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Private Equity and the African Growth Story
Coordinators: Kim Kamarebe and Kwabena Osei-Kusi
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Hurley Doddy
Managing Director and Co-CEO, Emerging Capital Partners (ECP)
Hurley Doddy is a Managing Director, Founding Partner and Co-CEO of Emerging Capital Partners (ECP). With six funds and over $1.6 billion under management, ECP is a leading private equity manager focused exclusively on Africa. Headquartered in Washington DC, ECP has six offices across Africa and a ten-year track record of successful investment in companies operating in over 40 countries on the continent. As CEO, Mr. Doddy oversees the operations of Africa Funds I, II & III and is actively involved in the investment committees of the Central Africa Growth Fund and the Moroccan Infrastructure Fund.
Subsequent to joining the ECP team in 1999, Mr. Doddy was an Executive Director at Sumitomo Finance International in London, where he managed the operations of a $200mm equity risk arbitrage book, creating arbitrage and convergence strategies. Mr. Doddy’s career in finance began at Salomon Brothers in 1984, lasting over 14 years with assignments in New York, Tokyo and Sao Paulo. While at Salomon, Mr. Doddy gained a wealth of experience in government bond trading, hedge management, fixed income derivatives, equity derivatives, and emerging markets trading. In 1997, Mr. Doddy was appointed a Managing Director of Salomon Brothers, responsible for managing all fixed income and equity risk positions for Banco Patrimônio, Salomon’s joint venture in Brazil. In this position, he also oversaw the asset management, equity underwriting and customer fixed income businesses. Mr. Doddy received a bachelor’s degree in economics with honors from Princeton University and holds a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation from the CFA Institute. He has served on the boards of Financial Bank (West Africa), Celtel International (Pan-African), Charaf Corporation (Morocco), Agromed S.A. (Tunisia), Financial Bank (West Africa), Continental Reinsurance (Nigeria), All Africa Airways (Mauritius), Air Ivoire (Cote d’Ivoire), Société Internationale de Plantations d’Hévéas (SIPH) (West Africa), and Horizon Portfolio Limited (Cayman Islands). |
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Seyi Owodunni
Partner, Kingdom Zephyr Africa Management (KZAM)
Seyi Owodunni is a Partner at Kingdom Zephyr Africa Management (KZAM), an Africa focused private equity firm, which he joined in 2009. At KZAM Seyi has primary responsibilities for working with the portfolio companies in an operating capacity to achieve their various objectives including growth, international expansion, margin improvement, corporate governance enhancement, etc. Additionally, Mr. Owodunni is involved in the investment phase in both a deal sourcing and opportunity evaluation capacity.
Prior to joining Kingdom Zephyr, Mr. Owodunni served as Chief Finance Officer of Starcomms Plc, the fourth largest telecommunications operator in Nigeria and the market leader in providing “triple play” services including mobile voice, fixed wireless voice and wireless data products.. During his tenure, Seyi was responsible for overhauling the capital structure of the company via raising over $190 million of long-term debt, $60 million of equity financing from its private shareholders between 2005 and 2007 and ultimately the raising of $550 million in primary and secondary equity offers via a private placement and subsequent listing on the Nigerian Stock Exchange.
Before returning to Nigeria in 2003, Mr. Owodunni worked for five years with Lucent Technology Ltd, an American Telecommunication Equipment Manufacturer headquartered in New Jersey, USA, in various capacities. Initially, he worked in the Mergers & Acquisitions area, advising the various Strategic Business Unit Executives on the multitude of acquisition transactions Lucent completed between 1998 and 2000. Subsequently, Mr. Owodunni worked within Lucent's Optical Networking Business Unit as a Product Manager responsible for profit and losses on core transmission networking products, with annual sales of over $285 million.
Prior to enrolling for his MBA at Harvard Business School, Mr. Owodunni worked as a Certified Public Accountant with KPMG Peat Marwick LLP in Washington D.C where in his capacity as a senior auditor in the financial services group he performed financial consulting services for clients including retail banks, savings institutions, thrifts and insurance corporations.
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Yemi Lalude
Managing Partner, Adlevo Capital
Yemi Lalude is the founder and Managing Partner of Adlevo Capital, a private equity firm, with offices in Lagos and Johannesburg, focused on investments into technology-enabled businesses in sub-Saharan Africa. Prior to founding Adlevo Capital, Mr. Lalude was a Principal at Granite Global Ventures (GGV), a leading Silicon Valley-based expansion stage venture capital firm focused on technology related investments in the U.S. and China. He joined GGV as an early employee on its first fund and sponsored
ten investments across three funds during his time with the firm.
Mr. Lalude joined GGV from Siebel Systems where he managed, and was instrumental in, the start-up of the customer satisfaction product line. He started his career with Hewlett-Packard where he held engineering and leadership positions in the manufacturing and R&D functions of the inkjet printer business. Mr. Lalude was part of the core group of employees who started and built Hewlett-Packard’s Specialty Printing Systems business.
Mr. Lalude received a BSc in Mechanical Engineering (First Class Division) from the University of Lagos, Nigeria, an MS in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University, and an MBA from Harvard Graduate School of Business.
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Folabi Ayoola - Moderator
Co-founder and Managing Partner, Octave Partners
Prior to co-founding Octave Partners, Mr. Ayoola worked at Travant Capital Partners, a Nigeria based private equity firm that invests in medium sized companies within West & Central Africa, where he played a critical role on the investment team.
Prior to his private equity experience, Mr. Ayoola had professional experiences as an engineer and a management consultant at Halliburton, Merck, AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals and Booz & Company in the United States.
Mr. Ayoola holds an MBA from the Harvard Business School and a Bachelors of Science in Chemical Engineering from the University of Houston. Mr. Ayoola also enjoys traveling and mentoring high school and college students.
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