Mr. Amoo-Gottfried is the Chief Investment Officer of Black Stars Investments, (BSI), an Emerging Markets focused hedge fund. He has also previously held Portfolio Manager positions at Enko Capital and FM Capital Partners where he successfully ran funds investing in Emerging Markets winning multiple awards. He is a graduate of the London School of Economics (LSE) and London Business School (LBS).

Simon is a co-head of SA & Africa Fixed Income and is responsible for the SA and Africa Credit team at Ninety One. He joined in 2005 when he was tasked with building its credit business and capabilities. Ninety One now holds a leading position in managing diverse institutional credit portfolios, including both the listed and unlisted markets. These strategies include the Emerging Africa Infrastructure Fund, a donor-funded debt strategy that supports sustainable infrastructure and the multi-vintage Ninety One Credit Opportunities range which targets private and illiquid credit in South Africa and the rest of Africa.

Simon was previously with Investec Bank where he was responsible for debt origination (including corporate bonds, structured credit and securitisation) and was involved in the Southern African debt capital markets from its infancy in the late 1990s.

Simon holds a Bachelor’s degree in Architecture from the University of Natal, a Master’s degree in Business Administration from Nijenrode University in The Netherlands, and is a CFA® Charterholder.

Aditya has responsibility for Mashreqbank’s debt capital markets activities. With over 20 years of experience in the financial services industry, Aditya has led and worked across origination and execution platforms at Trussbridge, ADIB, Nomura, Lehman Brothers, E&Y and Arthur Andersen. He worked in London, Dubai and Mumbai. He has bookrun deals in excess of several billions of dollars of landmark financings, across the conventional and Islamic space, for governments, supra-nationals, corporates and financial institutions worldwide.

Aditya is a ranking Chartered Accountant from India and has a MBA from London Business School.

Irina Sfeir is a Director in SMBC Nikko's DCM team, responsible for Turkish, Central Eastern European and CIS international bond issuances. Irina has a range of experience across industries and geographies having executed dozens of transactions across multiple currencies and capital structures. She has over 10 years’ experience in the financial sector, having previously worked at MUFG, Rothschild and HSBC prior to joining SMBC Nikko. Irina graduated from the London School of Economics with a BA in Government and Economics.

Gregory Smith is an Emerging Markets Fund Manager at M&G Investments. He is focused on emerging market sovereign debt, with a particular interest in the Middle East and Africa. He has a PhD in quantitative economics, plus expertise in finance and assessing political risk. Prior to joining M&G he was a senior economist and sovereign debt advisor at the World Bank. His research includes investing with an Environmental-Social-Governance (ESG) lens, what future sovereign debt restructuring might look like, and he is author of the book ‘Where Credit is Due: How African Debt Can be a Benefit Not a Burden’.

Carl is a seasoned Pan-African banking executive with a special focus on corporate banking, structured trade and commodity finance, project finance and financial advisory services. He has developed deep networks on the subcontinent through 20 years of proven track record of origination, structuring and executing of large ticket strategic transactions across a wide variety of sectors in over 26 African countries. A Fellow Chartered Accountant with a BSc in Applied Accounting, Carl was previously Head of Trade Finance at Citi for the Sub-Saharan Africa region. Carl joined Bank One in September 2018.

Modupe is a Capital Markets Professional 14years of work experience, a solid knowledge base and wide-ranging competence across capital markets, treasury and financial services.

Modupe is currently the Head of Funding, Treasury at Africa Finance Corporation, Africa's second highest rated multilateral financial institution. AFC, a Pan-African Corporation with an investment footprint of over $8 billion spanning 30 countries in Africa. She manages a $7billion liability book She develops and implements strategies around the liability generation process in order to fund asset growth and meet capital requirements while working to maintain liquidity, a healthy balance sheet and investor relations with private and institutional investors. She equally coordinates the Corporation's funding initiatives in global capital markets, identifies and explores new funding sources in alignment with the organization's strategic objectives and global best practices. She is responsible for portfolio management of liabilities and interfaces with both internal and external stakeholders among several other demands of her position.

Prior to her current position, she was an Associate Director at Standard Chartered Bank, UK within the Capital Markets subdivision, handling loan syndications across Europe and Africa. She has equally worked as a Senior Associate at Pricewaterhousecoopers, Nigeria.

Modupe holds a bachelor’s degree in Economics and is a Fellow Member of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (FCCA). She is currently an EMBA candidate at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

Zahabia Gupta is an Associate Director in the Sovereign Ratings team at S&P Global Ratings, covering several Middle East and Africa sovereigns.

Before joining S&P in 2017, Zahabia worked at Moody’s Investors Service Dubai for two years in the Sovereign Ratings Group. She has also worked at Zurich Insurance Group Singapore as an underwriter covering credit and political risk and started her career at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Singapore.

Zahabia holds an MSc. in International Relations from London School of Economics, and a BSc. in Social Sciences from Singapore Management University.

Ahmed Kouchouk was appointed Vice Minister of Finance for Fiscal Policies & Institutional reform in March 2016. Since then he has been playing a leading role in designing and implementing Egypt’s macroeconomic policies and reforms especially fiscal and debt policies. Mr. Kouchouk he served as the leading negotiator and focal point on behalf of the Government of Egypt with the IMF. Mr. Kouchouk in his capacity, supervises and oversees the work of various policy related units and departments at the Ministry of Finance including Macro Fiscal Unit, Debt Management unit, Public Private Partnership unit, Transparency and Citizen Engagement unit, Public Financial Management unit, and Institutional reform unit. Mr. Kouchouk leads and supervises several work streams at the Ministry of Finance including engagement with International institutions, Rating agencies, Investment Banks and portfolio investors. He also supervises and manage the process of setting and updating the Macro Fiscal Framework including setting fiscal & debt targets over the medium‐term, preparing the annual budget, monitoring budget implementation, managing fiscal risks, and overseeing debt strategy and related policies. Mr. Kouchouk serves as Egypt representative at the Asian International Infrastructure Bank Board (AIIB). In addition, he is the Ministry of Finance nominated focal coordinator with monetary authorities. He served as a Board Member at the Central Bank of Egypt from April 2016 to June 2018. He also leads Egypt’s inter‐ministerial task force managing annual economic dialogue with the EU. Mr. Kouchouk is currently a board member at the Arab African Investment Bank, Egypt National Academy for Training, and Egypt Air Holding Company. Mr. Kouchouk is a professional economist and policy advisor with more than 18 years of applied experience. He worked as a senior economist for the World Bank from June 2013 to March 2016. He worked as an Economic Advisor to the Minister of Finance and Director of the Macro Fiscal Unit from 2012‐2013 and served as the Executive manager of the Macro Fiscal Policy Unit at the Ministry of Finance from 2007‐2008 and 2010‐2012. He also worked for Egypt Ministries of External Trade and Economy. Mr. Kouchouk earned his master’s degree in public policy from Harvard Kennedy School of Government in 2010 and earned a master degree in economics from York University in the United Kingdom in 2002. He has a B.S, in Economics in 1999 from the American University in Cairo. Mr. Kouchouk is married to Amal El‐Sayed (Banker and executive coach). They have two kids Salma (13 years) and Omar (11 years).

Anthony Evens is the Head of Special Asset Management at Absa’s Corporate and Investment Banking division providing restructuring solutions for clients across the African Continent. After qualifying as a CA(SA) Anthony moved to London where he spent 7 years working in Corporate Finance, Mergers and Acquisitions and Strategy for PwC and Barclays Capital. During this time, Anthony provided advice on deals across UK, Europe, North America, New Zealand and Australia.

Anthony returned to South Africa in 2008, which coincided with the Global Financial Crisis causing some unique dislocation in the SA banking market and Anthony’s initiation into the distress sector. Since then, Anthony has worked on most major restructurings amassing experience across a broad range of sectors and geographies in the African context.

One of Anthony’s desires is to see the African distress market develop to its full potential for the advancement of our economies.

Matthew is a multisector credit ratings expert, focusing on Africa. He is the GCR Group Head of Ratings, overseeing corporate, local and regional governments, financial institutions and insurance ratings. He is also the author and custodian of the GCR ratings framework.

Until 2018, he worked for nearly two decades at Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services (now S&P Global). At S&P, Matthew chaired the credit committees for emerging market ratings, which focused not only on African but also on Brazilian, Indian and Chinese credits, particularly banks and non-bank financial institutions.

Matthew holds a BA from the University of Manchester and an MSc from the University of Southampton.

Ritesh is currently a Director in the Debt Capital Markets team of Emirates NBD Capital having joined team in September 2014. Previously, Ritesh worked at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Mumbai office in the Capital Markets team where he helped numerous issuers raise both equity and debt. He has been involved in several landmark transactions across governments, financial institutions, blue chip and mid-cap corporates on their Islamic and conventional financing strategies and access to debt capital markets and has helped issuers raise over USD 50bn over the last few years

Ritesh has a BE in Electrical Engineering from BITS Pilani (India) and holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Management from Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (India)

Adrian Bain is a Vice President in the EMEA Loans & Acquisition Finance team, part of Citi’s Banking, Capital Markets and Advisory division based in London

Adrian joined Citi in 2011 and has arranged a number of debt transactions for a broad base of clients across the EMEA region. Currently, Adrian’s particular focus is arranging transactions for Citi’s clients in Southern and East Africa

Deepen is the General Manager for Capital, Investment & Funding at MTN Group Limited, based in Johannesburg. MTN is a pure-play emerging markets mobile telecommunications operator at the forefront of technological and digital changes. MTN is active in over 20 countries, has in excess of 250 million active subscribers and is listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. Deepen has been with MTN for 12 years across general management and finance roles. Prior to MTN, he worked with institutions such as Absa and EY in M&A and corporate finance roles. He is a qualified Chartered Accountant.

During his career, he has concluded a multitude of transactions in local and international debt and capital markets; some of which include syndicated loans, export credit backed financings, DFI financing, Eurobonds and preference share funding amongst others. His experience encompasses dealing with a variety of markets including more challenging jurisdictions in Africa and the Middle East. He has concluded transactions in Cote d’ Ivoire, Cameroon, Ghana, Uganda, Nigeria, South Africa and Afghanistan to name a few.

Mr. Marcus joined Seplat Energy in 2018 and is currently the GM, Commercial & Corporate Finance charged with managing commercial negotiations, corporate funding and treasury matters for Seplat Energy. Mr. Marcus has over 17 years’ experience in the financial sector, primarily focused on emerging markets with extensive experience in structuring energy transactions on the African continent. Prior to joining Seplat, he was an Executive Director in the Energy and Natural Resources Group at Standard Chartered Bank.”

Lwandi is a Senior Transactor in RMB’s Debt Capital Markets business, focussing on hard-currency transactions across the African continent. He has led numerous deals across the Corporate, Financial Institution and Sovereign space, including multiple award-winning debt raisings.

With nearly a decade of investment banking experience under his belt, Lwandi has executed several industry leading deals, having worked in both the local and international markets, assisting some of Africa’s Blue-Chip issuers to access private and public capital markets over the years.

Lwandi has spent the better part of the last two years on secondment in RMB’s London office, working in the International DCM Team.

He holds a Bachelor of Commerce (Honours) degree in Investment Management from the University of Johannesburg as well as a Bachelor Commerce in Business Finance and Economics from the University of the Witwatersrand.

Michael has more than 25 years’ experience in international finance ranging from project finance to private equity. During this period, he has been involved in more than 150 finance transactions on the African continent alone.

In 2000 Michael joint DEG - German Investment and Development Company as Vice President New Business Africa. In this position he was responsible for DEG's new business in predominantly East Africa. In addition, he was DEG's key account manager for the company's telecom projects. Before joining DEG in Germany, Michael worked for over 8 years at Dresdner Bank Group in Germany and Southern Africa, predominantly in credit and corporate banking.

Between 2004 and 2018, Michael has been heading DEG’s regional Office in South Africa in Johannesburg. Since May 2018, he has been the Director of the Department Financial Institutions Africa which has branches in Cologne, Johannesburg, Nairobi, Lagos and Abidjan.

Michael holds an engineering and business administration degree from Karlsruhe Technical University, Germany. Over the years he has hold various directorships of African companies and advisory board seats of various private equity funds. Michael is currently a director of Global Credit Ratings and Beefmaster (Pty) Ltd.

James Pearson is the Global Head of Financial Institutions at Mashreq Bank, which includes coverage of clients in the Banks, Central Banks and Non-Bank Financial Institutions segments. The Financial Institutions business is an integral part of Mashreq Bank’s Corporate and Investment Banking Group.

In his role at Mashreq, James is responsible for devising and implementing the overall business strategy for the Financial Institutions segment working closely with Head of CIBG to deliver a broader range of products to the Bank’s clients while driving other growth initiatives.

James possesses over 30 years’ experience in corporate and investment banking and has worked extensively with banks, insurers, investors and intermediaries. Before joining Mashreq, he worked with Nomura where he served as Head of Financial Institutions, Asia (ex-Japan). Prior to Nomura, he worked at Standard Chartered Bank in Singapore for seven years, where he was the Global Head of Financial Institutions Industry Coverage and Global Head of Insurance Clients.

In addition, James has worked with various other organizations including ABN AMRO / RBS and Morgan Stanley where he held several leadership positions covering the Asia-Pacific markets including roles leading the Financial Institutions sector and Investment Banking business.

James is a UK Chartered Accountant, and holds a BA (Hons) in Economics from Nottingham University.

With over 25 years of Loan and Debt Capital Market experience, Eric is a Managing Director and Head of CEEMEA Origination, Loan Capital Markets, at SMBCE responsible for the origination and structuring of loans for corporates and financial institutions across the full regional and borrower spectrum. Before joining SMBC in 2011, he was employed at Commerzbank New York, Frankfurt and London, where he held various head positions including loans and bonds origination. Eric is a certified Attorney at Law and has worked as such in Germany and the US. Eric is also a member of a group of authors that triennially publish a practical textbook on syndicated lending for borrowers, banking professionals, lawyers and auditors in German language

• Mr. Byanyima is the Executive for Treasury at TDB ( East and Southern African Trade and Development Bank). He has over 20 years of diverse and progressive experience in emerging and global markets gained from working for global banks and Africa based Financial Institutions. His expertise includes Treasury Risk Management, Debt Capital Markets and Development Finance.
• Prior to joining the Bank, Mr. Byanyima worked as a Vice President of Bank of New York Mellon (NY) Global Markets and as Associate Director at UBS Investment Bank, Stamford CT.

He holds a Bachelor of Commerce from Makerere University and an MBA from Fordham University. Has undertaken various management courses including a Senior Executive Management course at Harvard Business School.

Michèle is Regional Head at UK Export Finance where she leads the International business development of the department in Europe, Africa and South Asia. She joined UKEF in 2017 as Head of the Renewables and High-Tech branch before moving to her current position in 2019. Before joining UKEF, Michèle spent two years as a Corporate Finance Advisor for the Business Energy and Infrastructure Department (BEIS). Her role at BEIS led her to advise the International Climate Fund in their investment strategy as well as to provide advice to the Department with regards to the UK renewable energy markets. Prior to joining the civil service, Michèle had pursued a career in banking where she held project financier positions in CA-CIB, Lloyds and Barclays. This gave her the opportunity to finance landmark projects in various sectors including energy and economic infrastructure.

Mrs. Siby Diabira serves as Regional Director for Southern Africa and Indian Ocean based in Johannesburg at PROPARCO. Mrs. DIABIRA previously worked with PROPARCO in Paris as a Senior Investment Officer within the Private Equity Division handling various equity transactions across various regions in Africa, Latin America and Asia. Before Joining PROPARCO, Mrs. Diabira worked for 8 years at BNP PARIBAS dealing with Structured Finance (Buy-out, Capita expansion) and Credit Analysis in France. She started her career as Auditor with PWC. Mrs Diabira holds a Master s Degree in Financing Engineering from Sorbonne University and a Certificate of Business management from University California of San Diego.

James Doree joined Lion’s Head in 2011, and has worked with the founding Partners to build investment banking and asset management activities across Africa and Frontier Markets. He now leads Corporate and Investment Banking, covering sectors such as power, infrastructure, affordable housing, industry and financial inclusion. As part of Lion’s Head’s work in African capital markets, James has responsibility for managing the African Local Currency Bond Fund (www.alcbfund.com), which helps companies issue debt in their domestic capital markets for the first time.

In addition to his work in Africa, the Middle East and Asia, James has advised European utilities, governments and regulators on corporate and regulatory finance issues, covering energy, rail and postal sectors. James was previously a Senior Consultant at Cambridge Economic Policy Associates and, prior to that, worked for Pricewaterhouse Coopers in Nairobi.He has a Masters in Development Economics and a first class MA in History and Economics from Balliol College, Oxford.

Ope is the Head of Project Finance for Arise where he focuses on raising and structuring financing for various infrastructure projects.

Prior to joining Arise, Ope was an Infrastructure Investment Specialist lead at Investec Asset Management (IAM) and was part of the Emerging Africa Infrastructure Fund (EAIF) investment team, a US$1 billion debt fund managed by IAM where he successfully participated in financing valued at over US$2 billion in the power, transportation, logistics and telecom sectors.

Earlier in his career, Ope was an Assistant Vice President at Citigroup’s Project and Infrastructure Finance group, providing financial advisory and arranging debt facilities for project finance transactions in the power, oil & gas and infrastructure sectors for clients in Asia and Europe.

Ope enjoys volunteering his time at various non-profit organizations to include AFFORD UK and has published several articles on impact investments in Africa. His hobbies include hiking and running.

Ope holds a Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering and Management Information System from the University of Maryland Baltimore County, Master of Science in Computer Science from Johns Hopkins University and Master of Business Administration from Duke University Fuqua School of Business.

Timothy is an accomplished finance executive with extensive experience spanning Project Financing, Financial Advisory, Capital Raising, Business Development and Project Management across the energy, environmental and infrastructure sectors.

Prior to joining Axxela in 2018, he held senior management positions in various financial and non-financial institutions including Executive Director and Head of Thermal Power and Oil & Gas, Project Finance North America at BBVA Securities, Co-Head of Energy and Industrials at Fitch Ratings (NY), Director and Head of Thermal/Oil & Gas at Dexia. His transactions have won ‘Deal of the Year’ awards from Project Finance International and Euromoney publications, both industry-leading magazines.

Timothy has an MBA in Finance and International Business from the Columbia University Business School.

Jason is the Portfolio Manager of the flagship Futuregrowth Infrastructure & Development Bond Fund, as well as, the Yield Enhanced ALBI benchmarked range of portfolios. In addition, he plays a mentoring role within the Credit team and is involved in various aspects of risk assessment within the investment process.

Jason joined Futuregrowth in February 2001 from a unit trust retail background, heading up the Client Reporting team and then joined the Fixed Interest Investment team in February 2004.

Executive Director, Ian, joined Addendum to found the Funding Solutions division in 2017. The division’s first platform, Debt Solutions, provides corporate debt issuers with an efficient, cost effective and direct connection into the capital markets and has helped companies issue over R15bn billion worth of debt in this way. More recently, the new Addendum Marketplace platform has been launched to help debt capital markets participants interact with similar ease and efficiency in the secondary market.

Ian began his career as a healthcare actuarial consultant before moving into investment banking. Prior to joining Addendum, he spent almost 10 years at Macquarie Bank where he was responsible for the structured finance desk. Ian has significant experience across a range of client solutions including structured lending, preference share funding, BEE funding and structured derivatives. Ian’s combination of technical skills and market experience leaves him well equipped to distil seemingly complicated client needs into simple and cost-effective solutions.

Ian received a BSc (Hons) degree from the University of Cape Town, a Masters in Finance from INSEAD Business School and is a qualified actuary.

Nigel leads RMB’s Sustainable Finance and ESG Advisory business. He has pioneered the development of sustainable finance on the African continent, executing several innovative and award-winning products.

He is the longest standing Chair of the Equator Principles steering committee, lead at the International Chamber of Commerce (Sustainable Trade Finance) and member of the Impact Investing National Task Force.

He holds a number of qualifications including a MSc & DIC (Environmental Technology) from Imperial College, University of London and an MBA from Wits Business School.

Previously, he was the Global Managing Director of Sustainable Finance & ESG Advisory at Standard Bank.

Banji is Senior Director and Head of Treasury & Financial Institutions at Africa Finance Corporation (AFC). He is responsible for managing the Corporation’s balance sheet with total assets of about US$4.5 billion and leading the implementation of its annual funding program in the international loan and debt capital markets. Banji joined AFC in January 2008 and as the pioneer Treasurer of the Corporation, he was instrumental in setting up the Corporation’s treasury function and leading AFC to becoming one of the leading African credits in the international loan and debt capital markets.

He has led several landmark borrowing transactions that AFC has executed since its inception. He manages AFC’s relationship with its rating agencies, bankers and asset managers. AFC in one of the highest investment grade rated entities in Africa with a credit rating of A3 (Stable Outlook) from Moody’s. Prior to joining AFC, Banji worked with the Fixed Income, Currencies and Commodities team of Citibank Nigeria and the Tax and Business Advisory Division of former Arthur Andersen. He is a Chartered Accountant, with a first degree in Economics and a Masters degree in International Finance. He is also a CFA Charter holder.

Giulia Pellegrini is Deputy CIO for Emerging Markets Debt at Allianz Global Investors, where she focuses on EM sovereign debt strategies and ESG investing. Prior to joining AllianzGI in 2020, she was Head of Sustainable EM Fixed Income Investing at BlackRock since 2015. Ms Pellegrini was previously Chief Economist for Sub-Saharan Africa in J.P. Morgan’s Emerging Market Research team in London and in Johannesburg and an Economist at the World Bank in the Africa Finance and Private Sector Development Department in Washington D.C. She started her career as an Economist in the Policy & Strategy Division of the Debt Management Office of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in Abuja. Giulia holds master degrees in Development Economics and in Econometrics from the University of Oxford, St Antony’s College and from Birkbeck College as well as a BSc in Economics from the School of Oriental and African Studies – University of London.

Arvana leads Sustainable Finance Solutions at Nedbank CIB and holds extensive investment banking and sustainable finance experience having arranged over R 8,5bn equivalent of green bonds and climate loans over the last three years thereby placing Nedbank at the forefront of this space. Arvana formulated a market leading sustainability issuance framework for Nedbank and structured its inaugural green renewable energy bonds and subsequent Tier 2 green capital instruments. The green renewable energy bond instruments were endorsed by international and global investors and achieved the African Banker Energy Deal of the Year Award and the Impact Initiative of the Year Award for Africa from Environmental Finance. The Tier 2 Green Bond deal resulted in Nedbank being named as the Best Sustainable Finance Bank in Africa by Euromoney in 2021.

Arvana is also developing ESG themed loan financings with clients across sectors and holds a vast knowledge on sustainable finance and E, S and G principles and frameworks. She has completed the University of Cambridge Sustainability Practitioners course, is a CFA Charterholder and serves as a contributor to various sustainable finance industry initiatives.

Phil joined Helios Investment Partners in August 2020 to take responsibility for Helios’ ESG activities across the investment lifecycle. He has 15 years of relevant professional experience, working in over 25 countries around the world. He was previously Head of Sustainability for EMEA at The Carlyle Group and prior to that, he was an Assistant Director in the Sustainability and Climate Change Consulting team at PwC. Mr Davis holds a BSc in Environmental Management from the University of Birmingham and safety management certification from the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH).

Wayne has 18 years of banking experience across a wide area of roles. Wayne performed numerous roles in the Leveraged Finance bank debt market while living in London (8 years) and since being back in South Africa for the last 10 years placing corporate bonds and loans with institutional investors and other banks while working in the Distribution and Syndication team at Nedbank CIB. Increasingly Wayne has been involved in the structuring and placement of impact bonds and loans which has seen increased interest from the investor community in South Africa. Was involved in the structuring and placement of Nedbank’s Sustainability linked Green bonds in 2019 which became the first green bonds to be listed by a bank on the green segment of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. In August 2020 that deal was awarded Energy Deal of the year 2020 by the African banker magazine.

Melissa joined Futuregrowth Asset Management in 2015, initially managing the Specialist Investment Administration team before joining the Investment team as an investment analyst in 2017. Her responsibilities include deal origination, investment analysis, deal negotiation and structuring in the unlisted credit market. Prior to joining Futuregrowth, Melissa completed her articles at PwC in Cape Town followed by an eight month secondment at PwC in the US.

Ashok Parameswaran is the President and Founder of the Emerging Markets Investors Alliance. He has over 20 years of experience relating to emerging markets, mostly as an emerging market sovereign debt analyst. During his career, he has worked at asset managers including Invesco, AIG Investments, and Fidelity Management and Research. Ashok was part of an Invesco team that performed in the top third of Bloomberg-listed emerging market peers for 4 out of 5 years.

Ashok also has significant experience in international economics and development. At the US Treasury Department, he advised the US Treasury Secretaries Paul O’Neill and John Snow on economic policy towards South Asia, the Middle East, and East Africa. During this time, he served as Treasury’s Coordinator for Afghan Reconstruction. Ashok helped to start the India Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), where he worked with CSIS Executive Vice President Doug Johnston, US Ambassador to India William Clark, and Congressman Stephen Solarz, former Chair of the House Subcommittee on Asia and Pacific Affairs.

Ashok has served on the Board of the microfinance non-profit United Prosperity and on the Junior Board of Seeds of Peace. Ashok holds a bachelor’s degree from Duke University and a master’s degree in public policy from Harvard University.

Tommaso leads Citi’s DCM business for the Central Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa region (CEEMEA) and is a member of Citi’s DCM senior management team.

In this capacity Tommaso leads one of the industry’s top EM bond franchises: a team that structures and executes between 150-200 bond and private placements every year, raising in excess of US$125bn in debt capital financing for corporate, FI and sovereign borrowers from the region in 2021 alone.

Prior to his appointment in June 2021, Tommaso was responsible for Citi’s debt business in Turkey, South Africa & Sub-Saharan Africa and Israel – having previously focused on Russia/CEE and the Middle Eastern region.

Over the past 15+ years Tommaso has advised a broad range of corporates, financial institution and sovereigns borrowers in both the HY and IG markets in the implementation of their regular debt financing strategy, as well as for bespoke liability management and acquisition & project financing activity.

Ashleigh holds a Bachelor of Accounting and a Bachelor of Law (BAccLLB) from Stellenbosch University and has completed Level I of the CFA programme. Ashleigh started on the Nedbank CIB Graduate Programme in 2019 and spent two years in the Aircraft Finance team gaining experience in asset based financing and distressed debt. In 2021 she joined the Sustainable Finance Solutions team where she has gained a good grounding and understanding of sustainable finance frameworks and best practice trends and has been assisting in structuring sustainability linked products and frameworks for borrowers.

Natalie has been active in the sustainability arena for over 16 years with experience in the property, pharmaceutical and financial sectors.  She has been with Growthpoint for eight years, where she has been responsible for driving ESG within the business.  One of her key milestones was elevating the knowledge of ESG at various levels of the organisation from operational level to board committees. This has included projects on social impact, climate risk as well as conceptualising and preparing Growthpoint’s ESG Report.  Due to her sustainability knowledge coupled with her understanding of the innerworkings of corporates across various sectors, Natalie is familiar with the challenges that can arise when undertaking integrated & sustainability reporting.  Natalie has a Certificate in Sustainable Business from Cambridge University and a Post Graduate Diploma in Management from Wits Business School.

Mpati is an Environmental Scientist/Engineer with a Masters degree and over 20 years of experience spanning government and the private sector. Mpati’s experience includes her current responsibility as the Environmental Manager at the South African National Roads Agency (SANRAL)’s, where she provides direction for SANRAL’s environmental sustainability programme; develops and implements relevant policy; ensures compliance with environmental laws; conducts environmental awareness training; drives research on topics such as alien and invasive vegetation, etc. Her role also includes input to SANRAL’s Integrated Report, preparing reports to regulators, local and international banks/lenders, and other stakeholders, and ‘greenfluencing’ others such as consultants, and construction and maintenance teams to ensure conformance to SANRAL’s Sustainability Framework.

Mpati has previous experience from a coal-fired power station, where she was responsible for environmental management and community liaison. She championed cleaner production and resource efficiency measures, including the station’s Asbestos Reduction Programme; Air Emission Reduction Plan and Ash Recycling Programme which led to development of new businesses in brickmaking and cement manufacturing. She also played a major role in the power station’s Social Responsibility initiatives as a committee member.