Panel -- Private Equity: Financing Africa's Successful Enterprises
| Panel Summary: In the past few years, investors have increasingly looked to |
 Rotimi OyekanmiManaging Director Renaissance Partners |
| Rotimi joined Renaissance Partners as Managing Director of Renaissance Partners based in Lagos, Nigeria in July 2007. Rotimi is focuses exclusively on identifying and making investments in Companies with high-growth potential and controllable risks that allows Renaissance Partners to create value by utilizing its strong skill base and access to world-class professionals. Rotimi has been involved in Private Equity/Venture Capital for 25 years. Most recently with African Capital Alliance serving at various times as Chief Investment Officer, CEO, SME Manager Limited and Investment Principal in the Capital Alliance Private Equity Fund (first structured fund in Nigeria). Other experiences were with Ventures and Trusts Limited (V&T), a venture capital firm from 1992 – 1998 as Executive Director responsible for project finance and venture capital management, Prime Merchant Bank in charge of strategic planning and venture capital management, Chief Internal Auditor of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), an international agricultural research institute, associated with World Bank, with operations all over Africa and Arthur Andersen as an auditor and financial consultant. Rotimi is Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria winning several prizes during the qualifying examinations. He has an undergraduate degree in Economics from the University of Ibadan (1981) and a postgraduate degree in Operations Research from the London School of Economics (1983). Rotimi is currently the President of the Venture Capital Association of Nigeria (VCAN) as well as a Director of the African Venture Capital Association (ACVA). Rotimi is Chairman of the AVCA Committee for ensuring an Enabling Environment Committee for Private Equity/Venture Capital in Africa. |
 Kayode AkinolaHelios Investment Partners |
| Kayode, a Nigerian and German national, joined Babatunde Soyoye and Tope Lawani at Helios Investment Partners in 2004. Key transactions for Kayode at Helios to date include the start up of Helios Towers Nigeria Ltd., an investment in First City Monument Bank in Nigeria and most recently an investment in Equity Bank in Kenya. Prior to joining Helios, Kayode was an Investment Executive at private equity group Investcorp in London, where he worked on sourcing, structuring and executing leveraged buy-out transactions across Europe. Before Investcorp, Kayode was an Associate in the European Acquisition Finance Division of Deutsche Bank in London, where he completed debt financings for leveraged buy-outs. Kayode started his career as a Business Infrastructure Manager with JP Morgan in London. Kayode completed his primary education in Nigeria and his secondary education in London where he later obtained a LLB (Hons) in Law from the University College London. Kayode speaks English, German and French. |
 Hurley DoddyCOO Emerging Capital Partners |
| Hurley Doddy has served as chief operating officer of Emerging Capital Partners (ECP) since 2005. As COO, Doddy oversees the operations of Africa Fund I and Africa Fund II and is actively involved in the investment committees of the Central Africa Growth Fund, the West Africa Growth Fund, and the Moroccan Infrastructure Fund. Prior to ECP's spinout from EMP Global (EMP), Doddy served as a director, overseeing the investments of Africa Fund I since 1999. Prior to joining EMP, 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. Doddy's career in trading began at Salomon Brothers in 1984, lasting over 14 years with assignments in New York, Tokyo and Sao Paulo. While at Salomon, Doddy gained a wealth of experience in government bond trading, hedge management, fixed income derivatives, equity derivatives, and emerging markets trading. Doddy was appointed managing director, responsible for managing all fixed income and equity risk positions for Solomon's joint venture with Banco Patrimônio in Brazil. In this position, he also oversaw the asset management, equity underwriting and customer fixed income businesses. During Doddy's tenure, the bank produced an annualized return of over 50 percent, grew from 15 to 160 employees, and increased assets from $4mm to $250mm. 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 Celtel International (Pan-African), Charaf Corporation (Morocco), Agromed S.A. (Tunisia), Continental Re (Nigeria), All Africa Airways (Mauritius), Air Ivoire (Cote d'Ivoire), Société Internationale de Plantations d'Hévéas (West Africa), and Horizon Portfolio Limited (Cayman Islands). |
 Nabil N. El-HageProfessor of Management Practice Harvard Business School |
| Nabil N. El-Hage is a Professor of Management Practice at Harvard Business School in the Finance Area. He first joined the HBS faculty in 1984, immediately after obtaining his MBA from the School, and taught the required MBA finance course in 1984-85. Prior to returning to HBS in 2003, El-Hage gained experience in private equity and venture capital with TA Associates and Advent International, as well as on the operating side, as CFO of Back Bay Restaurant Group. He also served as Chairman and CEO of Jeepers! Inc., a private equity-financed national chain of indoor theme parks with $40 million in revenues, for nearly ten years. El-Hage also has experience with McKinsey & Company, Inc., where he was a Research Consultant before business school. El-Hage has served on a dozen boards of private and public companies, ranging from start-ups to over $200 million in revenues. He has served as president of the Yale Club of Boston from 2005 until June 2007. He is currently the independent Chairman of the MassMutual Premier Funds, a $13 billion mutual fund complex. El-Hage graduated cum Laude from Yale University with a degree in electronic engineering (1980), and earned his MBA with the Highest Honors, as a Baker Scholar, from Harvard Business School in 1984, where he was awarded the Henry Ford Foundation Award for the Best First-Year academic record, the Loeb-Rhoades Fellowship for Excellence in Finance, the Copeland (Marketing) Award nomination, and a Dean's Doctoral Fellowship. El-Hage lives in Weston with his wife, Lucy, who is also a member of the HBS Class of 1984. They have two children, Nelson, an undergraduate at MIT, and Bea, a freshman at Harvard College. |