Page 19 - UUBO PE Summit Brochure

FACILITATORS: SUMMIT

ADESUWA OKUNBOR-RHODES
ARUWA CAPITAL MANAGEMENT
Adesuwa has more than 10 years of investment banking, private equity and structured credit experience in
developed and emerging markets from global institutions. Adesuwa spent five years as Managing Partner of
Syntaxis Capital Africa, a provider of growth capital to SMEs in Nigeria and across Sub Saharan Africa. Syntaxis
Africa was part of Syntaxis Capital, a private equity fund active in other emerging markets with $300 million in
AUM from global institutional investors. At Syntaxis Africa, she led transactions totalling more than $200 million
across SSA. Prior to co-founding Syntaxis Africa in 2014, Adesuwa was in the Leveraged Finance and M&A teams
at J.P. Morgan in London, where she was involved in $5.6 billion worth of transactions across emerging markets
including Nigeria. Prior to J.P. Morgan, Adesuwa worked in Africa-focused PE fund, TLG Capital as an Investment
Professional, involved in transactions across Anglophone Africa including a very successful investment in
Uganda, where she personally invested and generated a very attractive return, which helped fund the
establishment of Aruwa Capital in 2018. She was named as an Agent of Impact in 2019 by Impact Alpha for her
commitment to gender equality in private equity and across the society through Aruwa Capital's investments.
She started her career at Lehman Brothers and holds a BSc in Economics from the University of Bristol. She
currently sits on a number of boards in Nigeria including Wells Hosa Green House Farms and Wells Carlton Hotel
and Luxury Apartments.

MEZUO NWUNELI
MANAGING PARTNER, SAHEL CAPITAL
Mezuo has a 22-year career across private equity, investment banking, and corporate finance. Over the past ten
years, Mezuo has worked extensively within the agribusiness sector in West Africa and across a broad range of
crop value chains. Mezuo started his career with the corporate finance team of the Sabre Group in Dallas in 1995,
and then worked in J.P. Morgan & Co's mergers and acquisitions group in New York. He was previously a Partner
at AFIG Funds, a private equity firm covering 28 countries in West and Central Africa; and has also worked at
SecTrust (now Afrinvest) and Ocean & Oil Holdings. He resigned from AFIG to co-found Sahel Capital in 2010. He
is also the Co-Founder/Chairman of AACE Foods, an ago-processing company; is on the Editorial Advisory Board
of BusinessDay Newspapers; and on the boards of L&Z Integrated Farms, Crest Agro, Coscharis Farms, and
Ladgroup. Mezuo holds a Master in Business Administration (MBA) from Harvard Business School, and received a
B.Sc. in Industrial Management, with a minor in Information Systems, from Carnegie Mellon University. He is a
2007 Archbishop Desmond Tutu Fellow and a 2015 Eisenhower Fellow.
ASHLEY LEWIS
INVESTMENT OFFICER, ACCION VENTURE LAB
Ashley Lewis is an Investment Officer focused on West Africa and South Africa with Accion Venture Lab,
Accion’s seed-stage impact investment initiative in fintech for the underserved. Ashley has ten years of
experience across financial services, investments, and social ventures, and has dedicated her time to investing
in and scaling social ventures across sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia. Prior to joining Venture Lab,
Ashley worked as an investment consultant and early-stage venture accelerator manager with LGT Venture
Philanthropy in Thailand and Uganda. Ashley also brings experience from her time in the institutional asset
management arms of Goldman Sachs and Vanguard. Ashley has a bachelor’s degree from Morgan State
University and a MBA from HEC Paris. She holds social innovation fellowships with the Finance Innovation
Lab of London and StartingBloc.
SENI SULYMAN
VICE PRESIDENT, GLOBAL OPERATIONS, ANDELA
Seni is the Vice President of Global Operations at Andela, a company that builds high-performing engineering
teams with Africa's most talented software engineers. Seni is responsible for Andela's delivery operations
across Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, Ghana, Rwanda, and Egypt. Seni was previously Country Director of Andela
Nigeria. Before Andela, he built and operated a new business jet airline in Nigeria for Bristow Group. His prior
career spans across roles at Bain & Company, HP and CardinalStone Partners. Seni is passionate about
building an ecosystem of exemplary African businesses and leaders. He holds an MBA from Harvard Business
School and a Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering from Northwestern University.

OLUWATOYIN ALAKE
HEAD, SECONDARY MARKETS, NIGERIAN STOCK EXCHANGE
Oluwatoyin is an experienced Financial Market Professional, passionate about applying her understanding of
economies, markets and financial instruments to deepen investment solutions. At the Nigerian Stock
Exchange where she currently heads the Secondary Markets Department, she is responsible for improving the
depth of the Nigerian Securities Market through the creation of investment vehicles, as well as enhancing the
depth of domestic market. Oluwatoyin was instrumental to the launch of Federal Government Savings Bond,
Green Bond, Exchange Traded Funds, as well as listing of dollar denominated instruments on the Nigerian
Bourse. She also facilitates market structure design and liquidity programs across product markets on the
NSE.With over 13 years’ experience in the financial market, Oluwatoyin is an enthusiast for building deep and
efficient financial markets and its importance in achieving sustainable development in Africa. Through her
work, she continues to promote the evolution of appropriate policy environment that supports access to
finance for local enterprises to fund business growth. She is also an advocate for instituting targeted
incentives to promote small and medium scale enterprises (SME) access to long term funding via capital
market. Her application of her aptitude and in-depth knowledge of financial instruments and market structure
has made her instrumental to delivering notable market initiatives in the Nigerian Capital Market. Prior to
joining the Exchange, Oluwatoyin has worked in buy and sell-side capacity in the Nigerian financial market.
NICOLE MARTENS
HEAD, AFRICA & MIDDLE EAST
In her role of Head of Africa & Middle East of the PRI, Nicole’s focus is on identifying and addressing the
needs of African investors with respect to integrating ESG into investment processes in an effort to foster the
maximisation of long-term sustainable financial returns across the continent. Prior to PRI, as a Development
Economist, Nicole’s career has focused on supporting local and international organisations across the public
and private sector in the design and implementation of strategies aimed at achieving large-scale
developmental impact in Africa.

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