Board of Directors

Runa Alam

 Co-Chair

Runa is a Co-Founding Partner and CEO of DPI. She has 28 years of investment banking, emerging market management and private equity experience. For the three years before starting DPI, Runa was Chief Executive of two African private equity funds run in parallel:  the Zephyr Management African Investment Fund (“ZMAIF”), a joint venture between Zephyr Management of New York and Prince Al-Waleed’s Kingdom Holdings, and the Pan-African Investment Partners and the Pan Commonwealth Africa Partners (“PAIP/PCAP”) funds, sponsored by the IFC and the Commonwealth Secretariat.  Runa continues to serve on the Eaton Venture LLP and UBA Board of Directors, and has previously served on the Letshego Holdings Limited and Celtel Board of Directors. Runa was formerly a Director of the AIG Africa Infrastructure Fund, managed by Emerging Market Partnership in Washington, and has “on-the-ground” management experience in emerging markets having founded and managed both Peregrine Bangladesh and Union Capital Bangladesh in the 1990s. Runa started her career in New York working for investment banks including Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch, where she worked in mergers and acquisitions and corporate and tax-exempt finance. She holds a BA in International and Developmental Economics from the Woodrow Wilson School of Princeton University (1981) and an MBA from the Harvard Business School (1985) and was also a Harry S. Truman Congressional Scholar.Runa is a member of the Emerging Market Private Equity Associations Advisory Board and Africa Panel. She is a member of the Millennium Promise’s UK Board and is on the Advisory Board of the Tony Elumelu Foundation.

 Simon Walker

 Special Advisor to the Board

Simon Walker is the Director General of the Institute of Directors. He previously served as the Chief Executive Officer of the British Private Equity and Venture Capital Association. Mr Walker brings a wealth of business experience and political insight. As well as the previous holder of senior executive positions at Reuters, British Airways, and Brunswick Group, he is a council member of the European Policy Forum and a former member of the Better Regulation Commission. He also served in Buckingham Palace as Communications Secretary to The Queen and at No.10 Downing Street as a Special Adviser to Prime Minister John Major.

 Hakim Khelifa

 Hakim Khelifa is an Executive Partner of Tuninvest in charge of the AfricInvest Funds. Hakim has over 10 years experience in private equity including sourcing, negotiating, structuring and executing private equity transactions in Northern and Sub-Saharan Africa. Hakim has also structured several exits from portfolio companies and sits on the board of many portfolio companies. Prior to joining Tuninvest in 1999, Hakim was Senior Analyst Auditor at the auditors firm Mazars, Paris, France, specialized in damage insurance and valuation. Hakim is a graduate of the French engineering school Ecole des Mines de Paris. In addition to serving as a board member of the African Venture Capital Association, Hakim is an active member of the Tunisian Venture Capital Association.

 Tokunboh Ishmael

   

Tokunboh has worked in the USA, UK and Africa. She is a co-founder of Alitheia Capital, an investment management and advisory firm focused on channeling private equity investments into businesses and real estate assets to enhance access to finance, energy and housing for the excluded at the base of the economic pyramid. Her previous roles include Managing Director of Avante Capital Ltd where she advised on a number of acquisitions in the oil and gas sector including the acquisition and financing of a government owned refinery, and led the first secondary listing of a Nigerian company on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. Prior to Avante, she was the Nigeria Country Partner for Aureos Capital where she successfully raised funding to complete a USD50m fundraising exercise for the Aureos West Africa Fund and sourced private equity investments. Other previous roles include M&A banker at Salomon Smith Barney. Tokunboh is a Chartered Financial Analyst, a member of the CFA Institute and a panelist on the TV show Dragons Den Nigeria.

Okechukwu (Okey) Enelamah

Okey Enelamah is the Chief Executive Officer of African Capital Alliance (ACA). With five funds and over USD500 million under management, ACA is a leading independent private equity firm investing in West Africa. ACA principally invests in Nigeria and countries in the Gulf of Guinea. Funds under management include Capital Alliance Private Equity I, II & III and Capital Alliance Property Investment Company L.P. Okeys' revious private equity experience was gained from Zephyr Management L.P. and South Africa Capital Growth Fund in New York and Johannesburg respectively. Prior to his career in private equity, Okey worked for Arthur Andersen and Goldman Sachs. After first qualifying as a medical doctor, he qualified as a chartered accountant in Nigeria. He has an MBA from the Harvard Business School and is a Chartered Financial Analyst. Okey currently serves on the boards of a number of ACA investee companies including Cornerstone Insurance Plc and Businessday Media Limited. He also chairs the Boards of Flavours Food Limited and Landmark Property Development Company (LPDC).

  Anthony Siwawa

 Anthony is the founder and Managing Director of Venture Partners Botswana, (VPB) and is regarded as a pioneer in the field of venture capital in Botswana. Prior to establishing VPB, he worked in consulting and financial management in Johannesburg, South Africa, with Deloitte and Touche, where he was involved in the establishment of a regional private equity fund capitalised at USD100M. He later joined the fund and was involved in the conclusion of transactions in Zimbabwe, Namibia, Zambia and Angola. He is an MBA graduate from the University of Chicago, Booth School of Business, a Computer Science graduate of Aston University Birmingham (UK) and  a qualified Chartered Certified Accountant (ACCA). He also serves as a director in numerous companies.