Meet the Nithio team

We have an ambitious goal: to catalyze billions of dollars into solutions that build resilience to climate change and achieve universal energy access.

Our women-led management team and board of industry leaders have built a global team dedicated to our shared mission. The team brings a range of unique expertise from investment banking, data science, private equity, and economic development. 

Noel_Agbegha
Accounting Assistant

Israel is a chartered accountant and finance professional with practical accounting and audit experience, providing companies with audit, assurance, tax and accounting services. He works with Nithio’s finance team to keep financial records, manage accounts payable and receivable, assist in budgeting and more.

Noel_Agbegha
Investment Officer, West Africa

Noel leads the origination, structuring and execution of Nithio’s debt financing transactions in West Africa. Prior, he was at PwC as a Senior Associate in the Deals Advisory team where he was responsible for providing transaction advisory, corporate finance and business recovery services to clients across various sectors in West Africa.

Program Manager, Grant Implementation

At Nithio, Noel will lead the implementation of grant funding for establishing an appliance financing facility. She has 10 years of experience in SME financing and portfolio management having worked with enterprises investing in various sectors including renewable energy, agribusiness, financial services, resilience, water and waste management.

Brenda Anzetse
Investment Analyst
Brenda supports the Investment Team and assists with portfolio management at Nithio. Before joining Nithio, she worked in various roles focused on deploying and attracting debt and equity investments across Sub-Saharan Africa’s energy sector.
Dan Bierenbaum
Chief Financial Officer
Dan has over 15 years of experience working on ventures to address challenges in the finance and energy sectors in emerging markets. Most recently, he co-founded Global Parametrics, a boutique insurance vehicle that provides protection against extreme climate and natural disaster events. Prior to that, he launched a renewable energy business in Haiti.
Benita Murray-Bruce
Senior Legal Counsel
Benita Murray-Bruce leads the legal team at Nithio, advising on various financing products (including senior and junior debt and equity instruments) across the company’s internal and external operations.
Prior to this, she was a key associate at a leading law firm in Nigeria, leading landmark cross-border transactions, including the first of its kind multi-sourced financing for an LNG project.
Anne Chibuogwu
People & Operations Analyst
Anne is responsible for optimizing our people processes and systems. She plays a pivotal role in cultivating an efficient, dynamic, and supportive work environment by implementing global people strategies. Previously, she was a Consultancy Management specialist at DAI, supporting consultants and contractors in donor-funded (FDCO, USAID, BMGF) development projects.
Alexandra Ekpiken
Head of Partnerships
Alexandra leads Partnerships at Nithio. Previously, she worked at Enko Capital, where she played a key role in structuring and raising funds for their impact credit fund. Before that, she served as VP at Verod Capital. Alexandra holds a joint honors degree in Law and Policy from Keele University, an LLM in Corporate Law from Harvard Law School, and an MBA from Columbia Business School.
Grace Fenton
Chef of Staff
Grace manages and ensures the success of strategic initiatives through cross-collaboration across teams at Nithio. She joined from Fraym, a geospatial data and analytics company where she drove commercial sales. Prior, she was at Heidrick & Struggles, one of the world’s leading executive search firms.
Benjamin Gatemi Gitonga
Investment Officer
Benjamin leads the origination, structuring, and execution of Nithio’s debt financing transactions in East Africa. Prior to this, he worked at Mirova SunFunder as an Investment Analyst focusing on debt investing in Sub-Saharan Africa within the renewable energy sector.
Madaleine Gleave
Chief Data Scientist
Madeleine leads Nithio’s product development, data acquisition, and AI modeling. She was previously at Dharma.ai where she led data management software implementation. Previously, she was a Policy and Advocacy Officer for the International Rescue Committee and a Research Assistant focused on energy access and infrastructure investment with the Center for Global Development.
Alexandra Ekpiken
Investor Relations Associate
Federica develops and manages strategic partnerships with investors and ecosystem partners to scale Nithio’s impact. She has extensive experience in partnership development and resource mobilization and previously worked in similar capacities with the United Nations International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the European Commission. Federica holds an MBA from Bocconi University.
Data Scientist II
Akintayo leads R&D, models implementations for Nithio’s core products, and collaborates on data science solutions within the analytics team and across departments. He recently completed his Masters with a concentration in Applied Machine Learning at Carnegie Mellon University Africa, and previously worked at hiveonline ApS and ATB Techsoft Solutions where he built alternative credit scoring and custom loan systems respectively.
FP&A Associate

Ajibola supports Nithio’s finance and capital raise team, contributing to the financial planning, strategic analysis, budgeting, and forecasting. He is a chartered accountant and finance professional with 7+ years of experience, including in the renewable energy sector. Previously, at Starsight Energy, he worked as a Corporate Finance Associate and successfully raised c.$77 million in debt capital.

Elizabeth Ngau
Data Solutions Manager
Njeri leads junior staff to successful engagements to provide risk analytics solutions for Nithio’s clients, from overseeing requirements gathering to managing project delivery. She was previously a Graduate Research Assistant for the Sustainable Energy Transitions Initiative at Duke University and an Associate Manager at EED Advisory.
Elizabeth Ngau
Data Solutions Analyst
Clarice leads engagements to provide risk analytics solutions for Nithio’s clients, including onboarding and analysis of diverse datasets and product development. She joined Nithio from M-Gas, a clean cooking company, where she developed and grew the analytics function. Previously, she worked for M-Kopa and Greenlight Planet on the credit risk teams, analyzing customer repayment behaviors.
Roeland Menger
Chief Revenue Officer

Roeland brings expertise in structuring and raising capital for renewable energy ventures in Frontier Markets, most recently in an advisor role for scale-ups and IPP projects across Africa. Prior, he was responsible for investments in this sector for the French utility EDF, and has been part of one of the largest energy access scale-ups at Zola Electric.

Elizabeth Ngau
Investment Officer, East Africa

JohnPaul leads Nithio’s origination and engagement with borrowers in East Africa. He has more than 14 years experience working in the financial sector in Africa spanning banking, private credit and impact investing. He has worked with Developing World Markets and Global Partnerships covering their Africa/MENA private credit investment portfolios across the microfinance, renewable energy and agribusiness sectors.

Elizabeth Ngau
Senior Data Solutions Analyst

Timothy leads engagements to provide risk analytics solutions for Nithio’s clients by on-boarding, analyzing diverse datasets and presenting findings by preparing reports, visualizations and other analytical materials. Prior to joining Nithio, he was a credit data analyst at Pi Consulting Services Limited, tasked with using various datasets to build and maintain a credit scoring engine for their mobile lending platform.

Elizabeth Ngau
Legal Counsel

Elizabeth is a Kenyan-qualified lawyer with over five years of postgraduate experience in financial structuring, corporate finance, fintech, and ESG. Prior to this, she was at Anjarwalla & Khanna, where she advised on various financial transactions. At Nithio, Elizabeth offers advice on financing projects and corporate matters.

Chief Investment Officer

Raghav performs the role of Investment Advisor for Nithio, managing assets under management. He was previously the Director of Structured Finance at Standard Chartered Bank. He has over nine years of banking experience in originating, structuring, and executing high-value debt transactions across the world.

Investment Analyst

Daniel assists in conducting due diligence and supports the Investment Team’s functions. Prior to joining Nithio, Daniel worked in investments, portfolio management, and risk consulting in renewable energy and agribusiness for clients in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Co-Founder and CEO

Kate has a long career in the off-grid power sector, most recently as Energy Director for Power Africa. Prior to Power Africa, Dr. Steel was on the Energy Access and Investments team at Google and was manager of the World Bank-IFC Lighting Africa initiative.

Annabelle Sullivan
Head of People & Operations

Annabelle leads operations at Nithio. She has 16 years of operations experience across the non-profit, consulting, start-up and private sectors. Most recently, she led operations for the Climate, Resilience & Sustainability business at WSP. Prior to that, Annabelle built operations infrastructure at RMI, the Mission Possible Partnership & for the Center for Climate Aligned Finance.

Senior Controller

Anjola is responsible for maintaining Nithio’s financial statements, accounting, and internal controls. She brings 8 years of experience from both public accounting and the startup world. Prior to Nithio, she worked as a Controller for over 4 years, helping build up the finance function and has worn many hats in her past roles.

Marketing Analyst

Jennifer supports Nithio Marketing, specializing in marketing strategies for clean energy investment solutions that build resilience. Prior to joining Nithio, she worked as a Digital Marketing Executive for a Health care retail brand, where she led e-commerce marketing strategies.

With a diverse background spanning manufacturing, energy, social entrepreneurship, and healthcare, Jennifer crafts tailored brand strategies to drive sales and forge partnerships with target markets.

Elizabeth Ngau
Data Analyst II

Kevin joins Nithio from Glovo’s regional operations team, where he provided strategy and analytics support to the local teams across Africa, helping to make courier acquisition and retention processes more efficient. Prior, he worked as an analytics consultant in KPMG East Africa where he designed and developed analytical tools to help East African banks manage their credit risk.

Senior Data Engineer

Dave leads the development, testing, and maintenance of data pipelines and data architecture for usage in Nithio’s analytical due diligence. He also assists in the development of Nithio’s products. He previously worked as an Engineer at Pepco Holdings where he specialized in the technical screening and modeling of distributed energy resource interconnections. Dave holds a masters degree from George Washington University.

Board Members & Advisors

Board Member

Maya is Co-Managing Partner and Financial Services Sector Lead at The Rise Funds. She also serves as a Director of TPG Inc., Benevity, SEO, Varo Money, Kiva, and Nithio. Maya has over 20 years of private equity, venture capital, and impact investing experience in the US and emerging markets, including co-founding venture impact firm, Elevar Equity, and previously working at Warburg Pincus.

Advisor

Linda is a Co-Founder and Partner at Kupanda Capital. In this capacity, she has helped to found several new companies and ventures and serves as in-house counsel for Kupanda Capital and its portfolio companies. Prior to Kupanda Capital, Ms. Oramasionwu worked in the Legal and Private Sector Departments at the African Development Bank and also served as corporate counsel at Schwarz Law Firm, LLC. She is admitted to the New York State Bar.

Board Member

Christian Okoye is a Principal at Generate Capital, where he is responsible for investments in emerging sustainable infrastructure opportunities. Prior to this, he was a Partner at Sidewalk Infrastructure Partners, focusing on transactions advancing virtual power plants.
He has also held roles at Emerson Collective, Denham Capital’s Energy Infrastructure platform, and Goldman Sachs’ Natural Resources group. Christian holds an MBA and MS in Energy and Environmental Resources from Stanford University and a BA in Economics from the University of Chicago.

Co-Founder

Bobby is Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Kupanda Capital. He has helped found numerous companies, including Fraym and Nithio. Previously, he was VP of Infrastructure, Private Sector and Regional Integration at the African Development Bank. He also held senior positions at several U.S. government agencies, including the Central Intelligence Agency, National Security Council, Treasury Department, State Department and served as the Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for African Affairs in the White House.

Co-Founder and Board Member

 Queen is Co-Founder and Partner at Kupanda Capital. She has helped to found several new companies and ventures, including Fraym and Nithio. Prior to this, she was an Investment Officer in the Private Sector Department of the African Development Bank and a Management Associate with the Citigroup Corporate and Investment Bank.