About

Gagan created ARISE Group, one of Africa’s largest infrastructure investment platforms in under 10 years, investing over US$2bn, (with over $4bn committed to date) to develop a portfolio of 15 largescale infrastructure projects across the continent.

He is the Founder and CEO of IIP, ARISE IS and ARISE P&L, three companies specializing in the design, finance, building and management of state-of-the art infrastructure across Africa, with active operations in Togo, Benin, Cote d’Ivoire and Mauritania.

Prior to founding ATIF he spent 20 years at Olam, with 12 as a senior executive, serving as a Managing Director and member of its Executive Committee.

He has placed sustainability at the core of his companies’ operations and strategy, promoting traceability, renewable energy use, preserving biodiversity and achieving carbon neutrality.

In 2021, ARISE IP’s Gabon Special Economic Zone became the first carbon-neutral industrial zone in Africa, a year after being ranked the world’s best industrial zone in the wood sector by FDI Intelligence-Financial Times.

Shegun has over 15 years of experience in Finance and Project Finance in the European and African markets. Before joining ATIF, he served as Minister-Advisor to the President of the Togolese Republic for five years providing counsel on policy issues, operational activities and intergovernmental affairs. He led US$500m of investment in several high-profile projects, including the Adetikopé Industrial Platform (PIA) developed by ARISE IP, KEKELI Efficient Power and the Sheikh Mohamed Bin Zayed Solar Complex.

Prior to this Shegun was Société Générale Group’s Director of Structured Finance Africa where he nurtured strategic corporate relationships with high profile clients as a Director of Strategic Corporate Client Relationship Management and later oversaw the complex capital finance structuring solutions for governments and private companies across Africa as a Director in Structured Export Finance in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Amongst his earlier roles, he was Deputy Head of Financial Control and Treasury for BMW Group Financial Services.

Shegun holds a Master’s degree in Mathematics Applied to Social Sciences from Universite de Lille and SKEMA Business School.

Marios is a highly experienced non-executive director, specializing in corporate governance  with an background in international investment banking and asset management. He began his career in 1997 with Henderson Global Investors, followed by roles at Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, HedgeMAP and Goldman Sachs. In 2006, he moved to Zurich to take up a senior management position with ThomasLloyd Group before moving to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates in 2009 where he has been living and working ever since.

In Dubai, his roles have included Director of Operations at EFG-Hermes and Senior Executive Officer of the UAE offices for Apex Fund Services, a global service provider with over US$650bn under administration and Senior Executive Officer at Gateway Investment Management Services, a fund manager regulated by the Dubai Financial Services Authority.

In 2017, Marios founded Integritas CFS in the Dubai Multi Commodities Centre to provide strategic and corporate consultancy and independent non-executive director services to investment managers and funds.

Marios’s board experience includes the DIFC, ADGM, Luxembourg, Cayman Islands, Bermuda and BVI jurisdictions.

Marios holds a Master’s degree in Financial Management from Middlesex Business School and a Bachelor’s degree in Business Studies from the University of North London.

Prior to joining ATIF as Chief Operating Officer, Abdoul was the Managing Director for Structuring and Fundraising at Maha Capital Partners in Doha, Qatar, where he carried out fundraising strategies across Africa, Asia and the Middle East. Before this, Abdoul was Managing Director and Regional Head – Public Sector and Development Organization for Africa and the Middle East at Standard Chartered Bank in Dubai. A seasoned leader in projects in the African and Middle Eastern regions and beyond, Abdoul holds over 20 years of experience in leading and building regulated financial services companies. Abdoul holds a Master’s degree in Economics from Sorbonne University in Paris, and was born in Mauritania.

Rahul comes with 12+ years of domain experience in corporate finance, and fund management. Previously he served as AVP Finance at Investbridge Capital Limited, a firm regulated by DFSA (UAE) and FCA (UK) engaged in alternative asset manager, private credit, real estate fund management and venture capital. During his tenure at Investbridge for 6+ years, he was overseeing the design, development and management of financial governance framework, investor reporting for the Real estate funds domiciled in UAE, educational funds/SPV domiciled in Sub-Saharan Africa. He was actively engaged in group consolidation of accounts and controlling the treasury function.

Before joining Investbridge, He worked for PFK UAE as audit senior for 2+ years responsible for statutory audits of various UAE based entities in compliance with IFRS. Besides UAE, Rahul worked with KPIT Cummins Infosystems and Kirloskar Oil Engines Limited in Pune, India as Manager finance, looking after the Corporate Taxation (Direct) vertical for nearly 3 years together.

Rahul is a Chartered Accountant from India and holds diploma in IFRS from UK ACCA.

Almaz comes with 3+ years of experience in investment banking and fund management. He previously served as an Analyst, Corporate Advisory at Investbridge Capital, a Dubai-based asset management and financial advisory firm. He has worked on a number of investing, capital raising and corporate advisory deals in Sub-Saharan Africa, North Africa, Middle East and the US.

Almaz also worked as a Risk & Operations Officer at Gateway Investment Management Services, which was a fund manager for a number of funds in DIFC. His tasks there included, among other things, monitoring the operations of the funds, conducting due diligence on potential client funds, liaising with service providers on different matters and preparing annual and interim reports for the funds’ shareholders.

Almaz holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Accounting and Finance from Heriot-Watt University and a Master’s Degree in Accounting and Finance from The London School of Economics and Political Science.