Dr Amani Abou-Zeid is the twice-elected African Union Commissioner in charge of Infrastructure, Energy and ICT. For more than 30 years, Dr Abou-Zeid has served in leadership positions in international organisations, such as the African Development Bank, UNDP and USAID, with a focus on infrastructure and energy programmes. Over her career, she has amassed a remarkable mix of strategic and operational professional experience ans achievements across Africa, France, UK and Canada and across constituencies with wide array of stakeholders. Commissioner Abou-Zeid launched the Single African Air Transport Market which now includes 39 African countries, thus delivering on the first flagship project for African Integration under the African Union Agenda 2063. She also launched the African digital identity DotAfrica, Africa’s Digital Transformation Strategy, Africa’s Digital ID and data frameworks and developed the second phase of Africa’s Regional and Transcontinental projects (70 projects) and launched Africa’s Single Electricity Market — among other continental initiatives. She is giving a new and renewed pulse to AUC portfolio and programmes, focusing on results, embracing top technology for local solutions and engaging with the major global players in the fields under her purview to ensure expeditious and best quality implementation. Prior to her current position, she has managed AfDB's largest operational portfolio and implemented national and continental multi-sectoral development programmes, including the world's largest solar power plant (Nour). An Egyptian national, Dr Abou-Zeid has a multi-disciplinary academic training: B.Sc. in Electrical Engineering from Cairo University; MBA in project management for African Development from the French University for African Development (Université Senghor); Masters of Public Administration (MPA) from Harvard School of Government; and Ph.D. in Social and Economic Development from The University of Manchester, UK. She also has a degree DES in Arts from Université Sorbonne-Paris IV. Dr Abou-Zeid has received numerous international awards and recognitions for her leadership and excellence: decorated the Wissam Alaouite from HM King Mohamed VI of Morocco, named “Personalité d'avenir" by Government of France and often selected as one of "The Most Influential Women in Africa"; and received the "Outstanding Alumni Award" from the University of Manchester, UK. Commissioner Abou-Zeid is also member of the the prestigious Global Leaders Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development, and of the Stewardship Board for System Initiative on Shaping the Future of Energy and recently selected to join the Global Commission for Energy Efficiency. She co-leads the Steering Committee of Smart Africa and the Africa- High Level Task Forces, on Digital Economy, Connectivity and Energy.

Wamkele Mene was elected by the 33rd Ordinary Session of the Assembly of Heads of States & Government of the African Union, to the position of Secretary-General of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Secretariat. Prior to being elected Secretary-General of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Secretariat, he served as Chief Director: Africa Economic Relations, at the Department of Trade & Industry of South Africa. In this role, he was South Africa’s chief trade negotiator in the AfCFTA and Tripartite FTA negotiations. During his tenure as chief negotiator, South Africa ratified both the AfCFTA and Tripartite FTAs agreements, providing new export markets in fast growing and dynamic markets in East and West Africa. Prior to assuming this position, Wamkele was Director: International Trade Law & Investment Law at the Department of Trade & Industry, a role in which he was principal legal counsel on international trade law and international investment law. From 2010 until 2015, Wamkele represented South Africa at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in Geneva, Switzerland. During his posting to the WTO, Wamkele was elected by over 130 governments to the position of Chairman of the Committee on International Trade in Financial Services, a committee comprising trade negotiators, financial regulators and financial policy makers from over 160 countries. Prior to joining the government, Wamkele worked for the law firms Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP in London and Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP in Hong Kong. Wamkele has written and lectured internationally on international trade law, international investment law and international business law. He holds a Bachelor of Arts (Law) degree from Rhodes University in South Africa, a Master of Arts in International Studies & Diplomacy (with specialization in International Economics) from the School of Oriental & African Studies (SOAS), University of London and a LL.M. (Master of Laws) in Banking Law & Financial Regulation from the Law Department of the London School of Economics & Political Science (LSE).

Anne-Marie Trevelyan was appointed Secretary of State for International Trade and President of the Board of Trade on 15 September 2021. She was appointed as the UK International Champion on Adaptation and Resilience for the COP26 Presidency on 7 November 2020. Anne-Marie Trevelyan was previously Minister of State (Minister for Energy, Clean Growth and Climate Change) at the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy from January 2021 to September 2021.

Co-Principal of Versaca Investments, Global Economist, Author & Board Member. Dr. Dambisa Moyo is an acclaimed global economist and author and was appointed as a non-executive board member of the Department for International Trade in November 2020. Dr Moyo has focused on analysing the macro economy and international affairs to help drive investment decisions, capital allocation and mitigate risk. Her work examines the interplay of international business and the global economy, whilst highlighting the key opportunities for investment; capitalizing on her ability to translate trends in markets, technology, policy, regulatory matters and economics into their likely impact on national economies and business. Dr Moyo holds: • a DPhil in Economics from Oxford University • a Master’s degree from Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government • an MBA in finance • an undergraduate degree in chemistry Dr Moyo serves on the boards of the 3M Company, Chevron and Conde Nast. In addition, she serves on the Investment Committee of Oxford University’s endowment. Previously she served on the boards of Barclays Bank and SABMiller, and worked at Goldman Sachs for nearly a decade in the City of London. She was named by TIME Magazine as one of the ‘100 Most Influential People in the World’ and is the author of 4 bestselling books.

Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is the Director General of the World Trade Organisation (WTO). The first woman and first African to hold the position in the 75-year history of the General Agreement on Tariff and Trade (GATT) and World Trade Organisation. She is an economist and international development expert with over 40 years of experience. She was Chair of the Board of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance (2016 – 2020), the African Risk Capacity (2014 – 2020) and Co-Chair of The Global Commission on the Economy and Climate. Previously, she served as Senior Advisor at Lazard Ltd. and sat on the Boards of Standard Chartered PLC and Twitter Inc. Dr Okonjo-Iweala was appointed as an African Union COVID-19 Special Envoy, as well as WHO COVID-19 Special Envoy in 2020. She was one of the founders of the COVAX Facility designed to get affordable vaccines to Low and Low Middle-Income Countries Dr Okonjo-Iweala served as Nigeria’s first female and longest serving Finance Minister (7 years). She was also the first female Foreign Minister. She spent a 25-year career at the World Bank rising to the No.2 position of Managing Director, Operations. In 2021 Dr Okonjo-Iweala was named one of TIME 100 most influential leaders and people of the year, she was also one of five people to be featured on the TIME Magazine cover page. In 2020 Dr Okonjo-Iweala was named Forbes African of the Year. She has been ranked by Fortune as one of the 50 Greatest World Leaders (2015) and by Forbes as one of the Top 100 Most Powerful Women in the World consecutively for four years. She is the recipient of 15 Honorary Doctorate Degrees including from some of the world's most prestigious universities such Yale University, University of Pennsylvania, Brown University and Trinity College Dublin. She holds a Bachelor’s in Economics from Harvard University and a PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Vera Songwe is the United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA). Upon her appointment, she became the first woman to lead the institution in its 60-year history. As Executive Secretary, Songwe’s reforms have focused on developing and implementing “ideas for a prosperous Africa”. They have emphasized the critical importance of macroeconomic stability, innovative finance, private sector participation, the digital transformation, trade and competitiveness in fostering growth and improving livelihoods. She was listed as one of Africa’s 50 most powerful women by Forbes in 2020 and named as one of the ‘100 Most Influential Africans’ by Jeune Afrique in 2019. In 2017, New African Magazine listed her as one of the ‘100 Most Influential Africans’ and the FT named her one of the ’25 African to watch’ in 2015. Songwe is acknowledged for her long-standing track record of providing policy advice and her wealth of experience in delivering development results for Africa. She has written extensively on development and economic issues including on debt, infrastructure development, fiscal and governance issues. She is well published and contributes to the development debate across a broad spectrum of platforms including in the Financial Times. Prior to ECA, she held a number of senior leadership roles with the International Finance Corporation and World Bank.

Mikateko is a highly experienced finance professional with pan African experience in the Consumer Goods and Pharmaceutical sectors and a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants. She is currently Unilever’s Africa Finance Vice President and an Executive Director of Unilever South Africa where, as well as her financial responsibilities, she plays a key role in shaping the business to better serve African consumers and ensuring Unilever brands and business footprint help make sustainable living commonplace. She leads the Unilever finance teams across Africa and is passionate about leading for equality, diversity and inclusion as well as sharing her knowledge to build up the next generation of African business leaders. Mikateko is based in South Africa and joined Unilever from Astra Zeneca in 2017 where she was Chief Financial Officer for the Africa region, prior to which she held various finance roles at SC Johnson and Bayer in South Africa. Mikateko is South African and grew up in Johannesburg where she graduated from UNISA with a B Com degree

Vicky Ford was appointed Minister for Africa at the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office in September 2021. Previously she was the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Children and Families at the Department for Education from February 2020 to September 2021. Vicky was first elected as the Conservative MP for Chelmsford in 2017.

Lord Grimstone of Boscobel Kt was appointed unpaid Minister for Investment jointly at the Department for International Trade and the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy on 18 March 2020. Before joining government, his career spanned the private and public sectors. His roles have included: •chairman of Barclays Bank plc and Standard Life Aberdeen •lead non-executive on the board of the Ministry of Defence •chairman of financial services body, TheCityUK, from 2012 to 2015 •member of HM Treasury’s Financial Services Trade and Investment Board Lord Grimstone has held board appointments across many sectors and served as one of the UK’s Business Ambassadors.

Peter BenHur Nyeko co-founded Mandulis, a cleantech start-up and social enterprise focused on developing and deploying new technologies and approaches to deliver energy that is affordable, reliable, sustainable, and capable of driving economic development, in urban and rural communities, alongside holistic synergies in support of biodiversity in nearby conservation ecosystems. Mandulis Energy, an EEP Africa portfolio company, and winner of the DFCD Scalable Climate Solutions Challenge at COP26 in Glasgow, is one of the inaugural nine Laudato Si’ Challenge companies, and has also been backed by the FCDO, Innovate UK, AfDB SEFA, BZ Netherlands, DEG develoPPP, FAO, GCC, HGC, KfW, PREO, UECCC, UNCDF, UNHCR and USAID, among others. Mandulis leads the development of “Earth Energy”, which will be Africa’s largest grid-tied biomass gasification power plant, as well as the off-grid “REPARLE” & “BEPeARL” Projects, delivering the holy grail of grid parity, using renewable energy & a circular economy zero-waste approach to power agriculture and enhance the livelihoods of millions of rural smallholder & refugee farmers in Uganda and across Africa. Nyeko has also worked in renewable energy and carbon finance, education, transport, and logistics. He has an MEng in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Bristol & is an alumnus of Cranfield University. He is an avid Ballroom Dancer and Thespian, and enjoys performing and writing in French, Arabic, Spanish and Acholi.

Alderman Vincent Keaveny was elected as the 693rd Lord Mayor of the City of London on 29 September 2021 and took office on 12 November 2021. He previously served as Sheriff of the City of London in 2018-19 and in that capacity supported the then Lord Mayor, undertaking numerous engagements and activities at home and abroad. Vincent is a partner in the international business law firm, DLA Piper. He advises on debt capital markets, structured finance and securitisation transactions in the UK and banks, financial institutions and corporate clients in the UK and internationally on banking, finance and capital markets transactions. He is listed as a leading practitioner in his area of practice by all of the principal legal directories and is included in the legal ‘500’ Hall of Fame for securitisation practitioners. Until May 2019 he was International Co-Chair of the Financial Services Sector at DLA Piper. In 2014/15 he served as President of the City of London Law Society. He is an Honorary Bencher of Gray's Inn. Since his election to the City of London in 2013 as Alderman for the Ward of Farringdon Within, Alderman Keaveny has served on a number of City Corporation Committees. He is currently a member of the Policy & Resources Committee and the Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Sub-committee. He also a Governor of the City of London School. Vincent is also Co-Chair of the HM Treasury & BEIS Socio-Economic Diversity Taskforce. A Liveryman of the City of London Solicitors', the Woolmen's, Distillers', Spectacle Makers', Stationers’, Framework Knitters’, Upholders’ and Security Professionals’ Companies, Vincent served as Master Solicitor in 2014/15. He is also a member of the City Livery Club, the City Pickwick Club and the Royal Society of St. George (City Branch) and the Court of The Honourable The Irish Society. Vincent is the Senior Patron of the Farringdon Ward Club. Vincent graduated from University College Dublin with a BCL and subsequently obtained an MLitt from Trinity College, Dublin. He was recognised in 2018 by UCD as their Law Alumnus of the Year. Since his admission as solicitor in England & Wales in 1992 he has worked in private practice in the City. Vincent's interests include theatre and the arts. He is a trustee of the Sir John Soane's Museum, where he is the Independent Director on the Board. He chairs the board of the vocal ensemble, Exaudi, and is a director of Actors Touring Company. Vincent is married to Amanda, an Intensive Care Nurse and in what spare time he has, he enjoys tennis and walking their Labrador. Mayoral Theme People with Purpose - Vincent’s year will champion a purpose-led and people-focused UK FPS sector; growing the global competitiveness of the UK as a world leader in ESG and sustainable finance and home to the best and most diverse global talent; driving social mobility at all levels.

Andrew Skipper is Chair of the Africa Practice at Hogan Lovells, having acted as the Head of the Practice for over 7 years. As a commercial lawyer with over 36 years’ experience, Andrew is a renown and credible voice in business and is also a regular contributor to broader African issues. Following the UK Africa Investment Summit in 2020, he became a member of the UK government's Africa Investors Group and is now its co-chair. Andrew is also a member of the Council of the Royal Africa Society, and sits on the advisory board of the South Africa Chamber of Commerce in the UK. Andrew is a member of the working group on legal services for the UK-Nigeria Economic Development Forum (EDF) and as an advocate of the arts he is co-vice chair of the advisory board of the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art in Washington. He is also on the advisory Board of the 1-54 Art Fair. Andrew is a regular speaker and writer on African affairs, promoting an understanding of African business and culture, including hosting his A Perspective podcasts.

Keet has over 20 years of investment experience in private equity, banking and venture capital. He co-founded Knife Capital in 2010 to scale South African high-growth businesses globally and worked at industry-leading companies such as Procter & Gamble, Investec Bank and ‘Here Be Dragons’ (HBD) Venture Capital. Keet is on the Board of the Southern African Venture Capital and Private Equity Association (SAVCA) and is passionate about building the early-stage funding ecosystem in Africa.

With over 16 years’ experience, Heleen heads up the alternative investment team at RisCura – a market leader in investment solutions in emerging markets such as Africa and China, with $170bn in assets under management. Under her leadership, the previous core independent valuations service offering has been successfully expanded to include a wide range of alternative investment services that cover asset classes such as private equity, infrastructure and private debt. She also oversees industry-recognised research such as Bright Africa and the RisCura-SAVCA South Africa Private Equity Performance report. Heleen is an expert on alternative investments and her knowledge and experience is often called on by industry bodies for comment on key industry papers. In addition, her thought leadership articles are often published by well-known media outlets. She is a regular speaker at prominent industry events where she provides insight into the industry and RisCura’s research. She previously worked as a corporate finance partner at PKF Inc. Heleen has a CA (SA), is a CFA charterholder and has a master’s degree in finance, focused on valuation from UCT.

Faruq Muhammad is the Global Head of Structured Export Finance within Standard Chartered Bank’s Project & Export Finance business. He and his team are responsible for the origination, structuring and execution of export credit agency, multi-lateral agency and development finance institution supported transactions for international and regional clients across multiple industry sectors. In a career in banking exceeding 22 years, Faruq has been responsible for transacting with Sovereigns, public sector & local corporate clients in the power, telecommunication and social infrastructure sectors in South Asia, South East Asia, Middle East, Pakistan and Sub-Saharan Africa. Faruq started his career with Standard Chartered in Pakistan and has worked in UAE, managing public sector clients, and in UK as part of the Project and Export Finance business. Faruq holds a CFA Charter from Chartered Financial Institute, USA and a Masters in Business Administration from the Institute of Business Administration, Karachi.

Marco provides leadership on driving sustainable development impact across PIDG companies. He oversees the early stage impact assessment of all PIDG investments, the process for monitoring and evaluating their impact and PIDG programmatic work to deepen sustainable development impact including on gender and climate. Marco has over 15 years of experience working in frontier markets to drive development impact through private investment. He joined PIDG from the UK Department for International Development where he most recently led their Impact Investing team. In previous DFID roles, he was responsible for UK support to AgDevCo, developed public private partnerships with corporate investors in Africa, and led market reform initiatives to enable investment and development impact in the agri-food sector. He previously worked in management consultancy with assignments for corporates and multilateral organisations. He held leadership positions with social enterprises in West and East Africa and worked in business development services and policy in the UK. Marco spent 10 years between Sierra Leone, Uganda, Tanzania and Albania and conducted assignments in a number of other countries. He holds a BSc in International Politics and Economics from the University of Naples and an MSc in Development Studies from SOAS in London.

In 2012 Lexi Novitske moved to Nigeria, from The United States, believing the country held immense untapped potential, with an under-penetrated consumer population, expanding infrastructure and online access, and an active entrepreneur network. In 2014, Lexi launched Singularity Investments, a private capital-backed venture investment firm, and backed market champions in fintech and enterprise software including Paystack, Flutterwave, mPharma, and Migo. In 2019 Lexi acquired the firm’s portfolio and launched Acuity Venture Partners continuing Singularity’s mission to invest in technology companies driving trade and financial identity across Africa. Lexi previously managed investments at African private equity firm Verod Capital Management. Prior to joining Verod, she was focused on Africa investments at Small Enterprise Assistance funds and covered financial services at New York-based Sandler O’Neill Asset Management. Lexi is a board member at several early-stage companies and faculty member and mentor to several accelerators and start-up academies. Lexi is a CFA Charterholder and a Kauffman Fellow.

Mounir Nakhla is the Founder and CEO of MNT-Halan, Egypt’s leading and fastest growing lender to the unbanked. Under his leadership, Halan, its consumer-facing app has gained unparalleled traction, surpassing 2 million downloads and facilitating millions of transactions. Its aim is to digitally bank the unbanked and substitute cash with electronic solutions. In 2018, Nakhla seeded and then consolidated to MNT-Halan the first independent digital wallet in Egypt licensed from the Central Bank of Egypt. Prior to Halan, Nakhla established what is now Egypt’s largest microfinance company in 2015 and an asset-based microfinance company in 2010 that focused on selling 2 and 3 wheelers. It has now added electronics and electrical appliances to its portfolio of products. Both companies have disbursed more than USD 1.7Bn since inception. Nakhla holds a Master's of Science in Environment & Development from the London School of Economics (2003), and a Bachelor of Science in International Business Studies from the European Business School (2000).

Mark Taylor is CEO of Cala Capital Africa, an award-winning facilitator of private capital investments of $5m to $50m+ by global and domestic professional investors in vetted African companies, and a strategic partner of Mazars in Africa. Mark is a former senior executive at Richemont, Remgro and head of investment evaluations at VenFin. He has banking, trust company and family office experience with Investec, and hands-on turnaround experience as CEO of a listed company. As an entrepreneur, Mark developed Turkey’s first giant public aquarium and listed a British business on the LSE’s AIM. He is an admitted attorney, and his qualifications include BA LLB (Stellenbosch), HDip Maritime Law (UND), MComm cum laude (UCT), and PGD Futures Studies cum laude (Stellenbosch).

Lisa joined Actis in 2016 to focus on originating and managing energy investments, primarily in Middle East & Africa. Lisa has 13 years of experience in power sector investing and 23 years of experience in emerging markets. Previously Lisa worked at American Capital Energy & Infrastructure, Globeleq and AES. Before her power career, Lisa lived and worked in Afghanistan for five years, both for the United Nations Development Programme, and then as an advisor in a chief-of-staff role to the Afghan Finance Minister. Lisa holds an MBA from the University Of Chicago Booth School Of Business, an MA in Literature from the University of Sussex, and a BA in Applied Mathematics from Harvard University.

Chris is an Infrastructure investor and practitioner with over 20 years of experience across Africa, S.Asia and Europe. He has been with CDC since 2017 and is currently responsible for CDCs Infrastructure Investment in Equity across Africa and Pakistan based in London. Prior to joining CDC, Chris was a founding member of the ARM-Harith Infrastructure Fund where he was involved in a number of pioneer infrastructure transactions in West Africa. He has also worked for Exxon, RWE Thames Water and Veolia Environment. He has particular expertise in Energy, Water & Sanitation, as well as Transport Infrastructure, sectors where has over $4bn of transaction experience, including most recently CDCs JV with DPWorld in Africa. Chris is a board member on a number of CDC platform investment companies such as Globeleq and Gridworks LLP. He is a chartered Chemical Engineer, and holds a masters in engineering from the University of Surrey. In 2020, he was nominated as a member of the UN Technical Working Group on Finance and Investment in Energy.

Julia is the Deputy Director for Strategy at UK Export Finance, the UK Government’s Export Credit Agency. Her responsibilities include leading the development of the department’s corporate strategy, business and operational planning, and bids for fiscal events. She is also responsible for UKEF’s engagement with other parts of Government and contribution to cross-government strategy and delivery. Prior to establishing the Strategy function, Julia was Head of Corporate Communications, responsible for overseeing UKEF’s press office, internal communications and speechwriting. Julia joined UKEF in 2016, having previously spent 4 years working in international relations in the UK Parliament, where she was on the Steering Committee for ParliaGender, Parliament’s gender workplace equality network. Julia began her career at Linstock Communications, a PR and public affairs consultancy. She has an MA in Law from the University of Cambridge.

Anthony Nyong is the Director of Climate Change and Green Growth at the African Development Bank. He is currently on secondment to the Global Center on Adaptation a s the Regional Director for Africa. He has about 30 years of experience in environmental and natural resources management, environmental and social safeguards, renewable energy and green growth that span academia, private sector and development finance. Prof. Nyong has served on several Global Advisory and Scientific Boards including the Sustainable Stock Exchange Green Finance Advisory Group, the World Economic Advisory Panel on Circular Economy, Scientific and Technical Advisory Panel of the Global Environment Facility , Advisory Board of the World Economic Forum on Circular Economy, as well as on the Platform for Accelerating Circular Economy Leadership Group. He was a member of the Technical Support Unit for the establishment of the Green Climate Fund. rofessor Nyong holds a Ph.D. in Geography from McMaster University, Canada, a D.Sc. (hc) from the University of Calabar in Nigeria. He holds a Post-graduate Diploma from the University of Oxford and is a Senior Executive Fellow of the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. Prof Nyong is a Fellow of the African Academy of Sciences. He is named among the top 20 of the 100 most Influential People in Climate Policy 2019 by Apolitical. .

Colin joined Diageo in 1993 as a graduate trainee and spent a number of years working across the manufacturing business in Ireland, including the Operations Director role in St James’s Gate from 2008 to 2013, during a period of unprecedented change in Ireland culminating in the consolidation of the brewing operations into the brewery in St. James’s Gate. In 2013 he moved to Operations Director for the Baileys and Bushmills business, and then covered a number of manufacturing roles in the International Supply Centre (ISC) including Beer and Packaging Director for the ISC covering the beer and spirits packaging sites across Europe and St. James’s Gate Brewery. In June 2018 he took over as Supply Chain Director for the International Supply Centre and Europe Market, covering planning and logistics. In July 2019, Colin moved to Nairobi as Supply Chain Director for Africa Markets and East African Breweries, and in October 2021 Colin also took on accountability for the Global Beer Supply Chain. Colin is a Chemical Engineer and holds the Master Brewer Qualification from the Institute and Guild of Brewing. He is a board member of Diageo Ireland, the Guinness Storehouse and East Africa Maltings.