Justin is an impact investment specialist with over 20 years experience in supporting the design and deployment of private capital to create better opportunities for vulnerable communities. These investments have positively impacted hundreds of thousands of lives across a diverse range of countries globally, with an emphasis on emerging markets. His wide-spanning career history has included working for a range of impact asset allocators including international non-for-profits, the United Nations and a major private foundation He serves as a board member and adviser to a number of microfinance institutions and international charities engaged in supporting the livelihoods of low income communities. He is also a non-executive director on the Guernsey domiciled Fund 1, of the Partners Group backed impact investment fund Blue Earth Capital.

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Michelle brings over 25 years of legal, corporate finance and fiduciary experience to impact investment. Prior to joining Innovest in 2016, Michelle was a Senior Partner of a US law firm, specialising in corporate finance transactions, including initial public offerings, structured finance and M&A transactions. After relocating to the UK she established the UK subsidiary of a global legal and financial services firm serving international capital markets clients. Upon leaving commercial practice, Michelle served as an advisor and fiduciary of nonprofits and social finance initiatives, helping to facilitate the strategic deployment of philanthropic and social investment capital to achieve social change.

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Bakang has over 10 years of experience starting as a mining and construction analyst in one of Africa’s biggest banks, to later joining the Bertha Center For Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship out of a desire to contribute to its pioneering work in impact investing and innovative finance projects. Bakang subsequently managed a multi-million dollar enterprise development portfolio with one of South Africa’s leading impact investment funds as well as more recently leading the South African office of one of the largest global corporate innovation platforms. Through these roles, Bakang has successfully executed various initiatives across the areas of corporate social investment, venture capital as well as strategic partnerships through entrepreneurship development and corporate-startup collaboration. Bakang sits on the boards of three social-impact focused organisations and has served as a social entrepreneurship coach for the SAB Foundation and Further Impact for the past three years.

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Howard is an experienced impact leader who has a substantial track record in managing diverse client portfolios across multiple development thematics, as well as deep expertise in private sector development and impact measurement. Prior to joining Innovest, Howard was responsible for both Social Impact Data & Insights, and the global WASH impact portfolio at Reckitt, a FTSE 100 company. Here, he led the redesign and implementation of a robust measurement system that captured the company’s greatest ever impact, whilst leading Reckitt to make their first corporate impact investments in emerging markets, including in Africa. Howard also brings strong consultancy experience having worked with both a boutique consultancy specialising in designing and implementing large scale market systems development (MSD) programmes in emerging markets and within PwC’s Development Consultancy practice where he managed significant donor funded programmes across Africa. Howard has a MSc, Development Economics and International Development from the University of Amsterdam and a BSc in Economics from the University of Southampton.

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Wandi is a development pragmatist with growing expertise in the formulation of strategy across investments in civil society and the private sector. As a double graduate of the Australian National University in Development Studies and International Relations as well as being a CFA LII candidate with the CFA Institute, she has a particular interest in the intersection between financial capital and social impact, with a strong focus on leveraging technology as well as market-based solutions to drive shared value and scalable impact. She brings experience in tri-sector stakeholder engagement, impact measurement and financial modelling, having worked with some of the foremost social impact enterprises in Southern Africa.

Sindiso is a highly efficient Operations Manager with more than ten years of experience supervising teams. Sindi is our go-to person to keep the Innovest team on track and operating efficiently. She comes from a Financial Services background and holds a BCom Marketing Management and is completing her BCom Management Accounting degree.

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Brendan’s professional experience covers an international finance career achieving global sector and national leadership roles spanning over 32 years, 22 as a Partner with PwC, former CEO of PwC Channel Islands and Global Private Equity Leader within the PwC Global Asset & Wealth Management Leadership Team. Brendan acts as adviser and independent non-executive director for organisations that believe in long term value creation. He chairs Audit and Risk Committees for one of Jersey’s oldest firms and a number of private equity advisers. He also chairs the commercialisation of a European Biomedical innovative solution that solves a major global health challenge, working with the founder, Enterprise Ireland and NovaUCD. Brendan is a founding member and Chair of the Jersey Policy Forum and the Jersey Good Business Charter. He is Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland and also an alumni of University of Cambridge Business Sustainability Leadership programme.

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Richard brings a strong academic background in geopolitics and international development and a passion to apply this to the design of impact investment solutions for our clients in developing markets.

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Olivia (Liv) is a recent graduate of three masters in social work, human rights law and most recently a masters in social business and entrepreneurship at the LSE. She is active in the space of social entrepreneurship and sustainable investing both as an angel investor for pre seed entrepreneurs as well as the primary driver for advocating for the deployment of catalytic philanthropic funding within her family office. Her experience with non-profit organizations has been primarily focused on education and pilot projects for women, girls and mothers in East Africa. She attributes her desire and drive to learn to give and invest with purpose primarily to her Pakistani immigrant father turned entrepreneur and power house mother. Liv was also in the second cohort of the Maverick NEXT fellows program, an initiative of Population Services International (PSI), supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and certified by the Marshall Institute and the London School of Economics. Over the course of two years, she had the opportunity to co-invest in an innovative pilot program for women and girls while honing skills and professional growth in areas of strategic impact and catalytic philanthropic investing. She most recently worked with an education policy and advocacy group in the UK to raise funds for social entrepreneurs preserving the land’s natural resources through innovative climate tech solutions in Bhutan.! Liv has been an active member of impact communities including Nexus, Acumen and the Oxford Säid Business School Innovative Finance cohort. A previous member of Team USA’s show jumping team, and a lifelong athlete, Liv brings dedication, commitment and endless energy to continue to work and learn alongside like-minded individuals with deeply passionate and enthusiastic care for people and the planet.

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Rishad has founded, scaled and successfully exited an investment advisory firm that provided financial and estate planning services to family offices, foundations and high net-worth individuals in India. He has spent over a decade working with a non-profit on numerous programs in the social impact space in Central and South Asia as well as in East Africa. These programs were aimed at improving the quality of life of marginalised communities with a specific focus on improving access to finance, alleviating poverty and improving health outcomes. Given his past experience in running an FMCG-oriented family business in India, he also brings unique insights related to SME development and financing in emerging markets. Prior to this, Rishad started his finance career at Standard Chartered Bank. Rishad holds a Masters in Mathematical Finance from Boston University and has completed both the Impact Finance Innovations and the Impact Measurement and Management programmes at Oxford Said Business School. Rishad also has volunteered in various capacities for 10 years at the Aga Khan Foundation.

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Morgan has 15 years’ experience working in the international economic development space, spanning both the non-profit and corporate finance sectors. She began her career with the Soros Foundation Network, leading the spin-off of the Natural Resource Governance Institute (NRGI). In 2015 she moved to South Africa and joined Absa Bank Group (formerly Barclays Africa Group) as their General Manager for Monitoring, Evaluation and Reporting in Group Citizenship. She was part of the senior management team that designed the Bank’s shared value strategy. In addition to driving impact measurement and reporting frameworks across the business, she also supported their journey for integration of corporate sustainability approaches and ESG standards into business operations and corporate disclosures. Morgan has a degree in Government and Economics, and has worked on-the-ground in over 30 countries. She is a member of the Institute of Directors of South Africa (IoDSA).

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Piers is an Africa-focused strategic advisory consultant, supporting companies and development institutions investing and operating on the continent. He has a strong understanding of the political, economic, and commercial dynamics of various African jurisdictions, and brings this expertise to bear when advising clients on issues ranging from market entry to stakeholder engagement. He specialises in financial services and energy. Piers began his career at Lloyds Banking Group, latterly working in the debt capital markets business. He holds an MPhil from the University of Cambridge, a BA from King’s College London, and the CFA Society of the UK’s IMC.

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Ekong is a sustainability and corporate responsibility professional with over 15 years of project experience working at the nexus of digital innovation, socio-economic impact and the private sector in Nigeria and wider Africa. He is an advocate for business models that nurture synergies among stakeholders for shared value creation to establish responsible, purpose driven companies. Prior to joining Innovest, Ekong was the Senior Program Manager with MTN Nigeria Communications, where he led the implementation of the organizations CSR strategy, developed and executed various social development and advocacy initiatives in education, health, economic and youth development sectors in Nigeria under the MTN Foundation. As an Innovest Fellow, Ekong will bring his creativity to bear on the overall impact measurement strategy and approach for servicing impact investment funds.

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Abi has 17 years of corporate finance experience and a desire to promote positive social outcomes. Prior to joining Innovest, Abi was an Executive Director at JPMorgan specialising in strategic capital raising, corporate finance and risk management. As an Innovest Fellow, Abi brings a strategic and commercial mindset to impact investments. Being of Sri Lankan origin, empowering communities in developing countries and rebuilding lives post-conflict are matters close to Abi’s heart.

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Imogen is a chartered accountant and has five years’ experience in audit and assurance at EY, working with various banking and capital markets clients. Now focusing on impact investing, Imogen brings the rigour and robustness of financial assurance to impact assurance – both assurance of impact results and assurance against international standards and principles.

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