AWEI Research Associate & PhD Candidate
Bio
Susan is an AWEI Research Associate who has been working across the public and private sectors in the capacity of market builder, entrepreneur, and researcher to facilitate the adoption of innovative finance mechanisms that will drive more capital into socially and environmentally aligned businesses. She has been part of pioneering teams at Collaborative for Frontier Finance, UCT GSB Bertha Centre and Impact Investing South Africa to take these concepts to mainstream financial institutions. She has been directly responsible for raising ~$15 million for outcomes-based contracts and was first to market with an ECD Impact Bond in an emerging economy. She constituted and led a National Task Force for Impact Investing, which has attracted the support of over 200 senior investment professionals in South Africa and is currently driving the development of the small business finance market across Africa and the Middle East. She is a qualified veterinarian with 12 years of experience in small animal and exotics practice, primarily running her own business. She holds a BVSc from the University of Pretoria and an MBA from the University of Cape Town.
Susan's research will contribute to solutions on how to fill the private financing gap for conserving biodiversity in PCAs in Sub-Saharan Africa, with application to other emerging markets.