Jan 2020 – Jan 2023 · 3 yrs

• Opontia raised the largest Series A round in the region - $42M, hired a team of >100, and acquired and scaled many outstanding digital brands. Opontia is the leading digital brands aggregator in EEMEA (Eastern Europe, The Middle East, & Africa).

Jan 2019 – Jan 2021 · 2 yrs · Dubai

• Strategy consulting:
• Satellite projects for national space agencies
• Planned and MCed the first-ever McKinsey standup comedy event with 250 colleagues in attendance

Sep 2018 – Aug 2019 · 11 mos · Cambridge, MA

• Elected from a field of six candidates as the president of the John F. Kennedy School of Government (HKS) student government.
• Represented 1,200 master's and Ph.D. students, responsible for 30 officers with a $300k annual discretionary budget

Jun 2018 – Aug 2018 · 2 mos · Dubai

• Highest ranked summer associate
• Offered a permanent position

Sep 2017 – Dec 2017 · 3 mos · Cambridge, MA

• Taught 50 master's and PhD students in Prof Carl Byers' Entrepreneurial Finance class at the John F. Kennedy School of Government (HKS) in the fall semester of 2017.
• Won outstanding teaching award

Jun 2017 – Sep 2017 · 3 mos · Nairobi, Kenya

• The Direct Investments arm of Blue Haven Initiative makes primarily series A to C stage venture capital investments into startups in Sub-Saharan Africa that have a positive social impact. Some notable investments during my time there include Kenyan solar energy/micro-financing companies M-Kopa and CrossBoundary, food distribution company Twiga, and South African financial inclusion startup Zoona.
• Principle duties included valuation, due diligence, sector research, and value creation projects.
• Conducted research projects focused on impactful blockchain applications and on impact investment potential in public markets in sub-Saharan Africa

Aug 2015 – Jul 2016 · 11 mos · Cape Town & Johannesburg, South Africa

• Knife Capital was named the top venture capital fund in Sub-Saharan African for three years running by Acquisition International magazine. The firm focuses on technology-enabled ventures for a sustainable impact on innovation, job creation and growth. In addition to its core fund management activities, Knife Capital provides consulting, training and business acceleration services to high-growth ventures in Southern Africa.
• Principal duties include:
• identification and diligence of start-ups for investment
• undertaking financial modeling and valuation analysis
• providing business acceleration services
• monitoring the performance of companies in the portfolio and accelerator

Sep 2010 – Aug 2015 · 4 yrs 11 mos · Singapore, London and New York · On-site

• Developing and managing ML models used to predict market movements. Proprietary trading and market-making with central banks and other large public and private institutions, trading billions of dollars per day in the currencies and derivatives of the G8 as well as of South Africa, and various Middle Eastern currencies. BNP Paribas was the largest bank in the world while I was there with over $5tr in assets.
• Vice President, Algorithmic Trading, Singapore. April 2014 - July 2015
• Associate, Algorithmic Trading, London. May 2012 - April 2014
• Analyst, Algorithmic trading, NYC and London. Sept 2010 - May 2012

May 2010 – Sep 2010 · 4 mos · Manhattan, New York City

• United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS)
• UNOPS provides centralized project management and implementation for UN agencies, in particular for UNICEF, UNEP and UNDP as well as other international organizations such as the World Bank and IMF.
• Managed the distribution of over $100 million in grants to various countries in Sub-Saharan Africa over the course of the summer
• UN intern missions committee leading visits to the World Bank, IMF and country missions to the UN including the British, Chinese, Iranian and South African Missions

Jan 2009 – Jan 2010 · 1 yr · Manhattan, New York City

• International House of New York, is a private, non-profit residence and program center for graduate students, scholars engaging in research, trainees and interns, founded by John D. Rockefeller Jr. in 1924. It's 700 members come from over 100 different countries.
• Leadership with International House while at Columbia included:
• International Leadership Program Scholarship recipient
• Chairman of the Business & House committee
• Elected European Representative of the Residents’ Council
• Program Fellowship
• Harlem Tutorial Program volunteer math tutor

Jun 2008 – Aug 2008 · 2 mos · London Area, United Kingdom

• Trading Technology, Software Enginnering