Natalia Sánchez Herrera

Founder and Managing Partner

Having lived and worked in more than 15 countries, Natalia has extensive experience in emerging markets in Africa, Eurasia and Latin America.

She has met hundreds of policy makers and business leaders for the production of investment reports published in Fortune Magazine, BusinessWeek Bloomberg and other international media. This exposure has given her a wide understanding of growth opportunities in different markets and industries. As Manager of the Africa Desk at Rödl&Partner she assisted non-African investors and international institutions with their African projects. She also managed West Africa for Africa Investor and was Country Director in South Africa for Oxford Business Group.

Her 20 years of experience in emerging markets and business development include leadership roles in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, Mozambique, Morocco, Cape Verde, Turkey, Azerbaijan, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, and Maldives. Natalia also consults for European, African, and Latin American companies wanting to invest, trade or establish business relations across regions.

Natalia is co-founder and managing partner of Kili Partners, an advisory, business development and project management firm that assists clients to access growth opportunities and markets across the African continent. She is also a member of the Institute of Directors of Southern Africa, a member of the Institute of Business Advisors of South Africa, member of the advisory board of the Madrid Start-Up Community Forum and in the global leadership dialogue of the GIZ and Asian Development Bank focused on gender and governance.

Natalia has a postgraduate in Management and Entrepreneurship from the University of Cape Town. She holds a BA in International Relations and Diplomacy obtained in Paris and Heidelberg. She speaks Spanish, English, French, Portuguese, Italian, and German and is currently learning Mandarin.

Francesco Gastaldon

Partner and Manager Europe

Francesco has extensive experience in consulting for Italian and foreign companies in international markets, with a special focus on Sub-Saharan Africa. He worked for private and public entities in Italy and abroad, advising private sector clients and business associations on international investment strategies in emerging markets.

As Africa Desk Manager at Rödl&Partner, Francesco coordinated the business advisory activities of the firm for Italian clients, organising and managing development projects for Italian companies in Sub-Saharan Africa.

He was previously a Business Development Manager at Promos – Special Agency of Milan Chamber of Commerce for International Affairs, where he was in charge of business consultancy projects in emerging and frontier markets. He designed and implemented projects in Sub-Saharan Africa, Saudi Arabia, Iran, United Arab Emirates, South East Asia, South America.

Francesco holds a BA in Economics from the University of Bologna, and pursued his MA in International Development studying at the University of Bologna, the University of Copenhagen and the University of California, Berkeley.

Mwambu Wanendeya

Partner - Advisor East and West Africa

Mwambu Wanendeya has lived and worked across Africa, Europe and the Middle East for almost 30 years. He is a professional who has run teams across Africa for advocacy organisations, multinationals and start-ups. He has headed up award winning global and pan African teams for listed companies, during high growth periods, including Ecobank, Ericsson, Barclays, and Celtel. Mwambu spent almost a decade working in development and diplomacy at the London based Commonwealth Secretariat and during this period he extensively travelled and worked across the 53 member states around Africa, the Americas, Asia, the Caribbean, Europe, and the Pacific. He has an extensive senior network around the world.

Mwambu is a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Futures Council. He is also a member of the Institute of Directors of Southern Africa (IoDSA) and of the African Leadership Network (ALN). He has a B.Eng from Imperial College, London and speaks English and French.

Husameldin Elnasri

Strategy

Husameldin is an experienced business strategy and business development professional with more than 17 years of active work in Africa and the Middle East. During his successful career, he worked with companies of different sizes and industries: large conglomerates, consortiums, startups, NGOs, social enterprises and Fortune 100 companies. Husameldin expertise is business strategy, with a special focus on market entry and strategy re-calibration.

Husameldin is an award-winning MBA (Lancaster University, UK) and Tutu African Leadership Fellow (Oxford University, UK), and studied at the University of Geneva (Switzerland) and Khartoum (Sudan).

Matsi Modise

Partner - SMEs

Dynamic Entrepreneur,  Business Leader and  Investor.

Matsi has a passion for making a meaningful contribution to Africa and to drive the African agenda of growth. After starting her career in the banking sector, Matsi quickly found her passion for business, enterprise and supplier development. Her speciality is in building digital and physical entrepreneurial ecosystems.

Matsi serves on numerous public and private sector boards as an advisor and non-executive director. She is an international keynote speaker, thought leader and an active member of the World Economic Forum as she sits on their Global Panel of experts

Matsi is founder of Furaha Afrika Holdings, and involved with SiMODiSA – an industry association with the mission of accelerating entrepreneurship by collaborating with policy makers to enhance the success rate of high impact, high growth entrepreneurs in South Africa.