Alberto Didoni

Alberto Didoni

Alberto is the founder and Managing Directorof Varcando Ltd, a consulting firm that provides advisory services to companies and investors on cross-border transactions and investment projects in emerging and frontier economies. After having spent a decade working for major international organizations such as The World Bank/IFC group in Central and Latin America and for a venture capital fund specialized in microfinance/SME lending in Sub-Saharan Africa, Alberto decided that it was time to leverage his know-how and network of contacts across emerging markets to help investors and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to cross borders, taking advantage of opportunities, know-how and resources available on both sides of the world.

He has extensive experience working in the management consulting industry in Emerging and Frontier Markets. Skilled in Business Planning, Private Sector Development, Finance, Venture Capital, and Private Equity. Strong business development professional with a Master’s degree focused in International Economics from University of Geneva.

Srinivas Ramanujam

Srinivas Ramanujam

Srinivas is the chief executive Officer of Villgro, which is one of India’s pioneering incubators of social enterprises. He is an IIM Calcutta Alumnus. He is known for his ability to wear multiple hats at work, with nearly two decades of experience, he has dabbled in sales, marketing, brand management and strategy across retail finance, consumer goods, automotive, farm equipment and agri-input sectors.
At Villgro, he began his journey as an advisor to one of our incubatees- Flybird Innovations. Prior to this, at Mahindra & Mahindra, as an intrapreneur, he helped incubate business concepts across the auto and farm sectors. He is also the India Steering Committee Member at Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs

Jonathan Philroy

Jonathan Philroy

Jonathan Philroy is a manager with the Agribusiness & Innovation Platform (AIP) at ICRISAT, Hyderabad. Jon holds an MBA from the Institute of Rural Management, Anand (IRMA), India, and a Bachelor’s degree in Agriculture. He is also an infoDev (World Bank) certified business incubation trainer.

At AIP, he manages the Agri-Business Incubator (ABI) operations that involve working with ag-tech start-ups in validating and scaling-up their business ideas and products/services, co-ordinating start-up service modules with help from the ICRISAT scientific community and resources. He also undertakes marketing and promotional activities for the incubator and start-ups, and implements consultancy assignments and projects for scaling-up and sustainability of ABI.

Louise de Klerk

Louise de Klerk

Louise is the chief executive officer and founder of Timbali Technology Incubator. Timbali Technology Incubator in the Mpumalanga region of South Africa seeks to help rural farmers whose livelihood has been undercut by high-volume large farms. Supported by government financing and fee-based services, Timbali is largely based on a franchise model. Its clients supply cut flowers to Amablom, Timbali’s commercial arm. Individual clients can begin generating revenue almost immediately. Timbali helps clients both onsite and off, training them in business methods and helping them find loans to get started. It is helping clients expand in to other product lines and value-added food processing, and plans to export its model into other parts of South Africa

Ralph von Kaufmann

Ralph von Kaufmann

Ralph is the co-founder of Hakika Ltd and an associate consultant for African Agribusiness Incubators’ Network (AAIN). Previously, he was responsible for the coordination of the facility for the Universities, Business and Research in Agricultural Innovation (UniBRAIN) initiative which is supporting the establishment of agribusiness incubators in Ghana, Kenya, Mali, Uganda and Zambia.
He has over 40 years of experience across the African continent in agribusiness incubation, foresight, livestock systems & controlled environment agriculture. Ralph has worked for International Organisations in a range of roles, including Director for External Realtions at ILRI.

Alice Chapple

Alice Chapple

Alice is an economist and a specialist in impact investment and impact assessment. She is CASA’s investment adviser and she established Impact Value in October 2012. She has spent her career working to find ways in which companies and investors can have a meaningful impact beyond financial returns. Her strong network enables her to draw in people with the right expertise for specific projects when needed.

Before establishing Impact Value, Alice worked as director of sustainable financial markets at Forum for the Future. She also worked as as financial analyst, fund manager and social and environmental advisor for the CDC Group.

Alice’s current roles include chair of Investor Watch (which seeks to align capital markets with a sustainable future through Carbon Tracker and Planet Tracker), independent chair of the CDC Plus (Technical Assistance) Committee, trustee of the Shell Foundation, and member of the advisory boards of Sainsbury’s Foundation, Frontier Finance Solutions and Connected Asset Management. Alice is also working with the University of Cambridge Institute of Sustainability Leadership to develop and tutor their course on sustainable finance.