BimaLab has had the honor of working with some the leading minds in insurtech from across the world. Our advisors have offered guidance on sales, marketing, legal, strategy, growth, product development, technology advisory, and enhancing the user experience.
2023
Egypt
Noha Shaker
Secretary General of the Egyptian Fintech Association and Vice President of the Africa FinTech Network
Germany
Peter Kleisen
Senior Expert International Relations (Oversight) at European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA)
Bayo Adesanya
Strategy, Digital Transformation, e-Commerce, Emerging Customers, Business Transformation
Switzerland
Mohamed Wann
Director and Head of Africa in the EMEA Principal Investments & Acquisitions team at Swiss Re
Bert Opdebeeck
Founder, Microinsurance Master
Bert Opdebeeck is the founder and CEO of the Microinsurance
Master accelerator programme, which is on a mission to strengthen and inspire microinsurance
leaders and their organisations to make a difference in the business of reducing the risks
of low-income communities. In the past four accelerators since 2017, 74 key decision-makers
from 31 countries praised the programme with a 97% recommendation rating. Microinsurance
Master is particularly proud of the real-world results achieved by these microinsurance
champions. Bert is involved in the sector since 2006. He worked with numerous MFIs, mutuals
and insurers in Africa and Latin America while establishing the microinsurance practice at
BRS and played a key role in the establishment of the microinsurance key performance
indicators.
Noha Shaker
Secretary General of the Egyptian Fintech Association and Vice President of the
Africa FinTech Network
Noha Shaker, 40, is the founder and Secretary General of the
Egyptian Fintech Association and the elected Vice President of both the Africa FinTech
Network and the union of African FinTech associations. Noha’s experience in the financial
industry spanned over 20 years; Twelve of which she worked for the CIB. Serving as head of
the Digital Ventures and Strategic Alliance at CIB along with her work in technology and
management consulting enabled her to pursue more opportunities and take on new challenges.
Noha was selected as one of the leaders shaping the future of the financial industry for
2019- FinTech hotlist by Innovate Finance, for her efforts in building collaborative echo
systems to grow and enhance the impact FinTech startups can have on enhancing the social,
digital and financial inclusion across Egypt and Africa.
Tang Loaec
President, P2P Protect Europe
Tang Loaec is a serial entrepreneur, launching for decades new
businesses in the financial service industries, as a Fintech/Insurtech start-up founder, as
the managing partner of a strategic & operational consulting firm doubled as a start-up
studio, and as a corporate business builder. In 2023 he stands concurrently as: President
P2P Protect Europe – a strategic & operational boutique advisory firm; and General Manager
of Nuapay SAS – a French/EU regulated payment services provider;
Over the years, Tang was instrumental in supporting insurance digital platform launch for
large mutual insurers ( MAIF France, MAE Insurance Tunisia), digital banks and insurtechs.
He is popularizing in Europe, Africa and Asia “start-up-as-a-service” approaches to enabling
financial institutions or corporates to build new models on agile mode. He was also the
founder of TongJuBao in China, a precursor in peer-to-peer insurance, inspiring the models
thereafter implemented by Alipay or a Tencent affiliate to hundreds of millions of users.
Before that he launched from scratch the activities of Oney Bank in China in 2006 and
operated business of various French Wholesale and Retail banking groups.
Peter Kleisen
Senior Expert International Relations (Oversight) at European Insurance and
Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA)
Peter has been working in the field of insurance and
international finance for 18 years. Currently he is a Senior Advisor at the European
Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) in Frankfurt am Main. Prior to this
role, Peter worked as Advisor Inclusive Insurance at the Central Bank of Paraguay, as
economic advisor at the Dutch Embassies in Peru and Bolivia, and as Senior Advisor
International Finance at the Dutch Finance Ministry. He has a master's degrees in law
(Groningen University), International Politics (Antwerp University) and Leadership in
Development Finance (Frankfurt School of Finance and Management). Peter was a proud mentor
of innovative start-ups during previous BimaLab rounds in Kenya and Ghana, and he strongly
supports the goal and set-up of the program.
Hannah Grant
Economic Policy, Finance, Insurance -GIZ
Hannah is a highly motivated individual with over 18 years’
experience working on insurance policy and regulation. She has worked as the Head of
Secretariat, Access to Insurance Initiative (A2ii) and the IAIS Liaison Officer, Access to
Insurance Initiative at GIZ. She has also held positions such as the Head of International
Policy and Reinsurance, and a Policy Advisor, International Policy and Reinsurance at
Insurance Europe, Brussels, BE. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree, 1 st Class Honors,
in Geography from the University of Edinburgh and an Advanced Certificate from the Charted
Insurance Institute, London.
Pooja Bhatt
Co-founder/director, QuantaRisk
Pooja is a qualified actuary with extensive experience across
various geographies and cultures from EMEA, APAC, and the Americas. She is currently a Board
Trustee of the Kenyan chapter of New Faces New Voices, a Pan-African woman in finance
network affiliated to the multi-million-dollar Graca Machel Trust. In 2018, she co-founded
QuantaRisk, an insurance advisory and technology firm in Nairobi, Kenya. Her recent
contributions include InsurTech solutions such as QuantaInsure to boost financial
inclusivity. Pooja has been a mentor for the BimaLab (Kenya) and InnoLab (Ghana) InsurTech
accelerators funded by UK FCDO. Over the span of her career and education, Pooja has been
awarded several accolades. In 2021, she was in the Top 10 Kenyan Wallstreet Angaza Awards
(Top 10 Women in Banking and Finance across East Africa). In 2018, she was featured in the
Business Daily Top 40 Under 40 Women. In 2015, she was awarded the Stars of the Future (Top
30 under 30) by the Actuarial Post magazine in the U.K. Upon graduation from Bayes Business
School, she was awarded the RSA Insurance technical award for outstanding academic
achievement and contribution.
David Beddows
Senior Pricing Actuary | Vice President, Swiss Re
David is a qualified actuary, specialising in Life and Health,
and has worked in various actuarial roles across the life insurance and health sectors
spanning 18 years. He joined Swiss Re in 2021 in their Luxembourg office as a Senior L&H
Pricing Actuary. He is leading the data and analytics for a diabetes risk-sharing concept,
which develops a financial risk-sharing structure alongside the rollout of a digital
app-based behavioural/nutrition programme. He also submitted a proposal to the Sprouts
programme (internal SR innovation programme) relating to a disability income concept for
collaboration between insurers and health service providers. Prior to joining Swiss Re,
David was an Actuarial Director at Optum UK working on advisory projects including
Co-designing and leading financial and actuarial workstreams within the NHS England
Population Health Management Development Programme.
Monica Borges
Client Service Manager at SwissRE Corporate Solutions Mexico
Monica has 20+ years' experience in primary insurance business
operations. Out of that, the last 15 years had been focused on IT consulting/transformation
within the insurance industry –both as insurtech and lately as “client” on behalf of
SwissRe, serving at times as liaison to the insurtech partners. She has a deep knowledge of
IT product management and development, as well as project leadership and delivery
management. She has worked on IT consulting company (before the term insurtech was on a
hype) focused on insurance solutions for some years, and then migrated to “client” side,
seeking and liaising with providers who could support our business strive on a competitive
market through the offer of innovative tech solutions. Monica is experienced and connected
to the insurtech environment in Latin America region, seeking to expand such knowledge into
other innovative ecosystems.
Adebowale Banjo
Co-Founder/CEO at mycover.ai
Adebowale Banjo is the Co-founder/CEO of MyCover.ai. He is a
consummate professional with years of experience in Business Development, Strategy and
Business Analysis; involving both start-ups and growth companies. Before embarking on the
journey of building an AI-driven InsurTech company for emerging markets, he was the Head of
Development at Mall For Africa, an e-commerce platform, where he led the company’s expansion
plans to Ghana and Kenya. His previous work experiences cut across Banking,
telecommunications and consulting.
Mohamed Wann
Director and Head of Africa in the EMEA Principal Investments & Acquisitions
team, Swiss Re
Mohamed Wann is a Director and Head of Africa in the EMEA
Principal Investments & Acquisitions team at Swiss Re. He is part of a team responsible for
overseeing and developing Swiss Re's portfolio of direct investments in the insurance value
chain in EMEA, as well as supporting broader strategic initiatives of Swiss Re in the
region. His career spans 15 years at leading global financial institutions operating in
Johannesburg, Lagos, London, New York, and Zurich, where he is currently based. Prior to
joining Swiss Re in 2021 Mohamed was with The Carlyle Group, a global alternative asset
manager, in Lagos then Johannesburg for almost nine years (2012-20), as part of a team that
raised and fully deployed a $700 million fund dedicated to buyouts and growth equity
investments in Africa. He started his career at Goldman Sachs, where he worked in investment
banking in New York (2007-09), then in principal investments in New York and London
(2009-12), where he was involved in a variety of private equity and private credit
transactions across industries and geographies.
Teresa Pedro
L&H Business Management, Swiss Re
Teresa works in Client Accounting Services, Business Management
at SWISS RE, Zurique. Previously, she has held positions such as Product & Project
Manager-Health Insurance at AEGON Santander Portugal, Executive member of the Portuguese
National Plan for financial education and Product Manager of insurance products and managed
funds at the Portuguese Insurance and Pension Funds Supervision Authority, and an Auditor,
Financial Services and Operations department at Ernst &Young. Teresa has a Post-Graduate
Degree in Banking, Stock Market and Insurance Law Law from Coimbra University. She also
holds a Master's and a B.SC. In Economics from the Nova School of Business and Economics.
Delphine Uwacu
Property & Specialty Underwriting, Swiss RE
Delphine joined Swiss Re in Zürich in May 2021, taking on the
role of an Agriculture Underwriter for the French speaking countries of the Europe, Middle
East and Africa region. She is currently responsible of developing reinsurance solutions for
insurance companies, including the implementation of complex reinsurance transactions or the
conception of innovative agro-insurance solutions throughout these regions. Prior to joining
Swiss Re, she was responsible for the P&C portfolio for France, BeLux and NorthAfrica for
more than 6 years at MS Amlin in Zürich. She holds a Master's Degree in Actuarial Sciences,
University of Lausanne.
Kudzai Bingepinge
Head P&C Solutions MEA, Swiss Re
Kudzai is the Head P and C Solutions MEA at Swiss Re. He has
held previous roles. Before this, he held previous roles at Swiss Re such as the Regional
Manager P and C, Southern Africa and the Property Treaty Underwriter. He has had the
pleasure of working with RSA, Royal and Sun Alliance Insurance Company of Canada as a
Reinsurance Consultant, Commercial Insurance Portfolio Analyst, Corporate Strategy Analyst
and Commercial Underwriter. He has a Bachelor of Economics and Business from St. Mary’s
University, Halifax, Nova Scotia and holds several accreditations and designations from the
American Institute of Chartered Property Casualty Underwriters, Global Risk Management
Institute and the Insurance Institute of Canada.
Donna Cowell
Head of Life and Health Pricing, iptiQ EMEA, Swiss Re
Donna is a Creative and innovative Actuary, enjoying a
commercially focused career in the Protection industry. She has twenty years' experience in
the financial sector including several demanding roles spanning distribution, insurance, and
reinsurance. Education: She has an FIA status specializing in Life and Finance and
Investments and a First Class BA (Hons) Economics from the University of Leeds. Currently
the Head of Life and Health Pricing, iptiQ EMEA at Swiss Re, she has also held previous
positions such as the Senior Products Actuary, Swiss Re Protection Partners at Swiss Re, and
the Strategic Planning and Market Insight Manager Protection, and Pricing Development
Actuary, Protection Pricing at Aviva UK.
Richard Leftley
Founder, WAVU Ltd.; Executive Vice President, International, Micro Insurance
Company
Richard pioneered micro insurance starting in January 2002 when
he founded MicroEnsure which became the global leading insurtech providing insurance to over
64 million people in 12 countries across Africa and Asia. In 2020 Richard co-founded MIC
Global which became a leading reinsurer underwriting products globally via its Lloyds
syndicate 5183. In 2022 Richard founded Wavu a consultancy focused on creating digital
insurance products for the masses. Through Wavu Richard works with the team at ARK Venture
Studio where he is leading on establishing Migrasure the world’s first insurer dedicated to
the needs of vulnerable migrants as well as leading on creating YuBuntu a health and
wellness platform aimed at middle income consumers.
Bayo Adesanya
Strategy I Digital Transformation I e-Commerce l Emerging Customers I Business
Transformation
Bayo is an experienced C-level executive with a background in
Retail Sales, Management Consulting and Financial Services. Over the course of his career,
he has helped to significantly improve the performance of people and organisations in the
private and public sectors. He is the Former Divisional Head for Axa Direct where he
developed, delivered and managed customer-focused digital solutions for AXA Mansard
Insurance, a member of the AXA group. Prior to AXA, Bayo worked at Phillips Consulting
Limited, where he held various positions such as Associate Partner for Business Advisory
Services, Managing Consultant for Business Advisory Service Division and Senior Consultant
for Strategy Practice
Helen Osore
Head of Inclusive Insurance at APA Insurance Limited
Helen is a seasoned Microinsurance practitioner with over 20
year’s experience in both urban and rural set-ups backed with successful turnaround
initiatives. Her focus on innovation and market-led solutions has seen her pioneer many
firsts in the mass market space: among them, the first 100% cash free microfinance in the
World and the Pioneer Manager of the first Deposit Taking Microfinance Bank in Kenya.
Helen’s experience in Microfinance, Bancassurance and Microinsurance has given her the
opportunity to develop microinsurance solutions, frameworks and processes that improve the
competitive positioning and promote the brand value of Organizations. Helen holds an MBA in
Strategic Manager and BCOM Honors in Marketing.
Fridah Kimotho
Senior Product Manager | Swiss Re Corporate Solutions
Fridah is the Product Owner, RDS Supply Chain Resilience at
Swiss Re. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Computer Systems Networking and
Telecommunications, a Master of Engineering (M.Eng.), Master of Telecommunication
Engineering, and a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Computer Systems Networking and
Telecommunications from the Moscow Technical University of Communications and Informatics
(MTUCI). Her work experience includes being a Business Development Analyst for Digital
Markets, Junior Investment Analyst, Principal Investments & Aquistions at Swiss Re Corporate
Solutions and Research Assistant at Chair of Technology and Innovation Managment, ETH
Zurich.
Ezekiel Macharia
CEO & Chief Actuary at Kenbright
Ezekiel is a Fellow of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries
(UK) the Actuarial Society of Kenya. He holds a bachelor's degree in Actuarial Science from
the University of Nairobi. He is a board advisory member of the Actuarial Academy of East
Africa, a former council member of The Actuarial Society of Kenya and a member of the
Environmental, social and governance (ESG) task force of The Actuarial Society of Kenya.
Ezekiel joined the financial services provider, Kenbright Holdings Limited, in 2016 as CEO
and Chief Actuary in charge of its subsidiaries in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania & Rwanda. In his
professional career, Ezekiel has over thirteen years’ experience in the East African market
specialising in property & casualty, life, health insurance and most recently IFRS 17
consulting. In his previous six-year service as a Council member of the Actuarial Society of
Kenya (TASK), he supported the development of actuarial and risk management skills in East
Africa.
James Norman
International Business Development Director- Sedgwick Int. Insurance
James is the Head of Business Development, Sedgwick
International. He is responsible for sourcing of new business outside of Americas, with a
focus on multinational work, strategic growth, brand profile, partnerships, and improving
overall professional services culture and approach. He is a Global insurance executive,
strategist, writer, mentor, and consultant. bringing 22 years’ experience across claims,
leadership, and strategy. Global network of clients, with a proven track record of building
teams, people and practices, creating new products, partnerships, M & A, to deliver success
at all levels in - an industry thought leader, influencer, and positive disruptor for
transformation and growth. James holds a Bachelor of Arts (Sociology) with Honours (2:1), Coventry University, UK and an International Certificate of Risk Management, IRM, London, UK. His previous work experience includes, but not limited to, being the Director/Global Head of Strategy and Business Development- Charles Taylor Adjusting and the Head of Insurance Practice; and Market Lead for Business Development and Sales, KPMG East Africa.
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