THE NIF TEAM
– Investing for social impact in Africa. The team is deeply rooted both in the Nordic and East African investment and entrepreneurship ecosystems as well as global impact investment and impact-linked finance networks.
Diverse and complementary backgrounds
We are a women-led fund manager with a core team of five professionals, five nationalities, 80% women, and our team comprises experience from the financial sector, NGOs, development institutions, public and private sectors as well as across the Nordics and East Africa.
Global reach and local anchorage
The team is deeply rooted both in the Nordic and East African investment and entrepreneurship ecosystems as well as global impact investment and impact-linked finance networks.
Transaction, business development, and strategic experience
Together the team represents +80 years of transaction, business development, and strategy consulting experience in emerging markets.
Lisbeth Stausholm Zacho
Managing Partner – Copenhagen
Lisbeth is the founder of Nordic Impact Funds and is working tirelessly towards mobilizing capital for the development agenda. She spans very broadly in her skill set. She has a strong understanding of the macroeconomic environment, solid financial skills and expertise in international development.
She is a former central banker, an IMF economist and a World Bank consultant and was a Deputy CEO of a leading international NGO, SOS Children’s Villages, and developed ground-breaking innovative finance solutions for Red Cross.
She holds an MSc in Economics from the University of Copenhagen and an MBA from Henley Business School, UK.
Olivia Byanyima
Regional Director – Kampala
Olivia has a deep passion for cultivating businesses from their earliest stages. Before joining NIF, Olivia garnered experience as an investment banker, entrepreneur, and consultant.
Beyond her professional pursuits, she finds joy in the realms of musical arts and design (a secret creative at heart).
Olivia brings her wealth of experience to NIF, contributing to portfolio management and advisory roles.
We are leveraging her extensive background in finance and entrepreneurship to bolster the global presence and local impact of NIF. Her expertise in supporting high-growth entrepreneurs will further fortify our investments and collaboration with portfolio companies.
Olivia is on the IC of UNCDFs investment fund and has done transaction advisory for World Bank and Manufacturing Africa (with McKinsey and BDO).
Anne Katrine
Buch Vedstesen
Investment Director – Copenhagen
AK is passionate about mobilizing more capital and resources to impact enterprises that generate tangible and meaningful outcomes for the low-income population in Africa.
Before joining NIF, AK was based in Nairobi where she headed iGravity’s impact management team and learned a great deal about measuring and managing impact in a credible, efficient, and action-oriented way. Building on this experience, her work at NIF revolves around impact strategy, value creation, and investment management.
Outside work, you’ll find AK walking her dog, swimming in the ocean, hiking mountains, learning about regenerative agriculture, and looking for any excuse to visit her former home in Nairobi.
Her passion and expertise making impact a natural consideration in any investment decision continues to strengthen our impact and investments in East Africa.
Kevin Mpapasingo
Investment Analyst – Copenhagen
Kevin is passionate about supporting Africa’s entrepreneurs through investing, and building partnerships, innovation ecosystems, and operations.
Before joining NIF, Kevin worked at the World Bank, where he also co-led a WB Tanzania Youth Voices initiative, Generation Sasa Accelerator program for pre-seed college innovators. He spent short times working at the UNEP-DHI Centre on Water and Environment, the Embassy of Tanzania in Berlin, and Microsoft Africa. At NIF, Kevin focuses on portfolio analysis and financial support.
Outside work, he enjoys music/DJing, festivals, reading, traveling, rugby, and outdoor activities.
His passion and experience in international development and innovative ecosystem continue to strengthen our work in East Africa.
Micheline Ntiru
Senior Advisor – Nairobi
Micheline has over 23 years of professional experience in development finance, impact and venture capital investment, business advisory and private sector development in Africa, Asia, Asia Pacific, the Caribbean, Europe, Latin America and the United States.
She is currently Managing Director at Convergence Africa and was formerly manager at IFC, Business Advisor at Stanford Seed and Manager at Nokia.
She is also a member of the Investment Committee for Kenya Climate Ventures (KCV) as well as a non-executive director of the boards of a gender lens fund ATG Samata and I&M Bank Uganda.
Micheline holds an MBA from the University of Cambridge, UK.
Steen Løndal
Member of the IC – Copenhagen
Steen is a senior executive, board member and investor with an international background having lived and worked in Asia, Americas and Europe. Throughout his career, he has worked with a focus on value creation, safety and impact through business development, innovation, partnerships and M&A.
Steen holds an MSc in Economics as well as a master’s degree in East Asian Studies from the University of Aarhus, Denmark supplemented this with leadership programmes from Vlerick, INSEAD and IMD
Henrik Kähler
Member of the IC – Copenhagen
Impact investor and board member helping startups solve global challenges in Africa.
Henrik has joined our fund and board and brings in valuable experience as board member, founder and investor in several start-ups focused on solving challenges in Africa.
Christian Friis Bach
Chairman of the Advisory Board
– Copenhagen
Christian is an experienced executive within the field of international development. Throughout his career, he has worked to solve the challenges of international development through innovation, entrepreneurship and commercial partnerships. He has an academic background as associate professor in Development Economics and has served as Chairman of the Danish Association for International Cooperation (Mellemfolkeligt Samvirke) from 1997-2001, he took the seat as International Director of DanChurchAid from 2005-2010.
Being an entrepreneur, he established the companies Viewworld and Worldbarrow. In 2006, Christian was elected to the Parliament of Denmark (Folketinget). Here, he served as the deputy parliamentary group leader of the Social Liberal Party and as the party’s spokesperson on foreign affairs. During that time, he was also a member of the Prime Minister’s Commission on Effective Development Cooperation with Africa. From 2011 to 2013, he served as Minister for Development Cooperation of Denmark. In 2014, Friis Bach was appointed Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) and held this position until 2017, when he was appointed Secretary General of the Danish Refugee Council (DRC). He holds a Ph.D. in International Economics (1996) and an MSc in Agronomics (1992) from the Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University in Copenhagen.
Humphrey Wattanga
Member of the Advisory Board – Nairobi
Humphrey is a financial transaction expert with deep knowledge and experience in M&A and transaction advisory all over South and East Africa.
He gained extensive experience in education, agri-business and financial infrastructure as he designed and rolled out the world’s first mobile-only government bond, Makiba, structured a social impact bond for early childhood development, co-founded a chain of STEM-schools (Nova Pioneers) and taken a Kenyan entertainment group through an IPO.
He is currently Director General at the Kenya Revenue Authority and serves on the IC of Kenya Climate Ventures. He has been Senior Partner of Afcorp Investments, a specialist Pan African private investment banking and advisory company for the past 15 years. He holds a BSc from Harvard University and an MBA from The Wharton School.
Duncan Onyango
Member of the Advisory Board – Nairobi
Duncan has been engaged in more than 40 impact investment deals in East Africa, including 12 exits with an average USD IRR of 17%. He is currently the CEO of Trade Catalyst Africa. Former director of Acumen, East Africa, started SUED (Sustainable Urban Economic Development) funded by the British Government, and has invested on behalf of Pharo Ventures throughout East Africa.
Duncan is also the Chair of KIFFWA (Kenya Innovative Finance Facility for Water) and has held several board positions within the impact investing community. He holds an MSc from Oxford University.
Rikke Schiøtt Petersen
Legal Advisor – Copenhagen
Rikke is a Partner and member of the Board of Directors of Gorrissen Federspiel, one of the leading law-firms in Denmark. Rikke advises clients within a wide range of sectors on capital markets transactions, corporate reorganizations and mergers and acquisitions including public takeovers. Rikke also specializes in the fields of securities law, corporate governance, remuneration and incentive programs with a particular focus on listed companies. Rikke joined Gorrissen Federspiel in 1996.
She was a foreign associate with Cravath Swain & Moore in 2001-2002 and she became a partner in 2006. Since 2015, she is a member of the Danish Corporate Governance Committee established by the Danish Ministry of Business and Growth.
She is also appointed as legal expert appointed to the Board of Directors of the Danish Financial Supervisory Authority, established by the Danish Ministry of Business and Growth.
Tanja Havemann
Member of the Advisory Board – Zurich
Tanja is a sustainable investments entrepreneur with over a decade of experience in the environmental finance sector, Tanja has worked with companies, Governmental, Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs) on investments, research, strategy development and advisory.
Tanja established Clarmondial (previously BeyondCarbon) in Zurich in May 2010 to facilitate investments linked to improved natural resource use efficiency, including payments for environmental services (e.g. carbon finance), climate smart agriculture, renewable energy, and sustainable forestry.
Tanja previously worked for Climate Change Capital (UK) and has carried out work for organizations including the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), GIZ and BAPPENAS, the Indonesian Ministry responsible for planning, the East African Community (EAC) and the World Economic Forum (WEF). Tanja is also the founder of the Food Securities Fund.
Tanja has an LLM in Environmental Law and Policy from the University of Kent, an MSc in Applied Environmental Economics (Imperial College London) and a BSc (Hons) in Tropical Environmental Science from the University of Aberdeen. She was born and grew up in Tanzania and Kenya.
Carsten Bjerg
Member of the Advisory Board – Copenhagen
Carsten has a strong commercial expertise in scaling and adding value to companies with a specific sector knowledge in the water industry.
He was for 17 years the CEO of Grundfos, the largest pump manufacturer in the world. Carsten has extensive experience in strategic management of an international company as well as extensive knowledge of R&D, production and sustainability. Today, Carsten serves as First Deputy Chairman of ROCKWOOL International A/S, a world leader in stone wool solutions.
He is also board member of University of Aarhus, Cowi, Agrometer A/S, Bogballe A/S (Chairman), Højgaard A/S (Vice Chairman), PCH Engineering A/S (Chairman), Ellegaard A/S (Chairman) and Guldager A/S (Chairman) and used to be on the board of Vestas and MT Højgaard.
Lisbeth Stausholm Zacho
Managing Partner – Copenhagen
Lisbeth is the founder of Nordic Impact Funds and is working tirelessly towards mobilizing capital for the development agenda. She spans very broadly in her skill set. She has a strong understanding of the macroeconomic environment, solid financial skills and expertise in international development.
She is a former central banker, an IMF economist and a World Bank consultant and was a Deputy CEO of a leading international NGO, SOS Children’s Villages, and developed ground-breaking innovative finance solutions for Red Cross.
She holds an MSc in Economics from the University of Copenhagen and an MBA from Henley Business School, UK.
Olivia Byanyima
Regional Director – Kampala
Olivia has a deep passion for cultivating businesses from their earliest stages. Before joining NIF, Olivia garnered experience as an investment banker, entrepreneur, and consultant.
Beyond her professional pursuits, she finds joy in the realms of musical arts and design (a secret creative at heart).
Olivia brings her wealth of experience to NIF, contributing to portfolio management and advisory roles.
We are leveraging her extensive background in finance and entrepreneurship to bolster the global presence and local impact of NIF. Her expertise in supporting high-growth entrepreneurs will further fortify our investments and collaboration with portfolio companies.
Olivia is on the IC of UNCDFs investment fund and has done transaction advisory for World Bank and Manufacturing Africa (with McKinsey and BDO).
Anne Katrine Buch Vedstesen
Investment Director – Copenhagen
AK is passionate about mobilizing more capital and resources to impact enterprises that generate tangible and meaningful outcomes for the low-income population in Africa.
Before joining NIF, AK was based in Nairobi where she headed iGravity’s impact management team and learned a great deal about measuring and managing impact in a credible, efficient, and action-oriented way. Building on this experience, her work at NIF revolves around impact strategy, value creation, and investment management.
Outside work, you’ll find AK walking her dog, swimming in the ocean, hiking mountains, learning about regenerative agriculture, and looking for any excuse to visit her former home in Nairobi.
Her passion and expertise making impact a natural consideration in any investment decision continues to strengthen our impact and investments in East Africa.
Kevin Mpapasingo
Investment Analyst – Copenhagen
Kevin is passionate about supporting Africa’s entrepreneurs through investing, and building partnerships, innovation ecosystems, and operations.
Before joining NIF, Kevin worked at the World Bank, where he also co-led a WB Tanzania Youth Voices initiative, Generation Sasa Accelerator program for pre-seed college innovators. He spent short times working at the UNEP-DHI Centre on Water and Environment, the Embassy of Tanzania in Berlin, and Microsoft Africa. At NIF, Kevin focuses on portfolio analysis and financial support.
Outside work, he enjoys music/DJing, festivals, reading, traveling, rugby, and outdoor activities.
His passion and experience in international development and innovative ecosystem continue to strengthen our work in East Africa.
Micheline Ntiru
Senior Advisor – Nairobi
Micheline has over 23 years of professional experience in development finance, impact and venture capital investment, business advisory and private sector development in Africa, Asia, Asia Pacific, the Caribbean, Europe, Latin America and the United States.
She is currently Managing Director at Convergence Africa and was formerly manager at IFC, Business Advisor at Stanford Seed and Manager at Nokia.
She is also a member of the Investment Committee for Kenya Climate Ventures (KCV) as well as a non-executive director of the boards of a gender lens fund ATG Samata and I&M Bank Uganda.
Micheline holds an MBA from the University of Cambridge, UK.
Steen Løndal
Member of the IC – Copenhagen
Steen Løndal has 24 years of management experience from the global food industry, in companies such as Danisco, Chr. Hansen, CSM Bakery Products, Associated British Foods and FrieslandCampina, based in England, Malaysia, Singapore and the Netherlands.
Steen holds a Cand.Oecon. from Aarhus University (and a Master’s degree in East Asian Studies) and supplemented this with programmes from Vlerick, INSEAD and IMD.
Throughout his career, Steen has been responsible for P&L for companies with a turnover from 89-1,000 EURm, and from 260 to 2,200 employees. Steen has helped companies increase earnings through growth (innovation and customer focus), optimisation (pricing, complexity reduction, production set-up, cost reductions and procurement projects).
In addition, he has been part of and completed 19 M&As (16 company acquisitions and integrations and 3 divestments).
Henrik Kähler
Member of the IC – Copenhagen
Impact investor and board member helping startups solve global challenges in Africa.
Henrik has joined our fund and board and brings in valuable experience as board member, founder and investor in several start-ups focused on solving challenges in Africa.
Christian Friis Bach
Chairman of the Advisory Board
– Copenhagen
Christian is an experienced executive within the field of international development. Throughout his career, he has worked to solve the challenges of international development through innovation, entrepreneurship and commercial partnerships. He has an academic background as associate professor in Development Economics and has served as Chairman of the Danish Association for International Cooperation (Mellemfolkeligt Samvirke) from 1997-2001, he took the seat as International Director of DanChurchAid from 2005-2010.
Being an entrepreneur, he established the companies Viewworld and Worldbarrow. In 2006, Christian was elected to the Parliament of Denmark (Folketinget). Here, he served as the deputy parliamentary group leader of the Social Liberal Party and as the party’s spokesperson on foreign affairs. During that time, he was also a member of the Prime Minister’s Commission on Effective Development Cooperation with Africa. From 2011 to 2013, he served as Minister for Development Cooperation of Denmark. In 2014, Friis Bach was appointed Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) and held this position until 2017, when he was appointed Secretary General of the Danish Refugee Council (DRC). He holds a Ph.D. in International Economics (1996) and an MSc in Agronomics (1992) from the Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University in Copenhagen.
Humphrey Wattanga
Member of the Advisory Board – Nairobi
Humphrey is a financial transaction expert with deep knowledge and experience in M&A and transaction advisory all over South and East Africa.
He gained extensive experience in education, agri-business and financial infrastructure as he designed and rolled out the world’s first mobile-only government bond, Makiba, structured a social impact bond for early childhood development, co-founded a chain of STEM-schools (Nova Pioneers) and taken a Kenyan entertainment group through an IPO.
He is currently Director General at the Kenya Revenue Authority and serves on the IC of Kenya Climate Ventures. He has been Senior Partner of Afcorp Investments, a specialist Pan African private investment banking and advisory company for the past 15 years. He holds a BSc from Harvard University and an MBA from The Wharton School.
Duncan Onyango
Member of the Advisory Board – Nairobi
Duncan has been engaged in more than 40 impact investment deals in East Africa, including 12 exits with an average USD IRR of 17%. He is currently the CEO of Trade Catalyst Africa. Former director of Acumen, East Africa, started SUED (Sustainable Urban Economic Development) funded by the British Government, and has invested on behalf of Pharo Ventures throughout East Africa.
Duncan is also the Chair of KIFFWA (Kenya Innovative Finance Facility for Water) and has held several board positions within the impact investing community. He holds an MSc from Oxford University.
Rikke Schiøtt Petersen
Legal Advisor – Copenhagen
Rikke is a Partner and member of the Board of Directors of Gorrissen Federspiel, one of the leading law-firms in Denmark. Rikke advises clients within a wide range of sectors on capital markets transactions, corporate reorganizations and mergers and acquisitions including public takeovers. Rikke also specializes in the fields of securities law, corporate governance, remuneration and incentive programs with a particular focus on listed companies. Rikke joined Gorrissen Federspiel in 1996.
She was a foreign associate with Cravath Swain & Moore in 2001-2002 and she became a partner in 2006. Since 2015, she is a member of the Danish Corporate Governance Committee established by the Danish Ministry of Business and Growth.
She is also appointed as legal expert appointed to the Board of Directors of the Danish Financial Supervisory Authority, established by the Danish Ministry of Business and Growth.
Tanja Havemann
Member of the Advisory Board – Zurich
Tanja is a sustainable investments entrepreneur with over a decade of experience in the environmental finance sector, Tanja has worked with companies, Governmental, Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs) on investments, research, strategy development and advisory.
Tanja established Clarmondial (previously BeyondCarbon) in Zurich in May 2010 to facilitate investments linked to improved natural resource use efficiency, including payments for environmental services (e.g. carbon finance), climate smart agriculture, renewable energy, and sustainable forestry.
Tanja previously worked for Climate Change Capital (UK) and has carried out work for organizations including the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), GIZ and BAPPENAS, the Indonesian Ministry responsible for planning, the East African Community (EAC) and the World Economic Forum (WEF). Tanja is also the founder of the Food Securities Fund.
Tanja has an LLM in Environmental Law and Policy from the University of Kent, an MSc in Applied Environmental Economics (Imperial College London) and a BSc (Hons) in Tropical Environmental Science from the University of Aberdeen. She was born and grew up in Tanzania and Kenya.
Kirstine Damkjær
Member of the Advisory Board – Copenhagen
Kirstine is an expert in development finance from a long career within IFC, the International Finance Corporation, where she was the Global Industry Head of Equity and held several other leadership positions.
Kirstine is currently the Assistant Secretary-General and Deputy Executive Director, Delivery and Partnerships of the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS).
She was the CEO of EKF, the Danish Export Credit Agency from 2019-2021. She is the Board Chair of Formuepleje and Aquapri and a member of the board of African Finance Corp, Pension Denmark, Bank Invest and Thomas Lloyd Energy Impact Trust.
Carsten Bjerg
Member of the Advisory Board – Copenhagen
Carsten has a strong commercial expertise in scaling and adding value to companies with a specific sector knowledge in the water industry.
He was for 17 years the CEO of Grundfos, the largest pump manufacturer in the world. Carsten has extensive experience in strategic management of an international company as well as extensive knowledge of R&D, production and sustainability. Today, Carsten serves as First Deputy Chairman of ROCKWOOL International A/S, a world leader in stone wool solutions.
He is also board member of University of Aarhus, Cowi, Agrometer A/S, Bogballe A/S (Chairman), Højgaard A/S (Vice Chairman), PCH Engineering A/S (Chairman), Ellegaard A/S (Chairman) and Guldager A/S (Chairman) and used to be on the board of Vestas and MT Højgaard.
