London, UK, Thursday 25th May 2017: The African Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (AVCA) today announces the appointment of Peter Baird, Managing Principal, Africa Private Equity at Investec Asset Management (Investec) to its Board of Directors. AVCA also announces a series of changes to the membership of the following advisory committees: Compliance & Best Practice Committee, Legal & Regulatory Committee (L&R) and its Francophone sub-Committee, and Sustainability Committee.
Peter Baird is responsible for developing and managing investments and relationships with existing portfolio companies across Africa. From 2011 to 2016, he led the African private equity business for Standard Chartered Bank, building a portfolio of approximately US$900mn and 11 portfolio companies. Prior to that, Peter was President of DJO, Inc., a US$3bn market capitalisation global medical-devices company owned by Blackstone. He was at McKinsey & Company in South Africa and the U.S. for 11 years, becoming a partner in the healthcare and private-equity practices.
Commenting on his appointment, Peter Baird, Managing Principal for Africa Private Equity at Investec, stated: I am deeply honoured to be joining the other industry veterans on the AVCA Board to further develop the private sector in Africa. At Investec, we are increasingly aware of our huge responsibility to the communities in which we work, and we hope we can continue to leverage our expertise and global network as we work together with the AVCA team to promote Africa as an excellent investment destination.
The new appointees to AVCA’s advisory committees are:
Compliance & Best Practice Committee
- Gbolahan Elias, Principal Partner, G. Elias & Co
- Premysl Trojan, Co-Founder, Clifftop Colony
Legal & Regulatory Committee
- Cindy Valentine, Partner, Simmons & Simmons London
Francophone sub-Committee of the Legal & Regulatory Committee
- Aurélie Pujo, Partner, Amethis Finance
- Monira Diallo, Investment Manager, AFIG Funds
Sustainability Committee
- Albert Alsina, Founder, CEO & Managing Partner, Mediterrania Capital Partners
- Orli Arav, Director of Investments, Open Society Foundations
Michelle Kathryn Essomé, Chief Executive Officer of AVCA, added: We are extremely delighted to welcome Peter to the Board, and the new committee members, as the industry continues to expand. Our advisory committees have all played a crucial role in the fulfilment of AVCA’s mandate to the industry. We look forward to an even greater year for African private equity.
The appointments come following the success of the 14th Annual AVCA Conference which took place in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire in April 2017.
For further information, please contact AVCA at: avca@avca-africa.org or +44 (0)20 3874 7008