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Nicolas
Clavel is Chief Investment Officer of Scipion Capital
Ltd, the Africa dedicated Hedge Fund. Nicolas has been involved
with investments and trade finance in Africa since 1980 when
he joined a subsidiary of the then Midland Bank involved in
Trade Finance. He spent eight years with Citibank, essentially
in the London Investment Bank where he covered all the offerings
to the African market. This involved essentially asset finance
(commercial aircraft, hotels, container ships) as well as
debt-for-equity programmes after a number of countries had
rescheduled their London Club debt. Nicolas was then appointed
CEO of Citibank in Dakar, Senegal where he gained on the ground
experience in leading a commercial bank in Africa. He repeated
this experience a few years later as CEO of Stanbic Bank Congo
Sarl, the Kinshasa subsidiary of Standard Bank of South Africa.
Nicolas has written in a number of specialist magazines on
the subject of financing in Africa, and holds a MBA from Instituto
de Empresa in Madrid.
Benny Dembitzer has worked in a total of
35 African countries. Benny has three degrees, studying at
Uppsala University in Sweden, Lausanne in Switzerland and
economics at Cambridge University, where he was also on the
staff for five years.His
career spans a diverse range of jobs. In 1970, Benny joined
the Economist Intelligence Unit. He established the Fund for
Research and Development of Africa (FRIDA) which set up offices
in Mali, Lesotho and Kenya.In
1982 -1984, he was a project officer with the Industrial development
Unit of the Commonwealth Secretariat, advising the Government
of Tanzania and coordinator of the industrial programme of
SADC (Southern African Development Coordination Committee.
In 1984 -1985, he was the European Director of International
Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War which he helped
to gain the Nobel Peace Price. He has been involved in Live
Aid relief operations in Ethiopia, United Nations International
Service, Oxfam, the World Bank in Djibouti and six different
UN agencies.
Robin
Farrell is ARCH Group’s CEO, Founder and Chief Investment
Officer. He has broad experience across alternative and traditional
asset management, structured finance, risk management, trading
and sales. Prior to ARCH Mr. Farrell was a consultant to Goldman
Sachs International and Global Head of the Alternative Investments
Group at Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein. Previous experience
includes Head of Equity Structured Products for Societe Generale
in London and Executive Director : Global Equity Derivatives
at the Union Bank of Switzerland. He holds a BSc. ARCS in
Mathematics from the Imperial College London.
Jon
Maguire is one of the driving forces behind the Africa
Invest approach. He has been in the investment industry since
1988. He was appointed Investment Development Director of
Legal & General in 1994 and also chaired the Investment
Classification Committee at the Association of British Insurers.
He established cru Investment Management in 2005 to focus
on delivering absolute return investments for private clients,
including opening up African markets.
The Rt. Hon. Justin Malewezi is presently
an independent MP in the Malawi Government. He served as a
senior civil servant from 1981 to 1994, whereupon he joined
the first democratically elected Malawi Government. He has
held the positions of Minister of Defence and Minister of
Finance. He served as Vice President from 1994 -2004. Justin
joined Africa Invest Malawi Limited as Director, Business
Strategy, in the summer of 2007.
Dr. Alexander Phiri is a leading expert in
agroeconomics. Alexander was born in Malawi and educated in
Montpelier, France, and has various diplomas and doctorates
in Agriculture and Agricultural Economics. A member of several
professional bodies, Alexander has worked as a Consultant
for the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development,
EU-Micro projects, DfID and was also a key speaker for Action
Aid. Between 2005 -2006, Alexander was a Lead Consultant with
the Ministry of Economic Planning and Development. In 2006
Alexander was the Baseline Study Consultant for the Ministry
of Women and Child Development, Consultant for Livingstonia
Synod, Action Aid Malawi and CARE – Malawi. In 2007 Alexander
authored the Comparative Analysis of Potential Economic Impact
of Alternative Agricultural and Rural Development Models:
The Case of Africa Invest And Civil Society Organizations
in Malawi, for Africa Invest Malawi Limited. |