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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Dominique brings a background in development economics and development finance gained from South Africa, the UK and USA. She brings experience from corporate social investments where she took on a wide range of education initiatives and developed and headed a national bursary program for South Africa’s largest listed primary REITs. She has experience on the ground in developing impact architecture, including theories of change and impact measurement frameworks. Dominique has MSc Development Economics from SOAS University London, a Post Graduate Diploma in Development Finance from the University of Stellenbosch Business School and a BA in Economics from Colorado College, USA.

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Ben has a background in sustainable development, climate change and environmental policy. He has specialised in advanced quantitative research methods and has had experience working for a large multinational corporation to develop their strategy frameworks including water security and climate policies that have been implemented for the proceeding decade. Ben has an MSc Environmental Policy and Management and a BSc Geography, both from the University of Bristol, UK.

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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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British and Zimbabwean national, born in Zimbabwe and educated in Scotland at the University of Edinburgh law school. Nele trained as a commercial lawyer with a silver circle law firm and now specialises in private equity, structured finance and general corporate and commercial law with an offshore magic circle law firm. He has a strong professional interest in impact investing and ‘re-purposing offshore capital’ towards impact investments in Africa. Nele has been involved in the design and execution of a number of impact investment corporate transactions and structuring in the African Agribusiness sector as well as being a founder of two African owned and operated social enterprises – one a specialist trade finance house for African agribusiness SMEs called Genesis and the other Moolah! a FinTech solution to support access to finance for Dairy farmers in Kenya. Nele also holds a Lean Six Sigma Leadership qualification from the University of Oxford and a Social Sciences (Hons) degree from Edinburgh Napier University.

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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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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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