The Africa Proptech Forum Advisory Board consist of industry mavericks who contribute to the growth and success of the Africa Proptech industry by providing strategic advice.
A diverse group of professionals, these members have knowledge and expertise that cover the breadth of the built environment garnered over the years.
Peter has broader real estate responsibilities including management of public equity real estate strategies. Peter was instrumental in the launch of the Africa Real Estate Platform as well as the Global Real Estate Securities Fund having been involved in both since inception. He joined Investec in 2008 initially in the property division, and later moved to the asset management division in 2010. He has a broad range of property experience having been the portfolio manager for listed property funds, as well as being involved in property development and property finance. Peter graduated from the University of Cape Town with a Bachelor of Science (Hons) degree in Property Studies along with majors in Accounting and Finance. Peter is a CFA Charterholder.
Sean is an experienced, independent and youthful property consultant operating through his company, Divercity Property Solutions in Africa and the United Kingdom. He is also a member of the executive committee of the South African Chamber of Commerce. It is this role, as well as his years of experience in all sectors of the property industry, that has made him an invaluable property consultant and the perfect mentor for the aspiring real estate leader.
Gil Sperling is Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Flow, a proptech company that goes straight to the source of the largest social platforms in the world, to match people with property. The Flow platform empowers the agent of the future to take ownership of their business and earn more money, providing stability in a fragmented and previously undisrupted industry. With Flow’s latest feature addition, agents are able to automatically create a digital presence for themselves and generate 100’s of ads from their profile and property listings on social media, the largest platforms in the world. Sperling started his career as an engineer, and was one of three founding partners of Popimedia, one of Africa’s biggest adtech and performance marketing companies – a Facebook Marketing Partner. Popimedia was the largest buyer of Facebook media inventory in Africa, representing some of the world’s biggest brands, when the company was acquired by global communications group Publicis in 2015. Through his experience and expertise within the tech industry, Sperling, together with Daniel Levy, co-CEO of Flow, has developed proprietary technology which automatically creates powerful, effective ads on social platforms, delivering better business leads, faster than ever before – and more cost effectively – to estate agents, landlords and developers.
Ronald Philip heads strategy across the Middle East, Africa and South Asia for Agility Logistics Parks, a leading developer of warehouse parks and part of the $9Bn Agility conglomerate. In his role, Ronald leads strategic planning, partnerships and growth into new markets, new asset classes and building new capabilities. In Africa, Agility Logistics Parks already has a presence in 5 countries and is expanding further. Prior to Agility, Ronald worked with McKinsey & Company, focused on real estate and infrastructure sectors, serving CxO and Minister-level clients globally. He worked with the World Economic Forum, PwC’s infrastructure practice, GE Consumer Finance and the World Bank earlier in his career. Ronald was educated at Harvard University and the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Kozhikode. Ronald is engaged in the proptech space in his day job at Agility and personally as an angel investor in and advisor to proptech startups in Africa.
Roland has garnered over 20 years’ experience in the financial services industry in Nigeria having worked with United Bank of Africa Plc, Oceanic Bank of Nigeria and National Bank of Nigeria. He was also recently a consultant with the World Bank on the design and transaction structure of the Family Homes Fund (FHF) – a N500 Billion social intervention program for housing by the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Roland was head hunted by the Federal Government of Nigeria in July 2013 to lead the turn around and recapitalization of the moribund Federal Housing Authority Homes – a mortgage bank (now known as FHA Mortgage Bank Limited). Within a 6 months’ period, the bank was recapitalized and returned to profitability. Roland is currently a member of the technical committee (mortgage sector) of the Financial System Strategy 2020 (FSS 2020), the Federal Government of Nigeria financial schemes reform driven by the Central Bank of Nigeria. Dr Igbinoba is an alumnus of the School of Management, Cranfield University, UK. He is currently leading the development and organization of the PropTech Industry in Nigeria. This task involves helping both the private sector and government with policy frameworks; and the advocacy for an enabling environment and investment climate regime for PropTech companies in the country. With an academic background in Microbiology, Roland’s post-doctoral research work currently focuses on the intersection between Sustainable Cities Development and Health. Roland is the Founder of Pison Housing Company; and The Roland Igbinoba Real Foundation for Housing and Urban Development (RIRFHUD). He is an alumnus of Harvard University Graduate School of Design with a concentration in Real Estate Development & Finance.
Ronald Kaweesi is the Project Lead at PropTech Uganda and Regional Chair for the Federation of International Blockchain Real Estate Experts (FIBREE). He has worked for various real estate and innovations companies locally and internationally such as Built World Innovations, Siemens Real Estate, Allianz Real Estate, Collier International and RE/MAX among others.
He obtained his bachelor’s from Makerere University Kampala before further pursing MBA focusing on Digital Technologies Management and Masters in Land Management from Technical University of Munich. His areas of specialty are Digital transformation and technologies, Digital business models, Real estate and natural resource management.
Jarrod is the Divisional Director: Technology as well as Account Director at Cushman & Wakefield | Broll, with experience in large multi-national portfolio management, strategy management and transaction management. He leans specially on Technology and Proptech influences to being key drivers of his strategic outlook. He identifies with innovative solution
making and cutting-edge industry thought-leadership.
Kevin Teeroovengadum has an MBA and M.Sc. in Finance. He worked for KPMG, Deloitte, Ernst & Young in corporate finance and business consultancy before moving to Loita Capital Partners Group. Kevin joined Actis as a Director as part of their Africa real estate team. At Actis, he led the origination of a number of new developments and assisted in fund raising for Actis’ 2 nd real estate fund. He also led the sale of 2 major assets i.e. Accra Mall in Ghana and Capital Properties in Tanzania to offshore buyers and setting the pricing benchmark for investment grade properties in Africa.
Dennis Papa Odenyi Quansah is Program Lead for IFC EDGE Green Building Market Transformation Program in Ghana and Nigeria. He is an Urban Development professional with experience in the built environment in Ghana. His expertise includes Sustainable Real Estate Development, Real Estate Marketing and Agency, Real Estate Management, Real Estate Valuation and Business Development. He has also undertaken socio-economic surveys for voluntary relocation and other resettlement packages. He holds an MSc in Urban Policy and Development and an Undergraduate degree in Land Economy in Ghana. He is also a member of the Ghana Institution of Surveyors.