Canada-Africa Financing Forum | Cape Town

Zach is the Managing Partner at Launch Africa Ventures – Africa’s most prominent and active early-stage VC Fund with a portfolio of 130+ tech ventures across 20+ countries. He is also the Co-Founder and Chief Investment Officer of Startupbootcamp AfriTech – the leading multi-corporate backed venture accelerator program in Africa. Zach is a prominent Angel investor in 50+ leading tech startups in Africa including Flutterwave, KudaBank, Mono, Marketforce and several others. He was featured on the cover of Fast Company Africa (May 2018), Destiny Man (Nov 2019) and on several occasions on CNBC Africa. In January 2020, he was recognized as one of the Top 4 Most Influential Persons in Technology in Africa by Les Echos (the French equivalent of the Financial Times). Zach was formerly the head of Africa Investments for U-Start – the largest network of private Multi-Family offices in Europe. Prior to moving to South Africa, he was an investment banker on Wall Street covering mergers & acquisitions, corporate finance strategy and risk management at Lehman Brothers and Barclays Capital, New York. Zach has a Master’s degree in Finance & Management from Stanford University and a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology. Outside of his professional life, Zach is an acoustic guitarist, pianist and vocalist with cover albums ‘Give A Little’ (2010) and ‘Humans with Hearts’ (2018) on iTunes and Spotify. He is an avid lover of theatre and the performing arts, likes hiking and a good game of tennis and squash. He enjoys creative writing and is currently busy finishing a work of non-fiction.

Ntlai holds a B.Sc. (Electrical) Engineering from University of the Witwatersrand, a Graduate Diploma in Industrial Engineering also from WITS, and completed the non-certificated Deloitte Executive Development Programme at GIBS (University of Pretoria). He brings more than 15 years of experience in investment banking and coverage focused on SA power and infrastructure projects for the largest commercial bank by assets in Africa. As Partner at Deloitte for several years Ntlai led the team serving Government departments and State-Owned Enterprise in South Africa before joining Standard Bank as Corporate Finance executive in 2008. From 2009-13 Ntlai was Head of Power & Infrastructure Advisory SA, for Standard Bank CIB, where he led project financial advisory, debt and equity raising for clients prior to heading coverage from 2013-2017. Notable clients include Eskom, Transnet, SAA, Rand Water, TCTA and CIG. In this role he also engaged extensively with regional Power utilities in the SAPP including NamPower, Eskom in SA, ZPC in Zimbabwe, EDM in Mozambique, ZESCO in Zambia, EEP in Ethiopia and CEC in Zambia.

Wayne has 30+ years of international trade and investment promotion experience and expertise, with a particular focus on mining. He worked previously with the South African Department of Trade and Industry in Toronto and the Sudbury Regional Development Corporation. He has organized numerous delegations at international trade shows, trade missions and conferences including; the annual MineAfrica pavillion at PDAC, MinExpo in Las Vegas, Electra Mining, and the Canadian Institute of Mining, as well as high profile ministerial and trade delegations to Canada. He is a current Board Member (and past Chairman) of The Canada-Africa Chamber of Business, Past President of the Canadian Italian Business and Professional Association of Canada and a current member of The Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC). Wayne holds an Honours Bachelor of Commerce degree from Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ontario - a world centre for mining and mining technology.

Sebastian SPIO Garbrah is Head of the AfCFTA Unit for Free Trade at The Canada-Africa Chamber of Business, and the former Chair of the organization's board. He is the Global Managing Director & Chief Frontier Markets Analyst at DaMina Advisors. He has been recognized as one of the world’s leading frontier markets analysts, was voted among the ‘Top 30 under 30 Analysts’ by New York’s Institutional Investor Magazine in 2006. Sebastian helped establish the Africa risk research practice at leading global political risk consultancy firm, Eurasia Group LLC in New York, London (UK) and Tokyo, and concurrently served as a sovereign risk analyst on Sub-Saharan Africa’s two largest economies, Nigeria and South Africa for a novel global stability index developed by Eurasia Group with Lehman Brothers, Deutsche Bank, and subsequently, with Citigroup between 2005 and 2010. Since 2010, Sebastian has been Global Managing Director & Chief Frontier Markets Analyst at DaMina Advisors where he advises the boards, CEOs and portfolio managers of many of the world’s leading multinationals and largest institutional investors on Africa. A prolific writer and an ambidextrous thinker, Sebastian also advised former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair’s Commission on Africa. Sebastian sits on several boards. He holds a B.A (double) in Economics and Political Science from Middlebury College, Vermont and a Juris Doctor (J.D) in law from Rutgers University, New Jersey.

Lori Kerr joined FinDev Canada as Chief Executive Officer in June 2021. A Canadian national, she is a widely experienced international development finance professional with more than two decades of leadership in private investment in emerging markets with a focus on sustainable infrastructure, climate finance, and blended finance. Ms. Kerr joined FinDev Canada by way of the Global Infrastructure Facility at the World Bank in Washington, DC, where she was responsible for corporate strategy, thought leadership, partnerships, and international engagement for the largest global fund advising developing country governments on the preparation and structuring of commercially viable infrastructure projects. Previously, Ms. Kerr served as Senior Director at Climate Finance Advisors developing low-carbon, climate-resilient investment strategies and blended finance solutions to mobilize private capital in developing countries. She also spent 18 years at the Inter-American Development Bank Group serving in management and senior investment roles where she spearheaded strategic initiatives to support the expansion and development impact of private sector activities as well as private sector transaction origination, structuring, and asset management. Ms. Kerr also spent 14 years as an Adjunct Professor of International Project Finance and Investment at the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in Washington, D.C. Ms. Kerr holds an Honours Bachelor degree from the University of Western Ontario and an International MBA from the Schulich School of Business at York University. Lori Kerr s'est jointe à FinDev Canada à titre de chef de la direction en juin 2021. De nationalité canadienne, Mme Kerr est une professionnelle du financement du développement avec plus de deux décennies d’expérience en investissement privé dans les marchés en développement, dotée d’une expertise fine dans les domaines des infrastructures durables, des changements climatiques et du financement mixte. Mme Kerr s’est jointe à FinDev Canada par le biais du Mécanisme mondial de financement des infrastructures à la Banque mondiale à Washington, D.C., où elle était responsable de la stratégie d’entreprise, du leadership de connaissances, des partenariats et de l’engagement international pour le plus important fonds global devant conseiller les gouvernements de différents pays sur la préparation et la structuration de projets d’infrastructures commerciales viables. Mme Kerr a occupé le poste de directrice principale à Climate Finance Advisors, où elle a élaboré des stratégies d’investissement sobres en carbone et résilientes aux changements climatiques et des solutions de financement mixte pour mobiliser des capitaux privés dans les pays en développement. Elle a aussi passé 18 ans à la Banque interaméricaine de développement, où elle y a tenu plusieurs rôles de gestion et a dirigé des initiatives stratégiques visant à soutenir la croissance et l’impact des activités du secteur privé ainsi que l’origination, la structuration et la gestion d’actifs pour des transactions du secteur privé. Pendant 14 ans, Mme Kerr a aussi occupé le rôle de professeure associée, investissement et financement de projets internationaux à l’école des services diplomatiques de l’université de Georgetown à Washington, D.C. Mme Kerr détient un baccalauréat avec distinction de l’université de Western Ontario et une maîtrise internationale en administration des affaires de la Schulich School of Business à l’université York.