board members
ALI JEHANGIR SIDDIQUI
Ali Jehangir Siddiqui currently serves as Ambassador at Large for Foreign Investment with the Government of Pakistan. He served as Pakistan’s Ambassador to the United States until December 2018. Before this, he served as Special Assistant to the Prime Minister as the Minister of State for the Government of Pakistan. He founded and served as Chairman of JS Private Equity Management, Pakistan’s largest private equity firm. He also founded and served as Chairman of JS Bank, Pakistan’s fastest growing bank. Mr. Siddiqui has co-founded many companies, including Airblue, Pakistan’s second-largest airline, AGSI, the second-largest steel producer in the United Arab Emirates, and RAKGG, the largest producer of pharmaceutical glass in the Middle East. Previously, Mr. Siddiqui was a Director with Crosby, a private equity firm, and was based in Hong Kong. Mr. Siddiqui holds a B.A. in Economics from Cornell University. In 2014, he was honored by the World Economic Forum as a Young Global Leader. SACH CHANDARIA
Sach is a 5th generation member of a multi generational family, with interests in leading global businesses, which began from modest origins in East Africa over a hundred years ago. The family‘s core focus is on nurturing entrepreneurial talent. It seeks to identify a very specific breed of entrepreneur or entrepreneurial team and create the best environment for their entrepreneurial fire to flourish, by providing very patient capital, active strategic inputs and broad operating latitude. The family is very opportunistic in its investment decisions with a portfolio consisting of businesses in steel, aluminium, plastics, packaging, technology, electronics, and media. Sach was born in Kenya and grew up mostly in North America. He is currently based in Geneva, Switzerland prior to which he spent time in Singapore, Shanghai and Nairobi. He completed his MBA at the Harvard Business School and a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science at the Brown University. He is currently on the boards of Internews Europe, the Family Business Foundation, as well a founding member of the Casa Laxmi Initiative. He is also a member of the YPO Global One chapter. |
CHARLES KIÉ
Charles Kie is Co-Founder and CEO, New African Capital Partners, an investment platform aiming at fostering the emergence of African Champions in industries that drive the prosperity of African. Charles was the the Managing Director and CEO of Ecobank Nigeria from January 2016 to September 2018, after spending four years in South Africa as Group Corporate Bank Head and then Group Executive of Corporate and Investment Banking for Ecobank Transnational Inc (ETI). Charles is a graduate of the Harvard Business School Advanced Management Program. He holds an MBA from New York University Stern, HEC Paris and London School of Economics, as well as a post-graduate specialization degree (DESS) in Corporate Restructuring from the University of Clermont Ferrand (France); he is also a graduate of Ecole Superieure de Commerce (Abidjan- Cote d’Ivoire) JAMES CHEN
James Chen is a Hong Kong-based philanthropist. As a critical proponent of the concept of catalytic philanthropy, he has dedicated the last twenty years to funding projects which create real-world change, privatize failure, and socialize success. This includes tackling the world’s most significant unmet disability: poor vision. Thus, James is the Founder of Clearly, a global campaign that aims to bring clear vision to the 2.5 billion people who are denied it. He is the author of: “Clearly: How a 700-Year-Old Invention Can Change the World Forever,” which explains his mission to help the whole world see clearly and identifies the barriers to delivering universal access to glasses. James is the Chairman of his family’s enterprise, Wahum Group Holdings. He is an early adopter of venture philanthropy with the Chen Yet-Sen Family Foundation. |
ERDAL YILDIRIM
Erdal Yıldırım is one of the most experienced leaders of Turkish nonprofit sector, he has contributed in various ways to the development of philanthropy in Turkey. Mr. Yıldırım started his non-profit career at the age of 25, when he became the Executive Director of the alumni association of his alma mater. He introduced professional fundraising mechanisms to the sector and implemented successful campaigns during his post. Since 1997; as the President of the Vehbi Koç Foundation, the oldest private foundation in the Republic of Turkey, he serves on the boards of all the institutions of the Foundation, such as Koç University, Koç School, American Hospital, Sadberk Hanım Museum and ARTER-Space for Art. His books are among very few resources on philanthropy and nonprofit organizations management in Turkish language and are widely used by professionals in the third sector in Turkey. VIDYA SHAH
Vidya Shah is the CEO of EdelGive Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the Edelweiss Group, and a board member at Edelweiss, a leading financial services conglomerate. Vidya spent the first 11 years of her career in Investment Banking with companies like ICICI Bank, Peregrine, and NM Rothschild in Mumbai, where she advised corporations on Capital Raising and M&A transactions. At Edelweiss, as the Chief Financial Officer, she oversaw various essential functions such as Finance, Human Resources, and Administration. Vidya serves on the board of various prominent organizations like Agastya International Foundation, Asian Venture Philanthropy Network, Common Purpose, Janaagraha, Toolbox India Foundation and Masoom. She graduated from the Bombay University and received an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. |