GROWTH.
MENTOR.
INVESTOR.
Passionate about emerging markets, growing brands, & shaping strategies to reality.
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Who Am I?
I’m “that guy” you call when you want to get down and dirty, and take yourself or your business from A to Z.
Since 2019, I have been living my passion as the Chief Growth Officer of Watu, helping shape the future of Africa and emerging markets through asset financial technology.
I am also a partner at Sherpa Africa, where we invest in some of Africa's most exciting startups, and sit on the board of ARC Ride, an Electric mobility company.
I have also been part of the executive team of 3 startups that have gone on to be acquired by Billion Dollar companies.
Over the past 23 years, I've worked in Europe, USA, Asia, with the last 12 years focusing on the last emerging market on earth…AFRICA!
I am a certified Transformation Life Coach and an accredited NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) practitioner. I truly believe that having the right mindset, thought process, and positive outlook is a massive part of being successful in business as well as in life.
73 countries to date I have been blessed to visit so far, of which 30 have been on the African continent.
You'll find me most mornings awake at 5.02am to head to the gym, else I’ll be on a plane traveling somewhere to help change the world!
Deeper Dive...
“GET $H!T DON£” is something my team associate me with. I am always challenging those around me to find solutions and quickly take their ideas from the back of a napkin to reality, whilst building their confidence, grit, and resilience, to be the leaders of tomorrow.
Below is a pretty cool story about my adventures to date!
I was born in the UK to parents that fled there from Uganda in 1972 as refugees. So for me to be able to come back to their mother land of Africa and make such an impact, is an incredible feeling!
My early years were spent living in Wales with my grandparents, and then went to school in Crawley, England.
I developed a non-sexual crush for Spurs in '87, when they lost in the FA Cup Final. 35 years on, the struggle is still real!
December 1990, saw my mum bring home the first love of my life…my sister, Kavita.
In 2000 I got my hands on a B.Sc (Hons) in Business Information Systems and Law, from Middlesex University London, after which I moved to Frankfurt, Germany to join Razorfish as a Mobile Tech Man.
After that in 2001, I moved to the USA, where I got married for the first time, and spent 10 years working in New York as the Director of Strategy & Development for Capari Group Inc., and a Business Development Director for GensourceRx Pharmaceuticals.
Bring on 2009 when God graced us with our #1 superstar daughter Aariyana, who was born in the USA. Remember her name, and watch this space for her!
2011 is when I started my African journey as the Chief Operating Officer for mi-Fone, The FIRST African Mobile Devices Brand. I initially spent time in China understanding the mobile phone eco-system and how they are made, after which I moved to Mauritius, a little island in the Indian Ocean in 2013, as you do!
The life lessons & experiences the past 12 years living & working in Africa has given me, will someday be written in my memoirs. From spending time in a jail cell in D.R.Congo, illegal land boarder crossings to Liberia, getting stuck in Sierra Leone during the Covid era…to losing one of my closest “homies” in the 2019 terrorist attack in Nairobi, Kenya.
2014 I was blessed with our second daughter, my little African Leo cub… Aanika, who was born in Johannesburg, South Africa. It was also the year that we brought Oju Africa to life, won the Grand Prix Award @ Loeries, and I also had the pleasure of lecturing at Yale, School of Management, New Haven, USA.
Soon after, I was part of the mi-Fone C-suite that got acquired by Imperial in 2015 and moved to Nairobi, Kenya to setup our new African HQ.
In 2016, after completing the task at hand for mi-Fone, I got the chance to join Iroko, as their Chief Commercial Officer. Iroko was one of the world's largest African entertainment companies, focusing on Nollywood (2nd largest movie industry in the world after Bollywood). We had raised over $40m from our heavy hitting investors: Canal+, RISE Capital, Tiger Global, and Kinnevik, and I was fortunate enough to be part of the core team that disrupted the African media space, and revolutionised a $3 billion film industry. Pretty f*cking cool right?!
A few years later after being acquired by Canal+, I was ready for my next mission, which brought me back to Nairobi, Kenya, as the Chief Growth Officer for Watu. The past 4 years, I have been living my passion by helping empower millions of people on the African continent.
That brings us to 2022, which was the most positive year of my life. I made some life changing decisions, and by destiny or fate, I met the partner of my dreams… God’s plan!
So here we are, 2023...
Speaking
When I was 16...
I had the honour of speaking in front of over 1,500 peers & British MPs about being raised in a multi-cultural family in the UK as a "BrIndian" or "BrAsian".
From that moment on, I have enjoyed sharing my experiences and helping others. I have since shared these stories around the world at Yale: School of Management, Science PO Paris, Africa Tech Summit, Afrobytes Paris, and TMT World Congress London to name a few.
My sharing of stories is made from many years of experience in working globally in the TMT (Tech, Media, Telecom) markets, scaling businesses, many failures, and some successes.
My biggest passion is speaking of experiences in business, and how I see the world innovating, growing, and hopefully developing into a much greater place in our lifetime.
If you're looking for pointless entertainment to waste your company's marketing budget, then go hire David Blaine!
If you want life experiences that are engaging, no bullshit talk, and insights, then chat to me!
Connects
Some Cool People I've Connected With...
