciences of Foulaya-Kindia (Rep. of Guinea) before attending several training sessions in Africa, France and Latin America.

In addition to local languages (Soussou, Pulaar and Creole) Carlos Barry is fluent in French, Spanish and Portuguese.

Financial Transaction team

Peter Malika

Global LFI Manager
Head of UNCDF Tanzania

Prior to joining UNCDF, Peter Malika was the Regional Director at E+CO a clean tech fund; Director of the KPMG’s Risk and Advisory Services practice in USA. He has over 20 years of substantive leadership experience in international development and trade, fortune 500 corporate centered experience & management consulting, management of global and regional operations, and expertise in financing for development and solutions.

Peter is the Global Manager of the UNCDF Local Finance Initiative Facility & Head of UNCDF Tanzania. He has served the United Nations in different capacities at national, regional and global levels. Led financing for development initiatives and cross cutting innovative in local economic development and governance; climate resilience; poverty reduction; private sector development; gender and development; and investment advisory services, knowledge management and partnerships, across Africa and Asia.

Mr. Malika holds an MBA Finance, Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA), BSc. Accounting

Abraham Byamungu

Senior Finance and Investment Officer

Prior to joining UNCDF, Abraham served at managerial level in different international and regional banks in Tanzania. He has worked with Barclays Bank, Exim Bank and Bank of Africa.

Before joining the banking industry, Abraham worked with KPMG Tanzania as Audit Senior. In addition, he has over 14 years’ experience in banking, local economic development, financial management, and business advisory.

He is a certified chartered accountant (ACCA, CPA) and financial economist with a Master of Science (Financial Economics) and Bachelor of Commerce (Banking Finance).

Michael Mboowa

Finance and Investment Officer

Prior to joining UNCDF, Michael was the Director – Financial Advisory at Bronkar (U) Ltd providing financial services to SMEs including; preparation for equity investments, business plans, financial analysis, assessment and implementation of internal controls.

He was also an Audit Senior at Deloitte East Africa prior to that.

He holds a Bachelor of Statistics; he is a Member of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) and the Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Uganda (CPA).

Stella Lyatuu

Municipal Finance Investment Officer

Prior to joining UNCDF, Stella worked for the Ministry of Local Governments as a Senior Financial Management officer, in the areas of LGAs finance, fiscal decentralization, financial analysis, project finance and Public Private Partnerships (PPPs).

She has extensive experience of supporting public sector investments including the structuring of commercial infrastructure investments.

Malimu Museru

Senior Finance and Investment Officer

Prior to joining UNCDF, Malimu Museru was a Manager at Ernst & Young Tanzania in the transaction advisory services team where he led the team in providing services including financial due diligence, valuation of businesses, feasibility studies, pre- and post-acquisition reviews etc.

Prior to EY he worked at Riscura South Africa, a global investment advisor - providing private equity advisory services to Africa’s largest pension funds and private equity funds. He executed transactions in sectors including manufacturing, agribusiness, and infrastructure covering Southern Africa, West Africa and the MENA region.

Malimu is a certified chartered Financial Analyst (level 3 candidate) and holds a Bcom (Finance & Economics), Bcom honours (financial analysis & portfolio management), and a Master of Commerce (Finance).

Amarou Aw

Municipal Investment Officer

Prior to joining UNCDF, Amarou Aw was a Senior Investment Officer at the Senegalese sovereign wealth fund for strategic investments, and prior to that a Senior Consultant at a global strategy consulting firm in Paris and London.

Amarou has 10 years of corporate strategy and financial advisory experience with engagement at executive level with 500 companies, senior government members in Senegal, Mayors and a wide range of SMEs in Senegal and in Africa. In his Investment Officer role at UNCDF, Amarou is mainly focused on building a pipeline of investable projects through SMEs and PPPs and goading them towards disbursement and monitoring.

Amarou holds an engineering degree (MSc) from Ecole des Ponts ParisTech and an MBA from the Ponts Business School. He fluently speaks French, English and Wolof.

Dian Balde

Finance and Investment Officer

Prior to joining UNCDF, Mr. Dian worked as an Investment Manager and advisor to the CEO of a French investment company specializing in infrastructure development in the energy and ICT sectors in Europe and Africa for 6 years.

He has experience in economic and policy advisory in France and Africa with consulting firms mandated by governments and donors, combining economic and financial tools to carry out cost-benefit analysis, value for money assessment, ex-ante and ex-post socio-economic impact assessment and regulatory impact assessment.

Dian is the LFI investment officer in Guinea and supports ongoing programs. He holds a Master of Science in Development Economics, Master of Science in Development Project Analysis, and BA. Economics.

Sirra Foon

Finance & Investment Officer

Prior to joining UNCDF, Sirra Fooon worked as Business Planning Manager/Research & Actuarial Manager at the Social Security and Housing Finance Corporation, The Gambia.

Sirra works at UNCDF Gambia as an Investment Officer (LFI) for the “Jobs, Skills and Finance (JSF) for Women and Youth in The Gambia” Programme providing technical assistance and capital to climate smart LED investments.

Sirra holds a BA (Hons) and a Master of Science in Actuarial Science.

Imanuel Muro

Senior Finance & Investment Officer

Mr. Imanuel Muro combines practical expertise as a financial and investment advisor and BDS trainer with extensive experience on development finance, project finance, private equity, and debt transacting. He has over 27 years’ experience working in both the private and public sectors and has experience of working with Local Governments in Zanzibar, Lesotho, The Gambia and Uganda.

Mr Muro is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA). He also holds master’s degree in Enterprise and Entrepreneurship Development (MEED) from Business School, University of Dar-es salaam. He formerly graduated in Bcom from the same University.

Fidelis Luteganya

Finance & Investment Officer

Prior to joining UNCDF, Fidelis worked for UNDP and UNCDF in Tanzania for over 4 years as Finance Analyst.

Prior to UN system, Fidelis worked as Accountant in the private and public sector in Tanzania at various levels. Fidelis is an Investment officer with UNCDF-Tanzania office for the past four years. Since joining UNCDF, Fidelis has supported the team from identification, development to financing stage of several projects in various sectors and thematic.

Mr. Luteganya is a Certified Public Accountant. He Holds a Master’s Degree in Economics (Banking & Finance), a master of Business Administration, and a Bachelor of Commerce majoring in Accounting.

Sharmeen Hossain

Municipal Finance Investment Officer

Prior to joining UNCDF, Sharmeen Hossain led the Structured Finance desk at a boutique investment bank which also pioneered Public Private Partnership investment vehicles for large infrastructure transactions.

Ms. Hossain, started her career at JPMorgan as a certified Sales Trader advising large mutual and hedge funds in Boston and New York investing in US institutional equities. She dedicated her mid-career to developing the secondary equities markets in India and Bangladesh as an Investment Banker specializing in Issue Management (IPOs, RPOs, Rights and Preferred Shares) and Corporate Advisory (M&A and Restructuring) of local corporates.

She obtained her MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and BBA from Babson College in the US.

Deus Tirwakunda

Manager, UNCDF Start Facility - Uganda

Deus Tirwakunda is the START Facility Manager at UNCDF, a blended finance facility under the food security and nutrition component of Development Initiative for Northern Uganda (DINU) Program.

Prior to joining UNCDF, Deus worked with Kilimo Trust for over 10 years rising from Accountant position to be the Director for Finance & Administration. He previously worked as a Senior Auditor - Kazibwe, Kenneth & Steven Certified Public Accountants.

Deus is a CPA and a member of the Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Uganda, holds a Master’s Degree in Financial Management (Amity University) and a Bachelor of Arts (Makerere University).

Fred Duhaga

Investment Analyst
START Facility -Uganda

Prior to joining UNCDF, Fred worked with impact funder- Oikocredit for 5 years as an Investment officer for the East African region- Providing debt to sectors of Renewable energy, Financial institutions and Agriculture. He previously worked as a credit supervisor with - Guaranty Trust Bank. As a Senior Credit officer- Equity Bank and Credit officer- Uganda Microfinance Ltd.

He is currently the Programme Analyst- Investment on the START facility, a blended finance facility under the food security and nutrition component of Development Initiative for Northern Uganda (DINU) Program.

Ddamulira Ivan Bbaale

Investment Analyst
START Facility -Uganda

Prior to joining UNCDF Ddamulira Ivan, started his career at Barclays Bank Limited, Kampala, Uganda and worked there for 12 years in several roles including Branch Operations Manager; Operational Risk Advisor; and Corporate Credit Manager.

Currently he works as a Programme Analyst- Investment for the DINU Programme- START Facility based in Kampala, Uganda.
Mr. Bbaale, holds a degree in Economics and a Master of Business Administration. He is a member of the ACCA & CPA

Joel Mundua

Investment Specialist

Mr. Joel Mundua Lead Specialist- Governance, with over 19 years of experience in public finance management, local governance, local economic development (LED).

Before Joining UNCDF, Joel among others worked at the World Bank as Economic Competitiveness Advisor and Ministry of Local Government as Local Economic Development Specialist, supporting Government on LED and job creation policy development, municipal finance and support to develop bankable economic infrastructure projects. He has also supported public private dialogues and enabling environment support and supporting PPP’s in manufacturing sector with a job creation lens.

He holds a Master of Science in Agricultural & Applied Economics from Makerere University.

Abdulaziz Alsaffar

Municipal Investment Specialist

Abdulaziz is an experienced professional in the area of Corporate Finance and Business Analytics with over 12 years of experience in financial services, corporate venturing, and infrastructure financing. Abdulaziz is part of the Global Municipal Investment Finance team at UNCDF.

Prior to joining UNCDF, Abdulaziz’s work focused on corporate strategy, bidding on international ICT licenses, and investments in internet and technology companies. He holds an undergraduate degree in Management information Systems from Iowa State University and a Master of Business Administration from IE Business School.

Rukan Manaz

Municipal Investment Specialist

Rukan Manaz is an experienced professional in the area of international cooperation and sustainable finance. As part of the Municipal Investment Finance team at UNCDF, she is in charge for the Blue Peace Initiative - a financing initiative for non-sovereign entities.

Prior to joining UNCDF, Rukan worked in different public agencies, including a think tank and the Swiss Government. Her work focused on blended finance approaches and PPPs for the Sustainable Development Goals.

Rukan holds a Master’s and Bachelor’s Degree in International Affairs and Governance from the University of St. Gallen as well as a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology.

Secretariat

Amadou Sy

RBM & Communications Lead

Amadou offers 9+ years of experience in finance with the private sector at international level and 5+experience with the UNCDF.

Prior to joining UNCDF, he worked with multinationals like Danone, Lacoste and Ernst & Young in Paris bringing a solid track-record of audit, financial control, budgeting and implementing solutions achieving business objectives through optimized processes.

Since joining UNCDF in 2016, he has worked for the Policy Partnership and communication Unit on advocacy and outreach, partnerships, and resources mobilization. He also supported the work of the UNCDF LDC Investment Platform Team.

Today, Amadou is the global communication lead of the Local Development practice, he is also assisting Local Development programs on Results Reporting and Evaluations.

Inescapably drawn to development issues and challenges, bilingual (English/French), with a multi-country experience and with a strong knowledge of West Africa, Amadou holds a MBA, Master in Business Administration from the Hult International Business School(Boston, US) , A Bachelor in Business and Management Studies from the Bradford School of Management ( Bradford, UK) and Bachelor in Business administration from the Montpellier Business School Montpellier, France).

Leyla M. Cuevas Lopez

Public and Private Investments Portfolio Lead

Leyla is a corporate and financial lawyer with more than ten years’ experience in the private and public sector, and more recently with the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF).

Prior to joining UNCDF, she worked as senior advisor at the Financial Superintendence of Colombia, government agency responsible for overseeing financial regulation and market systems across the country. She was the legal and financial filter for many decisions in different industries and facilitated research for the discussion and issuance of relevant regulation and public policy.

Since joining UNCDF in 2017, she has worked as Public & Private Investments Portfolio Lead assisting the Local Development Finance practice in tasks related to the analysis and implementation of the Local Development Revenue Generating Pipeline of Investable Projects developing valuable analysis skills.

Leyla holds an LLM, Master of Laws in Banking and Financial Law at Boston University School of Law (Boston, US) and postgraduate specialization studies in Corporate Law, Commercial Law, and Financial Regulation. She holds a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) from Universidad del Rosario (Colombia).

Tatiana Martinez Zavala

M&E Impact Specialist

Prior to joining UNCDF, Tatiana Martinez Zavala worked as a Senior Analyst in a consulting firm specialized in socio-economic evaluation of public investments and policies in France. She also worked in the Ministry of Economy and Finance of Guinea-Bissau as part of the Overseas Development Institute Fellowship Scheme. Tatiana has over 6 years of combined experience in research and analysis of international development, public policy, international migration, and M&E of a diverse range of development initiatives on social protection, food security, agricultural development, among other cross-cutting themes.

Tatiana is the M&E Impact Specialist of the UNCDF Local Development Finance Practice in the West & Central Africa Region. She works both on the M&E of the region’s program portfolio, as well as on the impact measurement of UNCDF’s regional investments.

Mrs. Martinez Zavala holds a PhD, MSc and BSc in Economics.

Mohammad Abbadi

Senior Investment Expert

Prior to joining the UN, Mohammad Abbadi worked as an Economic Advisor to the Minister of Planning and International Cooperation of Jordan.

Tanvir Hassan

Service Designer

Tanvir Hassan is a Service Designer, who focuses primarily on helping start-ups and non-profits better design their service. His expertise lies in process optimization, user experience, product management, research and M&E. He spearheaded two national-level government sponsored studies in Bangladesh on Women Entrepreneurs and Technology Transfer Mechanism.

Prior to joining UNCDF, Tanvir worked as a consultant for different organizations and tech-based start-ups by assisting them in creating their service blueprint based on human-centered design. Tanvir completed his BBA from BRAC University and earned his Professional Masters in International Relations from the University of Dhaka.

Tanvir can be reached at tanvir.hassan@uncdf.org

Lea Desgranges

Portfolio Management Officer

Léa Desgranges is Portfolio Management Officer for UNCDF’s Local Development Finance Practice based in the the Regional Office of West and Central Africa in Dakar. She has been working within the UN system for 4 years, supporting programmes’ implementation to promote local development, women empowerment, better governance, sustainable development and health improvement. Prior to joining United Nations, she worked in the field of public policies both in public and private sectors, for consulting firm (KPMG) ; NGO (WorldVision) or Local Administration (Paris City Hall).
In her current position, she is in charge of the coordination of 10+ country projects, budgeting and implementing activities to enhance municipal finance and to support SMEs / PPPs at decentralized level.

Léa holds a master’s degree of Public Management from Ecole Nationale d’Administration (ENA, France) and Paris Dauphine University (France).

Chanja Mwombela

Investment Impact Officer (LDFP)

Chanja Mwombela joins UNCDF as an Investment Impact Officer, Data Collection and Measurement. Prior to joining UNCDF, Ms. Chanja Mwombela worked as Head of Institutional Banking at Bank of Africa Tanzania managing all Investments and Services for all institutional clients for the bank. She also worked in other departments as well managing Corporate Banking and Administration.

Apart from Bank of Africa Tanzania, she also worked in other banks like Bank M, Barclays Bank, and International Bank of Malaysia (now ICB) and has 19 years banking experience. A passionate Scientist, with experience in dealing with NGOs, Private Businesses, Public Institutions and Government Agencies.

Chanja holds a Master of Business Administration – International Business (MBA-IB) and Bachelor of Science in Microbiology and Zoology.

Chanja can be reached at chanja.mwombela@uncdf.org

Robert Potts

Pipeline Process and Impact Assurance Analyst

Rob Potts is the Pipeline Process and Impact Assurance Analyst on the Dual Key headquarters team in New York. He supports the monitoring and management of various tracks of pipeline development with third party funds and investment partners, progress tracking and associated impact applications, and the tracking of revenue streams.

He joined the Dual Key team full time in 2022 after 18 months as an external expert reviewer for the Investment Committee heading the Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy partner programme. Prior to joining UNCDF, he worked in the private sector and in US state government specialising in grants administration, impact monitoring, policy research, and communications.

Rob holds a Master of International Affairs in Global Governance and Diplomacy from the Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy, SUNY Albany. He has studied previously at Sciences Po Paris, the University of Cape Town, and the University of Maine.

Robert can be reached at robert.potts@uncdf.org

UNCDF's ELIPSIS Team

David Jackson

Local Development Finance Practice, UNCDF

David began as an urban planner in London in 1980s and later on ran a consulting company supporting local finance in over 10 African and Asian countries. With UNCDF in the 1990s he designed Mozambique’s system of local finance for capital investment. In 2006, he was appointed UNDP Decentralization Advisor to the Government of Indonesia and designed the Aceh Government Transformation Programme of post war, post Tsunami reconstruction. In 2009, he became Head of UNCDF Asia and Pacific office where he designed the Local Climate Adaptive Living Facility, a global mechanism for local governments to access climate finance. In 2013, he was appointed Director of UNCDF’s Local Development Finance Practice managing its work on infrastructure development, climate resilience, municipal finance and private sector infrastructure investments. David initiated the Malaga coalition for a global financial ecosystem that works for cities and local governments and the International Municipal Investment Fund. David holds a bachelor’s degree from the London School of Economics and a master’s degree from the University of East Anglia.

Mohammad Abbadi

Mohammad Abbadi, “Dual Key” pipeline manager, UNCDF

Mohammad manages the pipeline of investments sourced by UNCDF’s Local Development Finance team, ensuring they are connected to development impact and linking them with investors. The award winning “Dual Key” approach to revenue generating investments and ensures quality control on the investments’ financial sustainability and compliance with development impact measurements. Prior to joining the UN, Mohammad Abbadi worked as an Economic Advisor to the Minister of Planning and International Cooperation of Jordan. Mr. Abbadi holds a master’s degree in Public Administration from Rockefeller College of Public Affairs (USA), and a bachelor’s degree in Economics from Hampshire College (USA).

Jaffer Machano

Jaffer Machano, Municipal Finance Programme Manager, UNCDF

Jaffer oversees the UNCDF initiative charged with increasing the capacity of local governments to address key urbanization challenges through access to sustainable sources of capital financing. Jaffer also manages the Technical Assistance Facility for the International Municipal Investment Fund, which is managed by Meridiam. Through the TAF investments are sourced and enabling environment reforms are addressed. Jaffer has supported the structuring of municipal bond markets in developing countries and manages UNCDFs work on transboundary water basin investment through the BluePeace initiative. Before UNCDF he was Head of Global Banking Tanzania at Standard Chartered Bank and Deputy Managing Director at TIB Development Bank. Jaffer also worked at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and Barclays Bank. He holds a master’s degree in international Economic Policy from Columbia University.

Suresh Balakrishnan

Suresh Balakrishnan, Deputy Director, Local Development Finance, UNCDF

Suresh Balakrishnan serves as the deputy director of Local Development Finance. He has worked for over 30 years in international development including periods leading UNCDFs work in Lao PDR, Nepal, and Bangladesh. He designed a successful guarantee scheme implemented by the Bank of Bangladesh; a municipal bond programme, also in Bangladesh; a programme for local capital investment in Lao and a municipal investment initiative in Nepal which was financed by the Asian Development Bank. Suresh has led negotiations with governments and international development finance institutions and managed the transition to World Bank financing for large UNCDF programmes. He led the Public Affairs Centre in Bangalore, one of India’s leading think tanks, for a decade during which he helped develop the Citizen Report Card methodology emerge as a global best practice in public accountability. Suresh’s academic training background is in management sciences, with a doctorate from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. He has published extensively in international journals, and his current professional interest cover local development finance, local governance, entrepreneurship development, public administration reform and development evaluation.

Peter Malika

Peter Malika, Global Manager Local Finance Initiative, UNCDF

Peter manages a team of investment officers across Africa and Asia to source and structure transactions linked to UNCDF’s Local Development Finance initiatives. Prior to joining UNCDF, Peter Malika was the Regional Director at E+CO at clean tech fund; Director of the KPMG’s Risk and Advisory Services practice in USA. He has over 20 years of substantive leadership experience in international development and trade. Peter is also the head of UNCDF in Tanzania and in this capacity, he has led the sourcing and structuring of several transactions linked to municipal governments and local economic development whilst supporting government on the legislative and regulatory reforms required for these investments to take place. He has served the United Nations in different capacities at national, regional and global levels. Mr. Malika holds an MBA Finance, Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA), BSc. Accounting

Sirra Foon

Sirra Foon, Finance and Investment Officer, UNCDF

Sirra is an Investment Officer supporting the Local Finance Initiative team at UNCDF working on the municipal and infrastructure pipeline. Prior to joining UNCDF, Sirra Foon worked as Business Planning Manager/Research & Actuarial Manager at the Social Security and Housing Finance Corporation, The Gambia. Sirra works at UNCDF Gambia as an Investment Officer (LFI) for the “Jobs, Skills and Finance (JSF) for Women and Youth in The Gambia” Programme providing technical assistance and capital to climate smart Local Economic Development Investments. Sirra holds a BA (Hons) and a Master of Science in Actuarial Science.

Sharmeen Hossain

Sharmeen Hossain, Municipal Finance Investment Officer, UNCDF

Sharmeen is an Investment Officer supporting the Local Finance Initiative team at UNCDF. Prior to joining UNCDF, Sharmeen Hossain led the Structured Finance desk at a boutique investment bank which also pioneered Public Private Partnership investment vehicles for large infrastructure transactions. Ms. Hossain started her career at JPMorgan as a certified Sales Trader advising large mutual and hedge funds in Boston and New York investing in US institutional equities. She dedicated her mid-career to developing the secondary equities markets in India and Bangladesh as an Investment Banker specializing in Issue Management (IPOs, RPOs, Rights and Preferred Shares) and Corporate Advisory (M&A and Restructuring) of local corporates. She obtained her MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and BBA from Babson College in the US.

Christel Alvergne

Christel Alvergne, Team Leader Africa Region, UNCDF

Christel Alvergne is the Local Development Finance Team Leader for the Africa region. Christel holds a PhD in Urban Economics. She is a former academic on local economic development and has been a researcher and professor in academic institutions in France, Canada, Senegal and Egypt. She published several books on territorial policies, fiscal decentralization and urban development analysing the evolutions in Europe, the US, Canada and across Africa. Convinced about the importance of local dimension for a sustainable and human development, she has been involved in the Municipal investments in developing countries and has contributed to promote decentralization processes since their beginning in the 1990s. Prior to this she was involved in the forecast policies for the French Prime Minister agency – DATAR. She set up the “France 2020” program, an initiative to test innovative approaches to local governments forecast plans, capital investment plans and new financing models for municipalities.

Sophie de Coninck

Sophie de Coninck, Global Manager, Climate and Resilience, UNCDF

Sophie De Coninck brings over 20 years of international development, environment and climate change experience to her role as Manager for the Local Climate Adaptive Living Facility, or LoCAL. Designed by the UN Capital Development Fund, LoCAL is a standard and internationally recognized country-based mechanism that finances locally led climate change adaptation, active in over 25 LDC and African countries. Prior to joining LoCAL, Sophie worked on climate issues for the European Union. Her responsibilities included overseeing the “Global Climate Change Alliance”, with a focus on LDCs and SIDS in Africa, Asia, the Pacific and Caribbean regions. Sophie previously worked for the United Nations Environment Programme in Kenya for five years and with the UNDP-UNEP Poverty-Environment Initiative. Sophie holds two master’s degrees, one in engineering and applied economics and the other in environmental science and management from the University of Louvain, Belgium.

Raphael Moser

Rafael Moser, Programme Officer, Local Climate Adaptive Living Facility

Rafael Moser has led the development of LoCAL’s impact measurement and climate / green standards playing a major role in it becoming an internationally recognized country-based mechanism. Rafael manages LoCALs impact teams in over 25 LDC and African countries. Rafael leads UNCDF’s technical engagement with two United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) bodies: the Least Developed Country expert group and the Standing Committee on Finance. Rafael was a significant contributor to the technical annex on climate resilient financing prepared by UNCDF and adopted by UNFCCC as an annex to the National Adaptation Guidelines. Rafael, a Brazilian national, has master’s qualifications and extensive experience in climate and environmental finance.

ELIPSIS Firstrand Team

Nick Kolev

Nick Kolev, FirstRand Senior Manager: Strategic Initiatives – Sovereigns, Supranationals, and Agencies

Nick began his DFI career at AfDB, where he originated/managed the first supranational bonds denominated in GHC, KES, and NGN, as well as the first supranational bond settled in ZAR. Nick left the AfDB to establish and run the Trading operations of TCX IMC—the manager of TCX, which granted him a fully delegated responsibility for its transaction process. After TCX IMC, Nick was invited to consult at IADB, where, with the objective of creating a local‐currency Treasury strategy, he led a 19‐member group and reported to a Steering Committee comprised of the CFO, CRO, VP Private Sector, and General Counsel. In the private sector, prior to FirstRand, Nick has collaborated with DFIs on listed investment vehicles and capital market development as CIO of Karoll Finance and Vice Chairman of Karoll Capital Management. Nick holds master’s degrees from the University of Pennsylvania (Finance) and Columbia University (Financial Engineering).

Boshoff Grobler

FirstRand Group Head of Integrated Financial Resource Management

Boshoff started his career at the South African Reserve Bank where he, inter alia, wrote the legislation enabling securitisations and credit derivatives in South Africa. He then joined RMB where he was part of the team that built the foremost Debt Capital Markets business in South Africa. Thereafter, he spearheaded the build out of FirstRand’s asset management strategy where he became the Chief Executive Officer of Ashburton Investments. Boshoff is currently leading a group-wide initiative to activate all its platforms (bank, insurance, pension fund, asset management, Non-bank Financial Institutions) to enhance value for its borrowing and investing clients whilst enhancing shareholder value. Boshoff holds BCom (Law) and LLB degrees from the University of Pretoria and a LLM degree from the University of Johannesburg.

Jon Stilwell

FirstRand Macro Analyst

Jon is a macro analyst in FirstRand’s Investment Office where he is responsible for investment research covering the group’s footprint in South Africa, the UK, India, Nigeria and several other African economies. His career started in 2004 as a development economist working on the sustainable development implications of EU Participation in Senegal’s Marine Fishery. After this assignment was completed, he moved to FirstRand in 2008 where he set up the group’s ESG capability and managed FirstRand’s Black Economic Empowerment transactions, which included several socially responsible investment programmes. Jon has a PhD in Economics from the University of Versailles.

Sizwe Nxedlana

Ashburton CEO

Sizwe Nxedlana was appointed CEO of Ashburton Investments in October 2019. Sizwe has been with the FirstRand Group for 12 years, previously as FNB’s Chief Economist and most recently as CEO of FNB’s Wealth and Investment business – a role which he retains. Sizwe is an experienced financial market professional and holds a Master of Commerce in Economics from the University of KwaZulu-Natal. He completed his Bachelor of Commerce Degree from the University of Cape Town. Some of his achievements include being awarded in the prestigious Mandela Economic and National department of Transport Scholarships.

Patrice Rassoul

Ashburton CIO

Patrice is the chief investment officer (CIO) of Ashburton Investments. He joined Ashburton from Sanlam Investment Managers where he was Head of Equities and before joining Sanlam in 2006, he worked at Thesele Group, Old Mutual Asset Management and PwC. At Sanlam, he was the manager of the Sim Top Choice fund which was the best performing equity unit trust in South Africa for a decade (2009-2019). He holds an MSc in economics from the London School of Economics and Political Science, an MBA with distinction from Manchester Business School, and is a Chartered Accountant.

Hendrik Fourie,

Head of C&I Invest Pillar

Hendrik joined RMB during 2014 and has run several business lines within the Global Markets business during his time at RMB, including Sales, Research, Structuring and Global Securities Services. He is currently Head of the Corporate & Institutional Invest business, which incorporates the FirstRand Group’s activities in the wholesale investment space, stretching from vanilla to structured and discretionary managed products. Prior to RMB, he was at Deutsche Bank in the structured transaction space and at Investec focusing on equity derivatives and structured finance. Hendrik is a qualified CA(SA), MBA, has master’s degrees in Accounting and International Taxation,

Rudigor Kleyn

Ashburton MD for Corporate and Institutional Clients

Rudigor is Managing Director for Corporate and Institutional Business at Ashburton Investments. He joined FirstRand Bank's Group Treasury, Third Party Funds, in 2010, which later became Ashburton Investments and has over 24 years' experience in the finance industry. Prior to this, Rudigor joined RMB in 1999 where he gained extensive portfolio management, product development and distribution experience in various alternative and traditional asset classes in the South African and global markets. Rudigor is a member of the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants and is a registered Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA). He completed his articles at KPMG and holds a BCom degree in Accounting from the University of Pretoria. He also holds a BCompt (Hons) degree and CTA from the University of South Africa.

Corneleo Keevy

Ashburton Head of Credit

Corneleo has over ten years’ experience in the fixed income and credit markets. Corneleo started his career in 2005 at the audit division of Deloitte. After completing his articles, Corneleo joined Deloitte Corporate Finance in 2008 where he specialised in performing corporate valuations. Corneleo joined RMB in 2010 as a credit analyst in the Resource Finance team of the Investment Banking Division, where he analysed project finance transactions in the mining and oil & gas industries across the African continent. Corneleo joined Ashburton Investments as a credit analyst in 2014 and was promoted as Head of Credit Risk Management during 2016. In November 2020, Corneleo was promoted to Head of Credit, with responsibilities including portfolio management, business development and the functioning of the broader Ashburton Credit business. Corneleo has a BAcc (Honours) in Accounting from the University of Stellenbosch. He qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 2007.

Santhuri Thaver

Ashburton Head of Credit Risk Management

Santhuri is currently Head of Credit Risk at Ashburton Investments having joined in September 2018. She has over 13 years’ experience in debt financing largely spent within the Corporate and Investment Banking divisions for a number of the big four South African Financial Institutions gaining extensive corporate and project finance experience across local and international markets. Santhuri was closely involved from a financing perspective in the early rounds of the REIPPP programme, her role within the banking sector involved the structuring of transactions, risk analysis and credit approvals along with monitoring of the relevant portfolios. She has also performed due diligences on potential funding transactions and assessed projects with a high development impact on the African continent during her time at the Development Bank of Southern Africa. More recently and prior to joining Ashburton Investments, she was a Senior Manager in KPMG’s Infrastructure & Financing Unit responsible for leading financial advisory engagements on major infrastructure projects. She holds a Bachelor of Accountancy from Wits University and is a qualified CA(SA) and a CFA Charter holder.

Alessandro Scalco

Ashburton Credit Legal Advisor

Alessandro joined Ashburton Investments in 2014 as a senior legal advisor and was promoted to Head of Legal in February 2018. He served as Head of Legal for Ashburton Investments until December 2020 and from January 2021 took up the position as a legal advisor withing the credit team. During his tenure at Ashburton, he has assisted with fund formation (both regulated and unregulated funds), represented Ashburton on various industry forums and working groups, worked with all the asset classes (such as shares, derivatives, infrastructure etc) that are managed within Ashburton and worked across multiple jurisdictions, such as South Africa, Namibia, the United Kingdom and Jersey. He has 10 years’ experience in the financial services industry and holds a BCom (Finance and Management), LLB (cum laude), LLM (Corporate Law) and a PG Dip Pension Law (cum laude) all from the University of Witwatersrand and has passed the required exams to be a JSE compliance officer in the equity, bond and derivative markets.

Burger van der Merwe

RMB Head of Structuring

Burger joined in 2008 and specialises in off-balance sheet solutions for capital market investors. He is part of the RMB Structuring Team and has been responsible for bringing market-first products to the capital markets. Burger has been part of a team responsible for arranging, structuring and managing more than ZAR 200 billion of structured notes to market ranging from, securitisations, repacks, project bonds and conduits. After receiving a B. Com (Law) Burger completed an LLB, B. Com (Hons) and an M. Com (Tax)