DaMina has assembled two-tiered high-impact teams comprised of some of Africa’s most preeminent risk analysts working together with a number of respected former senior government and business leaders.
SENIOR GLOBAL TEAM
Rt. Hon. Lord Paul Boateng, D.L. P.C – International Legal Counsel
Lord Boateng is a former British High Commissioner (ambassador) to South Africa, a former British Member of Parliament for Brent South, a former British Cabinet Minister and Chief Treasury Secretary in the Blair government. He is currently a peer in the British House of Lords as Baron Boateng of Wembly and Akyem. Lord Boateng was also a former UK minister in the Department of Health, a minister of State in the Home Office and Financial Secretary to the Treasury. Ambassador Boateng has been privy councilor to her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II since 1998. He is a solicitor and barrister admitted in England & Wales (Gray’s Inn) and is involved in many charitable organizations including the Prince of Wales Trust and Feed the Hungry.
H.E Dr Babacar Ndiaye, (Banking, Finance & Economic Development)
His Excellency Dr Babacar Ndiaye is the honorary president of the multibillion dollar African Development Bank, which he led as president from 1985 until 1995. Between 1980 and 1985, he was vice president of finance of the same institution. As president of the AfDB, Ndiaye moved the once conservative institution into a more proactive posture and pushed it to finance several multibillion dollar projects throughout Africa. Dr Ndiaye remains one of Africa's most seasoned bankers and has been appointed to many high level panels of the UN, AU and NEPAD. Dr Ndiaye is a graduate of the University of Toulouse and Sciences Po in France, and has received many high honors and awards throughout Africa.
H.E Former Prime Minister Kabine Komara, (Guinea, Sub-Saharan Africa, Finance)
His Excellency Kabine Komara is Guinea's former Prime Minister (2008 - 2010). He previously had held several executive positions at the Africa-Export-Import Bank in Egypt and several high positions within Guinea. Mr Komara asists DaMina clients with commercial interests in Guinea and elsewhere in Sub-Saharan Africa, especially in mining.
H.E Dr Ekwow Spio-Garbrah, (Ghana, Sub-Saharan Africa, Strategy)
His Excellency Dr Ekwow Spio-Garbrah is Ghana's former minister of mines and energy, education and communications. He is also Ghana's former ambassador to the USA and Mexico and former CEO of the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organization. Dr Spio-Garbrah is also a recent vice chairman of Ghana's ruling NDC party and president of Dominion University, Accra.
Hon. Ambassador Isaiah Chabala, (Great Lakes; CSR; Foreign Policy)
Ambassador Chabala is Zambia’s former ambassador to the United Nations, France, the European Union, Belgium, Luxemburg, Spain, Italy and Portugal. A three-decade veteran of the Zambian diplomatic service, Ambassador Chabala was also an under-secretary at the Zambian Ministry of Finance, Deputy Permanent Secretary (Economics and Finance), and speech writer for the Prime Minister of Zambia. Ambassador Chabala is currently CEO of Visionary Consulting Associates, a non-profit organization which has helped educate hundreds of HIV-AIDS orphans in central Africa. Chabala is also a member of the advisory board, Global Alliance for Women's Health, a member of the international advisory board, Voices of African Mothers, Inc. (VAM), a member of the advisory board, International Youth Council, a member of the Honorary Board of United Nations Ambassadors, United States Foundation for Peace In The Middle East and member of the advisory Board, Jewish Heart for Africa.
Hon. Victor Kasongo Shomary, (Extractive Commodities)
Honorable Victor Kasongo Shomary is the Democratic Republic of Congo's immediate past vice minister of mines and natural resources. He was, until his departure from the government of President Joseph Kabila, the principal architect of Congo's recent mining sector reforms. Prior to taking up the post of vice minister of mines and natural resources, he was a senior advisor to President Kabila on mining issues. During this time, Honorable Kasongo Shomary also served as the head of the Centre for Evaluation, Expertise & Certification in Kinshasa and as the CEO of Okimo, the country‟s state owned diamond conglomerate. Formerly, he worked as a senior consulting executive with Ernst & Young in South Africa.
H.E Dr Ablasse Ouedraogo, (Burkina Faso, Francophone West Africa, Extractive Commodities)
Respected Burkina Faso former foreign minister and former senior advisor to President Blaise Compaore (1994-1999), His Excellency Dr Ablasse Ouedrago has joined DaMina Advisors LLP as Senior Advisor in its West Africa natural resources consulting practice. Dr Ouedraogo is also first African to hold the position of Deputy Director General of the World Trade Organization. Dr Ouedraogo, currently executive chairman of Zoodo International, an Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso based international consultancy will assist DaMina Advisors senior staff in providing critical regulatory and political risk advice to global mining clients with investments in Burkina Faso and in the surrounding Sahelian nations. Dr Ouedraogo holds a PhD in economics from the University of Nice, France and was for many years a senior United Nations Development Program (UNDP) officer. Dr Ouedraogo has been decorated with the highest state honors of Gabon and his native Burkina Faso.
H.E Ambassador Chris Katsigazi, (Trade & East Africa)
Ambassador Chris Katsigazi joins DaMina Advisors with over 30 year’s experience at the highest levels of the Ugandan government and diplomatic posts. Katsigazi served as Permanent Secretary at the Ugandan Ministry of Foreign Affairs and earlier at the Ministry of Trade, Tourism and Industry. Katsigazi also served as Uganda’s permanent representative and ambassador to the United Nations.
H.E M. Max Bangoura, (Guinea, Francophone Africa)
His Dr M. Max Bangoura is Guinea's former minister for private sector development. Mr Bangoura asists DaMina clients with commercial interests in Guinea and elsewhere in francophone Africa, especially in mining.
Rita Gail Johnson, BA, MBA - Senior Advisor (Corporate Strategy)
Ms. Johnson is currently an independent management consultant and has previously held senior-level positions at Ernst & Young, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Eurasia Group. She has over 20 years of international corporate strategy, advisory and business development experience and is an active advisor to and member of several non-profit boards.
Bismarck Rewane, (Nigeria, Policy Risks; Financial Services)
Mr. Rewane is CEO of Nigeria’s most preeminent market research and consulting firm, Financial Derivatives. He was an informal advisor to former Nigerian President Umaru Yar’Adua on economic and financial regulation issues. Bismarck Rewane worked with the First National Bank of Chicago, where he rose to the level of a General Manager and Treasurer of the Bank, which later became the International Merchant Bank Nigeria Limited. He served as a Director of Lion Bank of Nigeria for seven years and Intercity Bank Limited for a period of five years. In addition to being on the Board of the First City Monument Bank, he is also currently on the Board of the First City Group, FCMB (UK) Ltd, Top Feeds Nigeria Limited, Delta Packaging Nigeria Limited, Seepec Nigeria Limited, Nigerian Economic Summit Group, Modant Marine Limited, Virgin Nigeria Airways Limited, Nigeria LNG Foundation, UBA Custodian Limited, UNIC Insurance Plc, Navgas (a Vitol subsidiary), and Guinness Nigeria Plc. Bismark holds a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Ibadan and is an Associate of The Institute of Bankers, England and Wales.
David Ensor, M.A, ACIB (Risks methodologies and analytics)
David Ensor who most recently held the position of Chief Credit Officer of Chartis, the general insurance business of American International Group (AIG), where he had responsibility for all credit-related risk assumed by Chartis worldwide has joined DaMina Advisors LLP (Ghana, US, UK) as a Senior Advisor. David will buttress DaMina’s political and regulatory risk research and advisory consulting capabilities. David will bring his talents to assist DaMina’s international clients in Africa, particularly those operating in the natural resources sector, to properly asses and manage rising, complex but diffused, political and regulatory risks. David will strengthen DaMina’s proprietary frontier markets political risk analytical methodologies and regulatory consulting models, with improved needs based risk assessments, project risk analyses, frontier markets business development planning and risk scenario analysis. Prior to David’s role at AIG-Chartis, his extensive international career in the UK, US, Canada and South Africa helped to build a number of senior business and risk management roles for major financial institutions such as, AIG, ANZ, Barclays and General Re. David holds a MA from Cambridge University, where he read Law at St. John’s College; and is also an Associate of the Chartered Institute of Bankers, London.
Hon. Conrad Enill, MBA, Energy finance & Carribean/Latin American Frontier Markets
Conrad Enill, a respected former minister of energy and finance of the Republic of Trinidad & Tobago has joined DaMina Advisors senior advisory team to strengthen the firm’s frontier markets energy and public finance consulting and research capabilities. Mr. Enill was also previously a governor for the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank, the International Development Association, the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) and Chair of the IMF G-24. Enil, who is a former chairman of a major political party of Trinidad, and a former senator was at various times also acting Foreign Affairs minister, Minister of Planning, Housing and the Environment, Minister of National Security, Minister of Education, Minister of Local Government, Minister of Trade and Industry, Minister of Science, Technology and Tertiary Education, Minister of Public Administration and Information, Minister of Agriculture. Enil is one of the Caribbean’s most experienced and respected public servants.
EXECUTIVE STAFF
Sebastian Spio-Garbrah, BA/BA, JD - Global Managing Director & Chief Analyst, Frontier Markets
Adjudged as one of the world’s leading frontier markets risk analysts, and voted among the ‘Top 30 under 30 Analysts’ by the New York’s Institutional Investor Magazine in 2006, Sebastian helped establish the multimillion dollar Africa risk advisory, consulting, and research practice at leading global risk consultancy firm, Eurasia Group in 2005. Sebastian Spio-Garbrah has been called by some frontier markets investors the “Meredith Whitney” of the 2008-2009 Nigerian banking crisis where his prescient risk analysis exactly forecasted the scope of the country's toxic bank assets and pending bank insolvencies – even at a time when the country’s central bank governor gave the country’s banks a clean bill of health.
Sebastian was between 2005 and 2010 the sovereign risk analyst on Nigeria and South Africa for a global Stability Index developed by Eurasia Group and Lehman Brothers, Deutsche Bank, and CitiBank. Sebastian has been quoted extensively by the international media and is renowned for his often accurate and ahead of-the-curve “calls” on major socio-political, regulatory and economic events in Africa. In early December 2010, before the start of the Arab Spring, Sebastian accurately forecasted the fall of the Egyptian Mubarak ragime. He has also made some bold, and very often correct calls on several closely competitive elections in Africa - Ghana 2008, Zambia 2011.
Sebastian’s keen insights, analyses and counsel is widely sought by global multinationals, governments and many financial intermediaries. DaMina's client list boasts several Fortune 500 companies as well as smaller firms with a global presence.
Previously, Sebastian was head of the energy unit within Thomson Financial's Capital Markets Strategic Intelligence Group in New York. He has informally advised UK Prime Minister Tony Blair’s Commission on Africa and is a Fellow of the Center for the Study of the Presidency in Washington DC. Sebastian is a former intern to U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT). Sebastian is also an advisory board member for Jewish Heart for Africa Inc, an international NGO which has provided solar technology and water purification services to over 150,000 African villagers. Sebastian is the Executive Chairman of the Gordon Guggisberg Ghana Jewish Friendship Foundation. Sebastian holds a B.A (double major) in Economics and Political Science from Middlebury College, Vermont and a J.D in law from Rutgers University, New Jersey.
Nicole E. Kearse, BA, MA, MA/JD - Deputy Managing Director & Head of Transnational Risks
Nicole has a wealth of international legal transactional knowledge having successfully practiced corporate law with top global firms - Shearman & Sterling; Baker & McKenzie and Curtis, Mallet-Prevost, Colt & Mosle. Nicole has advised on dozens of multimillion dollar cross-border corporate transactions and has provided valuable counsel to her Fortune 500 clients. Nicole is well travelled and has both an academic and personal interest in Africa having, in addition to receiving her Juris Doctor from the Georgetown University Law Center, received a Masters degree from Columbia University where she focused on francophone African culture and from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy where she focused on business development in sub-Saharan Africa.
Stephanie Dei, B.A, M.A - Vice President of Corporate Affairs
Stephanie is DaMina Advisors’s Vice President of Corporate Affairs, where she manages the company’s global corporate and communications platform across three continents. Stephanie has also worked extensively within the Canadian government and with various Africa-focused development organizations in Canada. Stephanie has a wealth of experience helping organize high profile events for various international organizations and NGOs in North America, Europe and Africa and recently assisted with the planning and organization of the Internet Governance Forum which hosted over 2,000 delegates in Nairobi, Kenya. Stephanie is the co-founder of the Africa Development Forum at The University of London, School of Africa and Oriental Studies; Co-founder of Re-Connect Ghana, a platform for connecting youth in Ghana with peers in the Ghanaian diaspora; and Executive Director of the Gordon Guggisberg Ghana-Jewish Friendship Foundation. Stephanie holds a B.A Honors in Political Science and Law from Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada and a M.A in International Studies and Diplomacy from SOAS, University of London.
Gonzalo Molina, M.A., J.D. - Director Caribbean & LatinAmericas Frontier Markets
Gonzalo Molina conducts insightful, forward-looking research into Latin American and Caribbean frontier markets, then translates that research into actionable investment intelligence. Prior to joining DaMina Advisors, Gonzalo conducted frontier market research in Nigeria, Cuba, and the United States Virgin Islands. He joins us from Duke University School of Law, where he concentrated on International and International Humanitarian law, and from which he concurrently earned a Master of Arts degree in International Relations. A national of Argentina, Cuba, and the United States, Gonzalo delivers both local insight and a global perspective.
Kodwo Adofo-Mensah, B.A (Hons), M.A - Economics Research Fellow
Kodwo joined is an economics research fellow at DaMina and is responsible helping formulate long-term macro economic analysis on several African economies. Prior to joining DaMina, Kodwo worked as an analyst at Pan African Capital Group, which provides investment banking advisory to companies in the frontier markets. He graduated from American University with a B.A in African Studies with a concentration in Development, and from Dartmouth College with a M.A in Economics. He’s also received training from the Tuck Global Business Bridge Program at Oxford University.
Michelle Sieff, Phd - Senior Politics Research Fellow
Michelle Sieff has a PhD in Political Science from Columbia University. She founded the Africa practice at Eurasia Group, a premier political risk consulting firm. She has worked on Africa for Human Rights Watch, the Revenue Watch Institute, and the American Jewish Committee. Her articles have appeared in the New York Sun, The Forward, the Wilson Quarterly, World Politics Review, World Policy Journal, and other publications.
Yaw Oduro-Frempong, BSc - Associate Director, Special Projects - Office of the Managing Director
Yaw serves as DaMina’s Associate Director of Special Projects, working directly with the Managing Director. Yaw applies his extensive high level global contacts and knowledge of the global commodities markets to DaMina’s research and consulting platform. He began his business career at the A&C Development Company during the construction of the first ultra modern shopping mall in Accra, Ghana – West Africa, and has since advised on several global transactions in the commodities space. Yaw attended Bryant University in Smithfield, Rhode Island where he served on the President’s Senior Advisory Council, whilst pursuing a degree in Applied Actuarial Mathematics, with a concentration in Economics and a minor in Business Administration.
