Meet the IIA Team

In 2011 William completed his MBA in London whilst also working as the fundraising director for 'Row2recovery', a campaign to raise £1m towards Help4Heroes.

In February 2012, William joined Invest in Africa as the Programme Director and has overseen its expansion.

Having trained as an investment advisor with HSBC Private Bank, William worked in the City for a number of years before going on to pursue a career in communications and branding, creating global campaigns for multinational clients.

Michael has been a Senior Account Manager at Invest in Africa since November 2012. He is responsible for delivering a $4m business skills training programme in Ghana.

Michael has worked in African affairs for over eight years. During this period, he has worked with Government, the Private Sector and Third Sector giving him a 360 degree experience of Africa. He has travelled extensively across Africa visiting Rwanda, Cote’d’Ivoire, Tunisia and Kenya. He has also lived in Senegal, Ethiopia, Ghana, and Yemen.

James joined the Invest in Africa team in July 2012 and his work to date has focused on the creation and delivery of the African Partner Pool.

James studied Politics, Philosophy & Economics at the University of Oxford. He is also a PRINCE2 Practictioner.

Charles Adjei has been an Account Executive at Invest in Africa since January 2015.

Charles received a BA in Management in 2013 after 4 years at Hope College in Michigan, USA.

He went on to receive a masters degree (MSc) in Management for Business Excellence at the University of Warwick, UK.

Samuel Essilfie Taylor Brandful is the Ghana Manager of Invest in Africa (IIA), a private sector initiative that brings together leading companies across sectors to develop local enterprise and support investment into Ghana. Prior to joining IIA in 2013 as first Ghana Manager, Sam was the Country Manager of Crown Agents Ghana Limited with additional responsibility for the business winning activities of Crown Agents in Liberia and Sierra Leone. His working experience covers Development Consultancy, Business Development, Sales & Marketing and Procurement and has a thorough knowledge of both public and private sector systems and processes.

His early career in the private sector was shaped while working for Lever Brothers (Unilever) in marketing and procurement roles. Sam has over 20 years of experience in local and international procurement management and managed several donor-funded projects, executed by Crown Agents in Ghana. He served as the Project Director for the design and delivery of short term training on the Public Procurement Act 663 as well as the development of public sector procurement training materials. Still with Crown Agents, he managed the Value-for-Money Assessments Project of large value contracts for the Ghana Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning which saved the public purse hundreds of millions of US dollars through the improvement of contract terms and conditions.

As the first Ghana Manager of IIA since 2013, Sam has worked with his team to launch the African Partner Pool (APP) which is Ghana’s first cross-sector online business directory. Sam has a degree in Computer Science and an Executive Certificate in Management from the Henley Management College of UK.

Ibrahima was born in Ghana and moved to South Africa at the age of ten.

He holds a major in Economics from the University of Transkei and a certificate in financial products from Milpark Business School.

He has over 12 years experience in business development and has held several senior roles in different industries, ranging from Health Care to Construction and Marketing.

Driven by a solid work ethic, he has excelled in all positions he has held.

He is well adept to developing optimal relationships with key stakeholders and ensuring that targets are not only met, but exceeded.

As an experienced commercial director, he brings great commercial acumen including well developed strategic and operational management skills.

Having returned to Ghana over a year ago, he joins Invest in Africa as the APP manager.

Beauty received her BA in psychology and political science from the University of Ghana. She is a well balanced manager with leading edge knowledge in the telecom and textile industry. She is a experienced at analyzing market trends and customer needs to develop highly effective and targeted brand, product, B2B and CSR campaigns.

Angelina is the lead on the Ghana SME Business Linkage Programme. This is an African Development Bank funded programme aimed at developing the capacity of Ghanaian SMEs to be globally competitive and build linkages with larger companies.

Prior to joining Invest in Africa, she worked at the British Council for 7 years in different capacities; with her last role being the position of Skills Development and Partnerships Manager where she lead on various capacity development programmes that supported fresh graduates and entrepreneurs to develop and grow their businesses.

She is passionate about youth development and is a certified PRINCE2 practitioner. She holds a Postgraduate Certificate in Business Administration from the University of Wales.

Christina has a background in client service management with working experience in various sectors including the financial, insurance and telecommunication sectors.

Christina works as the Support Advisor for the Africa Partner Pool (APP). Her role involves managing customer registrations, validating clients’ database and providing general support to clients.

She holds a BSc in Natural Resources Management and a Diploma in Business Management and Administration.

Patricia joined IIA as consultant Country Director in February 2016.

She is passionate about creating opportunities that improve people’s lives. Her love for identifying enduring consumer and commercial insights to support the development of brands and grow businesses’ was actualized in a career spanning 25 years across 3 global companies namely Unilever, Diageo and L’Oreal. In the last 7 years of this career, her focus was on setting up new organization and opening new frontiers as Managing Director for Uganda Breweries Ltd, then Managing director for EABL International and her last role setting up the L’Oreal East Africa subsidiary as its inaugural Managing Director.

She took a career break from the corporate world mid 2014 and focused on understanding the dynamics of MSME’s in the region and their impact on economic development, including offering mentorship for start ups in accelerator camps and entrepreneurship incubator programs. She also took time to understand the positive impact of development funding, a continuous journey through her board position on Trade Mark East Africa (TMEA), the multi donor initiative with overall goal of reducing poverty in the east African region through increased trade competitiveness. Patricia also supports human capital development of African talent as a Council Member of a leading East African university, Strathmore, as well as the development of the private sector as Director of the Kenya Private Sector Alliance (KEPSA) alongside other non executive board positions.

Patricia holds Bachelor of Commerce Honors degree and an MBA degree in Strategic Management.

Stanley is an accomplished business development expert who is passionate about driving sales success.

For the last five years, he has been working with QED Solutions where he has been instrumental in driving the growth of an eProcurement solution in Kenya. He has also been overseeing the implementation of other procurement related projects for various sectors spanning the entire business and industry spectrum. He previously worked with Cortell East Africa Ltd as a Sales and Marketing Representative.

Stanley holds a Bachelor of Commerce in Marketing from Kenyatta University and is also a member of the Chartered Institute of Procurement Supply (MCIPS).

Zippy is an emerging community development practitioner, passionate about children’s rights and social and economic development; having studied sustainable development and gained practical experience working with vulnerable and disadvantaged children.

She is a highly motivated and results-oriented community developer, bringing and energetic and innovative approach.