Social Private Equity - Mobilising Capital for Transformative Social Change

SPESA Management Team

Luciano Balbo, Honorary President / Cornerstone Investor

Luciano Balbo, Italian founder of B&S Private Equity, one of the leading Italian Private Equity groups. 18 years in Private Equity. Founder of Fondazione Oltre, the first Venture Philanthropy group in Italy (www.fondazioneoltre.org).


Kojo Parris, Founder CEO

Kojo is chairman of A4e Africa & the African Social Entrepreneurs Network (www.asenetwork.org), the founding CEO of Social Private Equity South Africa (www.socialprivateentrepreneur.com) and a director of Operation Hope, Gauteng (www.operationhope.org) and Heart (www.heartglobal.org). He is a former investment banker with NM Rothschilds, Merchant Bank of Central Africa & African Banking Corporation Holdings, oversaw investment portfolios at TA Holdings and Takura Ventures Fund in Zimbabwe, and worked in operational management for Booker Tate in Papua New Guinea, Australia, Kenya and London. He was the Head of the Colloquium for Social Entrepreneurs @ GIBS, chairman of Homeless Talk and mentors young adults privately through formations such as Youth Alliance for Leadership & Development in Africa (YALDA). Kojo, who was born in Guyana for whom he is the Honorary Consul to South Africa, won the Cambridge Commonwealth scholarship where he read for an MA in Engineering (Manufacturing). He subsequently qualified with Deloittes in London where he worked also as a management consultant.


Claire Busetti, SPESA Investment Advisor

Claire has a B Sc and MBA and over 20 years investment banking experience. Recently she was the Chief Investment Officer of the National Empowerment Fund and was previously employed by ABN Amro South Africa as Head of Corporate Banking.  Claire has listed equity investment experience as a Senior Portfolio Manager at Eskom Pension & Provident Fund plus she was the in house corporate financier for Rebhold, a listed company. Claire headed up SCMB’s Private Equity Division and before that was Head of Strategic Planning for the Standard Bank Group.


Tshepo Legodi, PAMSU Associate (Legal & Fund Raising)

Holds Bachelor of Arts (BA), Batchelor of Law (LLB) and Masters in Law (LLM)(Tax) degrees and worked for Bowman Gilfillan Inc., one of the largest SA legal firms in corporate law department, primarily on M & A and company restructuring transactions. This was invaluable for her next role at Africa’s largest telco, MTN, as their Commercial Legal Advisor at MTN. Tshepo then spent four years at KPMG, in international corporate tax and transfer pricing and practised as a senior tax consultant advising multinationals on both inbound and outbound investments.

Currently Senior Legal Counsel at Anglo American, where she is responsible for, inter alia, the restructuring of the coal business within Anglo Coal.


Sipho Moshoane, PAMSU (Operations)

Sipho is an Extractive Metallurgist who worked in the mining and engineering arenas for over a decade before entering the pharmaceutical industry. He spent the next decade in multiple senior roles with Eli Lily, the global multinational. He then went on to found Ikhambi Health, which to date, has signed toll manufacturing contracts with American, Asian and Cuban companies.

Sipho attended the World Economic Forum (2006) and was the founding Executive Director for the Lilly Foundation Southern Africa. In addition he was invited by the Prince of Wales Trust to serve on a project to develop ways of bridging the global digital divide.


Anton Roodt (BA, Honours, MA) , PAMSU (Management Systems & Thought Leadership)

Anton is a lecturer, consultant and writer in leadership, strategy and governance. He is a visiting professor at Wits Business School (WBS), University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, Rotterdam School of Management (RSM) Erasmus University in The Netherlands, Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) University of Pretoria, The Pakistan Institute of Management, Karachi, Pakistan, and DCDM Business School, Mauritius. He was editor of the 2003 Report on Corporate Governance for Mauritius. Anton presents executive workshops in South Africa, The Netherlands, Pakistan and Mauritius. He did his initial academic studies in Linguistics and Philosophy. Post-graduate studies followed at the University of Texas as recipient of the Rotary Foundation Fellowship for International Understanding. He was appointed tenured professor at North-West University and left the academic world for the corporate business sector, holding executive positions at South African companies including Sasol and Gencor.