Board of Directors

Runa Alam (AVCA Chair)

Co-Founder & CEO, Development Partners International

Runa is a Co-Founding Partner and CEO of DPI. She has 28 years of investment banking, emerging market management and private equity experience. For the three years before starting DPI, Runa was Chief Executive of two African private equity funds run in parallel:  the Zephyr Management African Investment Fund (“ZMAIF”), a joint venture between Zephyr Management of New York and Prince Al-Waleed’s Kingdom Holdings, and the Pan-African Investment Partners and the Pan Commonwealth Africa Partners (“PAIP/PCAP”) funds, sponsored by the IFC and the Commonwealth Secretariat.  Runa continues to serve on the Eaton Venture LLP and UBA Board of Directors, and has previously served on the Letshego Holdings Limited and Celtel Board of Directors.

Runa was formerly a Director of the AIG Africa Infrastructure Fund, managed by Emerging Market Partnership in Washington, and has “on-the-ground” management experience in emerging markets having founded and managed both Peregrine Bangladesh and Union Capital Bangladesh in the 1990s. Runa started her career in New York working for investment banks including Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch, where she worked in mergers and acquisitions and corporate and tax-exempt finance. She holds a BA in International and Developmental Economics from the Woodrow Wilson School of Princeton University (1981) and an MBA from the Harvard Business School (1985) and was also a Harry S. Truman Congressional Scholar.

Runa is a member of the Emerging Market Private Equity Associations Advisory Board and Africa Panel. She is a member of the Millennium Promise’s UK Board and is on the Advisory Board of the Tony Elumelu Foundation.

Marlon Chigwende

Managing Director & co-Head, Carlyle Sub-Saharan Africa Fund

Marlon Chigwende is a Managing Director and Co-Head of the Carlyle Sub-Saharan Africa Fund. Prior to joining Carlyle, Mr. Chigwende was the head of Africa Principal Finance for Standard Chartered. Mr Chigwende was responsible for establishing the Sub Sahara Africa Private Equity business which was a sector neutral, and geography neutral fund, with investments across a range of sectors including telecommunications, natural resources, agriculture and fast moving consumer goods. Prior to Standard Chartered, Mr. Chigwende was an Executive Director at Goldmans Sachs in London and spent many years at J.P. Morgan and Greenhill, primarily covering the Financial Institutions sector.

Mr. Chigwende trained as an Actuary and holds a B.S. degree, with honors, in mathematics and actuarial studies from Southampton University.

Thierry Dalais

Founder and Executive Chairman, Metier

Thierry Dalais is a founder and the Executive Chairman of Metier, and is principal of LMCGF. Thierry completed degrees in accounting and commerce at the University of the Witwatersrand and served articles at Deloitte where he qualified as a chartered accountant in 1984. He was then employed at Merhold, initially in its trade financing division, and later in the investment and corporate advisory services arm where he was responsible for establishing and managing a successful principal investment portfolio.

In 1991, Thierry Dalais co-founded Capital Partners. For thirteen years he led the formulation of private equity investment policy and transaction structuring and following the business' merger with Brait SA, acted as Executive Deputy Chairman from 1998 to 2003.

After moving on to co-found Metier in 2004, Thierry has driven the formation and leadership of its private equity efforts and been instrumental in raising capital commitments and attracting deal flow. He also sits on the boards of a number of Metier's portfolio investments. Under his guidance, Metier is also set to take up new challenges in Africa.

Hurley Doddy

Managing Director, Founding Partner and co-CEO, Emerging Capital Partners

Hurley Doddy is a Managing Director, Founding Partner and Co-CEO of Emerging Capital Partners (ECP).  With seven funds and over $1.8 billion under management, ECP is a leading private equity manager focused exclusively on Africa. Headquartered in Washington DC, ECP has six offices across Africa and over a decade of successful investing experience in companies operating in over 40 countries on the continent. Mr. Doddy, previously COO of ECP, continues to oversee the operations of Africa Funds I, II & III and is a member of ECP's investment committees and executive committee.

Prior to joining ECP, Mr. Doddy was an Executive Director at Sumitomo Finance International in London, where he managed the operations of a $200mm equity risk arbitrage book, creating arbitrage and convergence strategies.

 Mr. Doddy's career in finance began at Salomon Brothers in 1984, lasting over 14 years with assignments in New York, Tokyo and Sao Paulo.  While at Salomon, Mr. Doddy gained a wealth of experience in government bond trading, hedge management, fixed income derivatives, equity derivatives, and emerging markets trading.  In 1997, Mr. Doddy was appointed as Managing Director of Salomon Brothers, responsible for managing all fixed income and equity risk positions for Banco Patrimônio, Salomon's joint venture in Brazil.  In this position, he also oversaw the asset management, equity underwriting and customer fixed income businesses.

 Mr. Doddy received a bachelor's degree in economics with honors from Princeton University and holds a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation from the CFA Institute.  He has served on the boards of Financial Bank (West and Central Africa), Celtel International (Pan-African), Charaf Corporation (Morocco), Agromed S.A. (Tunisia), Continental Reinsurance (Nigeria), All Africa Airways (Mauritius), Air Ivoire (Cote d'Ivoire), Société Internationale de Plantations d'Hévéas (SIPH) (West Africa), and Horizon Portfolio Limited (Cayman Islands).

Okechukwu (Okey) Enelamah

CEO, African Capital Alliance

Okechukwu (“Okey”) Enelamah is a founder and Chief Executive Officer of ACA. He brings private equity experience gained in New York and Johannesburg from Zephyr Capital and South Africa Capital Growth Fund (the predecessor to Brait). His previous experience was with Arthur Andersen in Nigeria and Goldman Sachs in New York and London. He is a member of the Advisory Board of Africa Venture Capital Association and the Emerging Markets Private Equity Association and a Fellow of the Aspen Institute. He also currently serves on the board of various companies including eTranzact, Cornerstone Insurance and Business Day.

After first qualifying as a medical doctor, Okey qualified as a Chartered Accountant in Nigeria, winning two national prizes in the qualifying examinations. He has a MBA with high distinction (Baker Scholar) from the Harvard Business School and is a Chartered Financial Analyst.

Tokunboh Ishmael

co-Founder and Managing Director, Alitheia Capital

Tokunboh is a co-founder and Managing Director of Alitheia Capital, an investment management and advisory firm focused on channeling private equity investments into businesses and real estate assets to enhance access to finance, energy and housing for the excluded at the base of the economic pyramid. Her previous roles include Managing Director of Avante Capital Ltd where she advised on a number of acquisitions in the oil and gas sector including the acquisition and financing of a government owned refinery, and led the first secondary listing of a Nigerian company on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. Prior to Avante, she was the Nigeria Country Partner for Aureos Capital where she successfully raised funding to complete a USD50m fundraising exercise for the Aureos West Africa Fund and sourced private equity investments. Other previous roles include M&A banker at Salomon Smith Barney. Tokunboh is a Chartered Financial Analyst, a member of the CFA Institute and a panelist on the TV show Dragons Den Nigeria.

Paul Kavuma

CEO, Catalyst Principal Partners

Paul is  the Chief Executive Officer of Catalyst Principal Partners, and serves as a member of the Catalyst Investment Committee. Paul has 18 years of management consulting, entrepreneurial, investment banking and private equity experience. He was previously a Director and Head of East Africa Private Equity at Actis Capital LLP in London and Nairobi, where he managed a significant and diverse regional investment portfolio. Before Actis, he worked at HSBC Investment Bank in London and Johannesburg where he led several high profile merger and acquisition transactions across Africa. Previously, he was Founder and CFO of Virtua Café, a hi-tech entertainment and retail business in Miami, and served as a Senior Consultant at PWC in Washington DC, and as Project Officer at the East Africa Development Bank in Kampala. 

Paul is an Executive Committee Member of the Young Presidents Organization and a Fellow of the Africa Leadership Initiative East Africa Foundation (member of Aspen Institute Global Leadership Network). He has held directorships for leading financial institutions and property companies across Eastern Africa. 

He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and Engineering from Brown University and an MBA from the Johnson Graduate School of Business at Cornell University.

Jacob Kholi

Managing Partner, Aureos Capital

Jacob is one of three joint Managing Partners of the Aureos Africa Fund (AAF), a US$381m Private Equity Fund investing in Africa with geographical responsibilities for investments in West and North Africa in addition to functional roles across Africa. Jacob brings 15 years of venture capital and private equity experience to Aureos, gained exclusively in West Africa with the CDC Group.

Prior to joining the CDC Group, Jacob worked for Shell in Ghana as a Capex/Financial Accountant and later as a Management Accountant.

Jacob holds a BSc Administration (Accounting) degree from the University of Ghana Business School and is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accounts (Ghana) having trained with KPMG in Ghana. He also holds an Executive MBA from the Paris Graduate School of Management.

Jacob believes Aureos’ presence in West Africa has contributed immensely, and continues to contribute, to the development of the venture capital/private equity industry in the region. Aureos’ contribution to the economic development of the region is significant through its support for small and medium businesses which contribute to over 70% of the region’s GDP.

Papa Madiaw Ndiaye

Founder and CEO, Advanced Finance & Investment Group

Mr. Papa Madiaw Ndiaye is the founder and CEO of AFIG, a a private equity fund management company founded in 2005 in Mauritius with branches in Dakar (Senegal), Johannesburg (South Africa), and Washington D.C. (United States).

Prior to AFIG, Papa was an Investment Director at Emerging Markets Partnership in Washington. He was one of three partners to raise the $407 million AIG African Infrastructure Fund, which when launched in 2000, was the largest ever pan-African Fund (about 30% net annual return to date). Prior to joining EMP, he held senior responsibilities for IFC’s equity and debt investment activities in capital markets and financial institutions in Africa between 1996 and 2000 and helped launch several landmark funds in Africa. Papa spent the early part of his career at Salomon Brothers and joined JP Morgan's Emerging Markets Group in 1992.

In 1994, he launched JP Morgan's securities trading in Africa and the Middle East. In 2000, Papa was named Special Advisor for Economic and Financial Affairs to the President of the Republic of Senegal and Chairman of the Senegalese Presidential Economic & Financial Advisory Council. In the same year, he launched MIDROC BVI, a direct investment vehicle for Sheikh Mohammed Al-Amoudi, a lead investor in the AIG African Infrastructure Fund. He serves on the boards of a number of African companies and non-profit organizations involved with Africa. He holds an M.B.A. degree from the Wharton School of Business, an M.A. in International Affairs from the University of Pennsylvania’s Lauder Institute, and a B.A. in economics from Harvard College. In 2004, he was selected as a “Young Global Leader” by the World Economic Forum of Davos and then as one of the ‘’Frontier 100 CEOs’’ of the Initiative for Global Development in 2009.

Henry Obi

Chief Operating Officer, Helios Investment Partners 

Henry Obi is a partner and the Chief Operating Officer for Helios Investment Partners (“Helios”), an Africa-focused Private Equity firm which operates a family of funds and their related co-investment entities, aggregating more than $1.7 billion in capital commitments. He is responsible for the operations of the firm and is a member of Helios’ investment committee.

Prior to joining Helios, he was a Partner for several years at Aureos Capital in London. He started his investment career in the power investment team at CDC and has also worked at Actis and Dynegy, a US energy trader. Mr. Obi has an MBA from the London Business School. He sits on the advisory board of Maris Capital.

Karim Sadek

Managing Director, Citadel Capital

Prior to joining Citadel Capital, Mr. Sadek was Managing Director of the Arab Investment Company (ABIC), one of the largest private-equity firms in Egypt. During his tenure, Mr. Sadek returned a substantial part of the firm’s total investments (valued at over EGP 500 million [US$ 90.91 million]) to ABIC’s shareholders in the form of dividends and share buybacks. Mr. Sadek holds a Master’s in International Securities, Investment and Banking from the Business School for Financial Markets at the University of Reading in the United Kingdom. He has extensive experience in corporate banking and credit risk assessment through his work both at the Commercial International Bank (CIB) and Arab Bank.

Anthony Siwawa

Founder and Managing Director, Venture Partners Botswana

Anthony is the founder and Managing Director of Venture Partners Botswana, (VPB) and is regarded as a pioneer in the field of venture capital in Botswana. Prior to establishing VPB, he worked in consulting and financial management in Johannesburg, South Africa, with Deloitte and Touche, where he was involved in the establishment of a regional private equity fund capitalised at USD100M. He later joined the fund and was involved in the conclusion of transactions in Zimbabwe, Namibia, Zambia and Angola. He is an MBA graduate from the University of Chicago, Booth School of Business, a Computer Science graduate of Aston University Birmingham (UK) and  a qualified Chartered Certified Accountant (ACCA). He also serves as a director in numerous companies.