Jean-Michel Severino

Jean-Michel was CEO of Investisseurs & Partenaires between 2011 and 2021 and previously served as Vice-President for Asia at the World Bank and Director General of the French Development Agency. He serves on the boards of CFAO, Ecobank International, France Telecom and Danone, and is a member of the Academy of Technology and a Knight […]

Thomas Venon

Thomas is executive director of the CDFS and a founding partner at Eighteen East Capital. Thomas has 20 years’ experience in the asset management industry including as head of institutional business at African Alliance, a director at S&P Fund Research, and senior positions at RBS/ABN Amro and Old Mutual. He holds an MBA from the […]

Dave Portmann

Dave is a senior advisor at the CDFS and founding partner at Eighteen East Capital, where he leads activities for the FCDO MOBILIST programme in Africa. Dave previously gained extensive experience across Africa during his time as a senior consultant at Douglas Parker Associates. He was born and raised in Cape Town, South Africa and […]

David Escoffier

David is a partner at Eighteen East Capital and senior advisor at the CDFS. An experienced banker he most recently held senior management positions as Global CEO of Newedge and Deputy Head of Global Markets at Société Générale. David has also served on several corporate boards, including Lyxor Asset Management. David is a graduate of […]

Kjell Roland

Kjell was CEO of Norfund from 2006 to 2018, prior to which he spent two decades working as partner and CEO of the consultancy firm ECON. As a consultant, Kjell worked for private companies, governments and international organizations such as the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank. He holds an MSc from the University […]

Magnus Billing

Magnus has over 20 years of experience in the international financial industry. He was previously the CEO of Nasdaq Nordic and, most recently, the CEO of Alecta, one of Europe’s five largest pension funds. As CEO, he transformed the portfolio into a sustainable asset base by leveraging an active, in-house investment model to drive transitional […]

Viola Kilel

Viola is a policy advisor at the Netherlands Embassy in Kenya and a senior advisor to the CDFS. She previously spent 8 years at the Capital Markets Authority, Kenya within the policy and market development directorate. Viola holds a MSc in Development Finance from Strathmore Business School and is a Chartered Development Finance Analyst with […]

Hamid Asseffar

Hamid was most recently Head of EMEA Sustainable & Impact Investing at Invesco, leading their transition finance initiatives and responsible for business development with DFIs and IFIs globally. Hamid previously worked for Amundi, Credit Suisse and Société Générale Gestion. He graduated from EDHEC Business School and sits on several technical advisory groups to help scale […]

Wasim Tahir

Wasim is a Research Fellow at Harvard University, where he focuses on the intersection of climate and development finance, aiming to mobilize private capital. Prior to Harvard, he was a director at British International Investment, leading on financial sector development and private capital mobilization. Wasim has extensive advisory experience through roles at BCG and Oliver […]

Sashi Jayatileke

Sashi was a senior climate policy advisor at USAID, where she managed the Climate Finance portfolio and led the design of catalytic financing initiatives to unlock private investment for climate action. Her expertise spans deal structuring, risk-sharing instruments, and financial innovation to expand access to capital in underserved markets. Sashi holds an MSc from the […]