Speakers
Nnaemeka Ikegwuonu is the CEO and Founder of ColdHubs Limited, a social enterprise using 100% solar power walk-in cold rooms to help farmers and traders reduce food spoilage, extend the shelf life of their fruits and vegetables, and increase their income. Ikegwuonu grew up in an agricultural family and developed a passion for engaging the rural population about agriculture and helping farmers understand agriculture as a business. He founded Smallholders Foundation, an organization that uses radio to deliver daily agricultural, environmental, markets, and social development programs to smallholder farmers in their local language. The foundation later created The Smallholders Farmers Rural Radio Station (FARM 98.0 FM), Nigeria’s first and only rural radio solely dedicated to agriculture. In 2020 Ikegwuonu received the Waislitz Global Citizen Award. Other recognitions include: Ashoka Fellow 2008, Rolex Awards 2010, Fast Company’s 100 Most Creative in Business 2012, Nigeria’s Young Person of the Year 2011, Niigata International Food Prize Laureate 2012, and Yara Prize for Green Revolution Laurate 2013.
Romi Bhatia is the Senior Finance and Investment Advisor for USAID's Africa Bureau focused on the implementation of its Africa Trade and Investment (ATI) Program. Bhatia has worked for the past 20 years in the international development and finance field with a focus on microfinance, small business development and impact investing and mobilizing private capital for development. During his 7-year span at USAID, Bhatia served in roles as the Senior Advisor for Diaspora Engagement, Africa Team Lead for the former Office of Development Credit. He Bhatia also served as a Senior Credit Analyst for U.S. Development Finance Corporation. Bhatia was a Fulbright scholar in India with SKS Microfinance (2001). He received his Master’s Degree in International Finance and Business from Columbia University (2004).
Morgan Richmond is a Senior Analyst at Climate Policy Initiative (CPI) and the lead analyst for CPI’s workstream on Adaptation & Resilience, seeking to accelerate the amount and effectiveness of climate finance that addresses adaptation. Richmond leads analysis and support for adaptation-relevant financial instruments developed under CPI’s Global Innovation Lab for Climate Finance and contributes to CPI’s work supporting climate adaptation finance in cities, for example, through research and analysis such as Analysis of Urban Climate Adaptation Finance and Building Climate Resilience in Cities through Insurance. Richmond has also supported the DFI+ Adaptation and Resilience Collaborative and works regularly with the Global Center on Adaptation, contributing to recent reports such as Adaptation Finance in the Context of Covid-19 and Financial Innovation for Climate Adaptation in Africa.
Moderator
Akash Deep is a Senior Lecturer in Public Policy specializing in finance at Harvard Kennedy School, faculty chair of the Infrastructure in a Market Economy executive program, and faculty co-chair of the International Finance Corporation executive program. He has also served as faculty chair of the Indian Administrative Service executive program at Harvard University and the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. His expertise lies in infrastructure finance and valuation, public-private partnerships, financial risk management and derivatives, and the management and regulation of financial institutions, financial markets, and pension funds. Deep teaches courses in financial investments, risk management and infrastructure finance in the degree and executive programs at Harvard. He has also led executive programs at the World Bank, the International Finance Corporation, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the Inter-American Development Bank, National University of Singapore, Booz & Co, KPMG, and Goldman Sachs, amongst others. Certified “Financial Risk Manager” by the Global Association of Risk Professionals, Deep holds a PhD in economics and an MA in operations research from Yale University, and a bachelors degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi.
