About Annie

Annie, whose family is from Zimbabwe, has a background in contemporary art, curating, marketing and communications. She worked at Hauser & Wirth Gallery in London, New York, LA and Somerset, before consulting on fine art and design projects internationally.

About Natasha

Natasha has worked as a business consultant in Africa for multinationals, financial institutions, investors and not-for-profit organisations. She has advised companies on third party due diligence, supply chain risk and how to engage in legitimate, ethical business partnerships.

Theresa Austin
LVMH Digital Innovation

Theresa Austin is a technology and digital strategist, with close to 20 years of ecommerce and omni-channel experience in the luxury fashion and beauty sector. Having worked at both executive and execution level delivering multi-million pound projects for industry-leading companies such as Burberry and Net-A-Porter, Theresa now holds a research role at LVMH, focussing on exploring customer needs and supporting the creation of humanistic technology experiences.

Global in her outlook and originally from South Africa, Theresa studied Graphic Design at Ruth Prowse, Business at Columbia University, and lived for many years in London. She now resides in Paris.

Veronica Bolton Smith
COO, Invest Africa

Veronica holds a solid background of 15 years working on trade and development opportunities in Sub-Saharan Africa. Previous positions include working on commercial and public-sector projects, both in the UK and Africa including the House of Commons, House of Lords, Department for International Development, Ministry of Defence, Kenya and Africa Matters.

Veronica was recently recognised in the global top 100 businesspeople by the United Nations initiative – ‘Most Influential Person of African Descent’. Veronica currently serves as Chief Operating Officer at Invest Africa, a leading pan-African business platform that promotes trade and investment in Africa.

Michael Durbridge
CEO, Andrew Martin International

Mike has over 25 years experience across Marketing, Digital, Sales, Commercial and Logistics functions. With blue chip experience in Mail Order, Financial Services and more latterly serving as a Sales & Marketing Director of Vodafone UK and Omni Channel Director of B&Q and Kingfisher Group.

For the past 3 years and currently, Mike is CEO of Andrew Martin International, an interior design and home furnishings company that design, manufacture and retail a wide range of home furnishing products in the Interior Design market.

Nina Pfifer
51 North Partners

Nina is a co-founder and Executive Director of Conduit Capital, an umbrella entity of discretionary funds from early stage investments to larger growth stage investment opportunities. In addition, she is also a Managing Director of 51North Partners, a Financial Consultancy focused on establishing and enhancing the relationships between investors and companies, by identifying investors to source strategic funding, providing strategic advice on their financial and commercial structures and managing their investor relations.

Nina has 17 years of relevant experience and is skilled in the conceptualising of innovative financial solutions for a diverse client base with a focus on sustainable and impact focused investments.