Alex was born in Ethiopia and spent his early years in East Africa. After starting out as a BBC World Service journalist, Alex moved into law, qualifying as a corporate lawyer in the City of London. He has over 20 years’ experience working as an int…

Alex Stewart (Founder)

Alex was born in Ethiopia and spent his early years in East Africa. After starting out as a BBC World Service journalist, Alex moved into law, qualifying as a corporate lawyer in the City of London. He has over 20 years’ experience working as an international lawyer and in commercial roles in technology, infrastructure and energy businesses. His recent work includes working as General Counsel for two Africa focused impact investment funds, encompassing renewable energy, technology, agriculture and real estate projects in East Africa. Alex holds a BSc (Soc) in Philosophy & Politics from Bristol University, and Diplomas in Law from Westminster University and the College of Law.

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Neil Portus

Neil is a CFO/Advisor for growth companies and a former equity analyst at Goldman Sachs in New York where he helped to lead numerous IPOs including Zipcar's $1.1 billion IPO and other transactions. Previously, he was an equity analyst at Barclays Capital & Lehman Brothers and began his career at a boutique investment bank where he helped to lead 15 advisory & financing transactions totalling $1.3 billion. He built his operational skills as a start-up founder and CFO of an East Africa-focused impact investment firm. Neil is a CFA charter holder, a Certified Management Accountant and has an MBA from the University of South Carolina.

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mikele goitom

Mikele trained and worked initially as a teacher before graduating from Addis Ababa University. He holds degrees in Education and in Software Engineering. He is the Ethiopian Program Manager for a UK registered educational charity which provides supplies to schools in Ethiopia and is Co-General Manager of Arakele Plc, a social enterprise project in Addis Ababa that provides education and training in textile skills for vulnerable women. Mikele is Gihon Partners’ local representative in Ethiopia.

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MICHELLE WILSON

Michelle is a development specialist with over 14 years of experience living and working in Sub Saharan Africa (Chad,  DRC, Ethiopia, Uganda, Sierra Leone, DRC and Tanzania). Until recently she was Director of Programmes for Farm Africa with oversight of Ethiopia, Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda.  She has extensive experience of project cycle management from original design through to monitoring, evaluation and learning. She has worked with the leading institutional donors including EU, UK Aid, NORAD, SIDA, Irish Aid, Comic Relief and others.  She has on the ground experience in resilience, climate change, markets, environment, agriculture and education.  She has very strong skills in gender analysis and in the development of gender programmes that address entrenched gender norms.  Michelle has a Masters in Conflict Violence and Development from School of African and Oriental Studies and a Masters in French and Business Studies from St Andrews University.

Tom Sanderson

Tom is a development economist specialising in enterprise development, microfinance and impact investing. He read Economics at Cambridge University and began his career as a Government Economist in London. Following his Masters degree, he spent 5 years in Uganda working on rural development, entrepreneurship and microcredit. Returning to the UK, he established the microfinance NGO Five Talents UK growing its operations across East Africa serving thousands of clients. He subsequently worked as Managing Director of A Call to Business, the philanthropic arm of Truestone Impact Investment Management. More recently, Tom has been the Senior Economist at BBC Media Action and Private Sector Adviser at the UK’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office. 

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Chris Goodwin HUDSON

Chris is a specialist in security and environmental and impact risk with a specific focus on the intersect of security and human rights. He began his career as an officer in the British Army before going on to work in Goldman Sachs’ Office of Global Security. From there he went to work with the Aga Khan Development Network where his responsibilities included hydro power projects in Uganda, education services in Kenya and tourism promotion in Tanzania. He has recently undertaken a number of impact evaluation projects in Africa for lenders and investors, delivering board level ESG guidance down to operational quality assurance. Chris has a BA from Bristol University and an MPhil in ethnography.

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peter o’driscoll

Peter is a seasoned transactional lawyer with deep experience in private equity, cross-border M&A, corporate conflicts, impact investment and growth capital transactions in Africa and other emerging markets. He has many years’ partner level experience, most recently with international law firm Orrick. He He also has extensive experience as a board-level corporate governance advisor. His sector experience includes mobile telecoms, natural resources and technology investments. Peter holds a BA from Oral Roberts University and JD from Northwestern University School of Law.