Executive Leadership Team
Dr. Frank Aswani
Chief Executive OfficerDr. Frank Aswani
Chief Executive Officer
Dr. Frank Aswani has extensive experience in both the private and social sectors. Before joining AVPA Frank held the position of VP and Director of Strategic Relations for six years at the African Leadership Academy (ALA) in Johannesburg, where he led ALA’s corporate partnerships, business development and fundraising activities. He has also worked for Absolute Return for Kids (ARK) as the Regional Director for Africa and spent fourteen years with Eli Lilly where he worked in Kenya, England, Switzerland and South Africa. His last role at Eli Lilly was Sales Director for South Africa and Regional Director for Sub Sahara Africa.
Frank is a Kenyan national living in Johannesburg. He holds a Veterinary Medicine Degree from the University of Nairobi and an MBA from GIBS (Gordon Institute of Business Studies), University of Pretoria, South Africa. He is also a certified Design Thinking and Design Sprints Practitioner.
Nancy Kairo
Executive Director EA RegionNancy Kairo
Chief Executive Officer
Nancy has extensive local and international experience working in both the private and public sectors. Prior to joining AVPA, Nancy worked for World Vision USA where she was technical lead for 15 economic development projects across three global regions (Sub-Saharan Africa, West Asia and the Caribbean). Nancy has over 20 years experience working in the areas of organizational leadership,resource mobilization, and project management. She has held short and long-term contracts with a number of prominent organizations including The World Bank, The Organization of African First Ladies Against HIV/AIDS (OAFLA) and the New Partnership for Africa’s Development.
Her contributions towards policy formulation led to a collaborated with FIDA (Spanish acronym for International Federation of Women Lawyers) in drafting and lobbying for legislative change to Kenya’s Penal Code as well as developing substantive policy papers on: Affirmative Action, the Equality Bill and Kenya’s Children’s Bill. Furthermore, Nancy has spearheaded strategic initiatives aimed at reinforcing Results Based Management as a reform tool for Kenya’s Public Service Reform & Development Secretariat.
Nancy holds a Master of Science Degree in Economic Development from Southern New Hampshire University, USA and professional certifications in Grant Acquisition & Management, Change Management Leadership, Results Based Management and Strategic Marketing. She previously served as Vice Chairperson on the Kenya Government’s Information Communication Technology (ICT) Board and as Communications and Liaison Director on the Refugee Consortium of Kenya Board.
Rachel Keeler
Value Hub DirectorRachel Keeler
Value Hub Director
Rachel leads the AVPA Value Hub, which drives service delivery for AVPA’s diverse stakeholders. Rachel engages widely with social investors to identify opportunities for collaboration to address major social challenges facing Africa. Based in Nairobi for the last decade, Rachel has worked as an analyst, journalist, researcher, entrepreneur, portfolio manager, and impact communicator across many sectors. Formerly, Rachel was the Impact Director for KPMG International Development Advisory Services (IDAS) Africa, where she managed learning and innovation across a US$1bn portfolio. Rachel has written widely on finance and impact investment in Africa. She is excited about catalyzing finance to achieve the SDGs.
Oluwatoyin Adegbite-Moore
Executive Director WA RegionOluwatoyin Adegbite-Moore
Executive Director WA Region
Prior to joining AVPA, Oluwatoyin (Toyin) headed Sheafam & Tam Limited a consultancy firm specializing in business process management, strategic and change management for both non and for-profit organisations in the US and Nigeria. Toyin has provided project oversight on department audits at the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation and the Petroleum Industry Regulatory Bill through the Facility for Oil Sector Transformation (FOSTER). Her work in strategy development and organizational transformation has led her to work with the Niger Delta Power Holding Company among others. Toyin holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Calvin College, where she dual majored in Political Science and French. She also holds several training certificates in management, facilitation and team-building from the Corporation for National Service; fund development from Indiana University and affordable housing from Federal Reserve Bank. She is also a certified facilitator and trainer.
Strategic Advisory Group
Bhekinkosi Moyo
CEO of the Southern Africa Trust. He is also a renowned writer, author, researcher and thought-leader with keen interest in questions of African resources, democracy and governance. He currently serves on several boards that include the African Philanthropy Network (APN), ICCO Southern Africa Regional Council, the International Society for Third Sector Research (ISTR), and the African Union Foundation Council.
Dr. Vuyo Mahlati
Deputy Chair and Principle Consultant of the African Financial Group. In May 2010, she was appointed by the South African President to be a Member of the inaugural National Planning Commission that produced the National Development Plan for South Africa. She is a Global Director of the International Women’s Forum and Deputy Chair of the Integrated Urban Development Framework Panel of Experts.
Richard “Dick” Kramer
Co-Founder and the Chairman of Capital Alliance Nigeria. He was Managing Partner of Arthur Andersen & Co. Nigeria, which he started in 1978. Previously, he served as Managing Partner of Arthur Andersen in Benelux, Argentina, and Uruguay. Dick was formerly the Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Economic Summit Group, served on the Lagos Business School Advisory Board and previously headed the technical team for Nigeria’s Vision 2010 Committee. He holds an MBA from the Harvard Business School and an accounting degree from Kansas University. He is a U.S.-Certified Public Accountant and a Nigerian Chartered Accountant.
Patrick Parring
CEO of Par Equity Group. He was the founder Chairperson of WECBOF, an organisation who represented small and medium size businesses in The Western Cape Province. He is concurrently Chairman of Synergos Southern Africa, a poverty alleviation think tank. Raised with his ten siblings by his grandparents in a poor environment in the midst of Apartheid. He founded his first company in 1989. Since then, he has sat on more than twenty (for profit and non-profit) boards. He of late has established a thinktank to explore «social impact» investment opportunities in the sectors of technology, food security and property.
Arif Neky
Advisor for Strategic Partnerships at the UN Resident Coordinator’s Office in Kenya. He is also the National Coordinator in Kenya for the SDG Philanthropy Platform and is active in establishing a broader SDG Partnership Platform in Kenya co-chaired between the Government and the UN to unlock $1 billion of SDG aligned PPPs. Arif was a former Regional CEO of the Aga Khan Foundation (AKF) East Africa for over 13 years and previously the Regional Representative in Eastern Africa for the French & International Bank – Société Générale.
Janet Mawiyoo
Executive Director of the Kenya Community Development Foundation (KCDF) and Director of the KCDF Investment Holdings. Previously she was Country Director of ActionAid International Tanzania. She serves on the Boards of TrustAfrica, the African Philanthropy, AccountableNow, Open Society Initiative of East Africa and chairs Viwango. She is a certified Organization Development consultant, with a Masters in Development Administration and Management from the University of Manchester (UK), and a post graduate diploma in Organization Development Consultancy from the Swiss Institute of Applied Psychology. She received the Exemplary Women’s Leadership Award, and the Outstanding Leadership Award.
Eric Kacou
Cofounder and CEO of Entrepreneurial Solutions Partners (ESPartners), an advisory and investment group. He authored Entrepreneurial Solutions for Prosperity for BOP Markets published by Wharton School and served on the World Economic Forum Global Agenda Council Innovation as well as on the Wharton Board for Europe Middle East and Africa. Eric also led the Rwanda National Innovation and Competitiveness (RNIC) Program and served leaders of business, government and development partners in over a dozen other low-income nations. He was honoured by the World Economic Forum as a Young Global Leader, the African Leadership Institute as a Tutu Fellow as well as Forbes Afrique as one of Africa’s 20 builders of tomorrow. He earned his MBA at the Wharton School and his MPA at the Harvard Kennedy School as a Mason Fellow.
Monique Mathys-Graaff
Monique Mathys-Graaff, Head: Investment Project Development, Public Investment Corporation (PIC) in Johannesburg, South Africa, where she spearheads the establishment of investment project development capabilities within the Research & Project development division. The division is focused on identifying investment opportunities that would both enhance PIC performance and act as a catalyst for inclusive economic growth. The focus has been on early stage, government linked innovation and technologies with significant impact abilities. As an investment professional with 16 years’ experience and a CFA charter holder, Monique’s experience set has grown out of considerable work exposure in financial markets through to mining companies. Her previous role centered on government policy as Head of Economics at the Chamber of Mines of South Africa and Deputy Chairperson of Business Unity South Africa (BUSA) Economic Trade Policy Committee.
Her career started as a top rated mining analyst at an international investment bank. It then progressed to corporate finance, acting as a specialist advisor for Mining BEE transactions, eventually heading up the Investor Relations function of a top 40 mining company. Before joining the Chamber, Monique set up Standard Bank’s mining and commodities equities research capability in her role as Resource Strategist. More recently, she was appointed as Board Member on the National Advisory Board for the South Africa Global Steering Group (GSG) for Impact Investing (one of the United Nations SDG initiatives). Monique is also a board member of AVPA’s Southern Africa chapter.
Joseph Ogutu
Mr. Joseph Ogutu is Chief Special Projects at Safaricom PLC, including Safaricom Foundation. He joined Safaricom as Chief Corporate Affairs Officer in May 2005 from Telkom Kenya. He has worked closely with the CEO in formulating strategic direction for the business and focusing on developing Safaricom’ s position as an industry leader in driving innovation in products and services. He currently also serves as the Chairman of Safaricom Foundation and sits in the board of TEAMS Limited.
Mr. Ogutu has had a dynamic career in the telecommunications industry spanning more than 25 years of which the last 12 have been at Executive Committee level. During this period, he was actively involved in the reform of the sector including the drafting of the Postal and Telecommunication Policy Paper that led to the restructuring of the defunct Kenya Posts and Telecommunications Corporation and subsequent establishment of CCK, Telkom Kenya and Postal Corporation of Kenya. He has also been involved in the establishment of the institutional framework for the Eastern Africa Submarine Cable System (Eassy).
Pan-African Governing Board
