Board Members

Fred Ogana

Chairman

Fred Ogana is the founder and Managing Partner of the East Africa Market Development Associates Ltd, an enterprise development consulting firm that undertakes both short term and long-term implementation projects. He is a business development practitioner with over 20 years’ experience working with small and medium sized businesses in service, manufacturing and agribusiness sectors with expertise in setting up farmer-owned rural enterprises across the Eastern Africa region. He formally served as the Country Director of TechnoServe Inc. in Kenya prior to which he jointly founded an export and import company in partnership with a group of Prague based investors with whom they established and ran a successful flower export business. He holds a Honorary Bachelor of Commerce degree in Business Management from University of South Africa, Pretoria, and a Bachelor of Arts Business Studies and Sociology, from Kenyatta University, Nairobi. He serves on several Boards of regional and global non-profit organizations and social enterprises.

Godfrey Kaindoh

Director

Mr. Godfrey Kaindoh is an investment professional at Nordic Microfinance Initiative (NMI). He runs NMI’s Kenyan office and oversees its Sub–Saharan Africa investments. Kaindoh brings on board a wealth of experience in Finance and Investments.  Previously, he was the lead consultant and Chief Investment Officer at Unclaimed Financial Assets Trust Fund. Prior to that, he was a Senior Investment Analyst at ICDC (now KDC), a state owned DFI in Kenya, where he sourced, led and closed multiple transactions in diverse sectors in Kenya. Mr. Kaindoh started his career at the National Treasury – Kenya, where he doubled as an accountant and efficiency-monitoring officer (Economics & Finance). He sits on several boards including KWFT Bank and Progression Eastern African Microfinance Equity Fund. He holds a Master of Science degree in Financial Economics and a Bachelor’s degree in Business Management (Finance and Banking). He is also a Certified Public Accountant (Kenya) and has undergone Specialized Microfinance Training Programme in Italy with concentration in Development Finance.

Lone Søndergaard

Director

Mrs. Lone Søndergaard is an investment professional and social performance manager at Nordic Microfinance Initiative (NMI). She runs NMI’s Danish office and is involved in investments across NMI’s geographical focus areas i.e., Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, and Southeast Asia. She sit on the board of several of NMI’s MIV investments incl. Women’s World Banking and Goodwell West Africa. In addition, she manages NMI’s social performance activities incl. establishing processes and tools for due diligence, follow-up, and reporting of social performance. Prior to joining NMI in 2017, Lone was program and project manager at Danske Bank, working with operational excellence, process optimization and lean leadership. She started her career at MYC4, where she was responsible for establishing partnerships with African microfinance institutions, and thereafter, joined Fusion Investments, a British start-up investment firm focused on East Africa. She has taught microfinance at Copenhagen University and sits on the board of Danish Forum for Microfinance. Lone holds a Master’s Degree in International Business from Copenhagen Business School.

Wanjiru Waithaka

Director

Ms. Wanjiru Waithaka is the Regional Director Africa at Incofin IM where she leads the Africa team in making debt and equity investments in the financial inclusion, agriculture and water space. She began her career in audit and assurance working at PwC and PKF before moving to Ascent Capital as an analyst and worked her way up to investment director overseeing deployment, portfolio management and fund reporting. She holds a B.Sc in Statistics from the University of Nairobi, is a member of ACCA and a CFA charter holder.

Ben Wallingford

Director

Mr. Ben Wallingford is Investment Manager Africa – Debt Financial Institutions at Incofin IM. In this capacity, he leads end-to-end debt investment transactions in Africa, covering the investment cycle including deal sourcing, term sheet negotiation, due diligence, credit proposal writing, investment committee approval, transaction execution, and portfolio monitoring to assist investees in timely financial, compliance, and impact reporting, identifying risks and business development opportunities. Ben has >12 years of experience working in the financial inclusion sector since 2011 including as a short-term consultant with the World Bank. Ben previously worked for rating agencies specialized in financial inclusion for 9 years, conducting over 70 assignments in 25 countries designed to support investment decisions, including financial/credit ratings, social ratings, client protection certifications, GSMA mobile money certifications, deal sourcing, and other onsite evaluations of banks, MFIs, SME lenders, digital lenders, fintech companies, mobile money operators, asset-financing/leasing companies, and off-grid solar PAYGo companies. Ben holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from Ohio Wesleyan University (USA) and a Master’s degree in Leadership in Sustainable Finance from the Frankfurt School of Finance and Management (Germany).

Shiru Mwangi

Director

Shiru is the Acumen East Africa Regional Director. She has 25 years of experience and a deep understanding of markets, transactions, investing, agriculture, and managing large teams. She also owns her own farm she’s a grower and exporter, one that cares for the people that work with her.
Shiru worked her way up through the ranks in banking (investment banking, corporate banking, and treasury) until she became the Regional Head of Global Markets in East Africa for CfC Stanbic Bank in Kenya.

Prior to Acumen Shiru was the Head of Agriculture and Debt Financing at responsAbility, where she managed debt financing and investment in agribusiness in Africa. Shiru has a B.A. in Biology and Spanish from Amherst College and an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Anne Kimari

Director

Anne is the Principal Consultant and Founder of Finebridge Associates Ltd, a leading professional firm in providing Finance and Microfinance consultancy, Accounting, Taxation and Internal Audit services. She previously served as the Chief Operating Officer for African Academy of Sciences where she supported the Governing Council on financial and operational matters. She also served as the General Manager and Chief Executive Officer for Jabali Microserve Limited, a credit only financial institution. Anne has also served Faulu Kenya Microfinance Bank in various capacities namely Chief Finance Officer, Transformation Manger and Head of Internal Audit. She began her career at PricewaterhouseCoopers Ltd (PWC) where she rose to the position of Senior Associate 1 and later moved on to Exp Momentum Ltd as the Finance and Administration manager. Anne holds a MBA in Finance as well a BCom degree in Finance. She is a Fellow of ACCA (UK) Certificate as well as a CPA (K) certificate holder and a member of ICPAK. She also holds a Executive Certificate in SME Banking – Frankfurtschool – Germany.

Michael Nzule

Director

Michael is the Chief Strategy Officer at Mitchell Cotts Freight Kenya Limited. He has a strong background in corporate finance and strategy, accounting function management, business performance management and reporting, procurement, business development, operations management and investor relations, cutting across different industries. Prior to joining Mitchell Cotts, Michael worked with East African Breweries Limited, (EABL), where he served in many roles including Group Strategy & Planning Manager, Group Procurement Support Services Manager, EABL International Business Development and Operations Manager. Prior to joining EABL, Michael worked with PricewaterhouseCoopers as a Senior Manager and the service line leader for Finance, Accounting and Operations consulting. He also worked with Deloitte Consulting as a consultant in Strategy & Operations and Farmchem Limited as an Accountant. Michael has over 20 years’ experience in finance and strategy. He holds a Masters of Business and Administration (MBA) in Accounting (with marketing specialisation) and Bachelor of Commerce (Accounting Option) from the University of Nairobi. Michael is a member of the Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Kenya (ICPAK) and has served as a member of the Finance and Strategy Committee of the Institute.

Bernard Mutinda Kivava

Chief Executive Officer

Bernard joined Juhudi as Chief Executive Officer in 2015 bringing more than 15 years of experience in microfinance and project management in East Africa. Prior to Juhudi Kilimo, Bernard held numerous leadership positions, notably at Faulu Kenya as the Head of Business Development and as Chief Executive Officer of Letshego Rwanda Limited. During his tenure at Letshego and Faulu, Bernard played a pivotal role in supporting both companies achieve stunning business growth in a rapidly changing, competitive and demanding business environment. He has an MBA in Strategic Management from the University of Nairobi and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Moi University.