Ori Rewane, Director, Chapel Hill Denham

Ori Rewane is an experienced investor relations and communications specialist with over 2 decades of demonstrated top-level experience that spans across the financial services (re-insurance, banking, trust services, private equity and venture capital) sectors in Africa and Europe. A director at Chapel Hill Denham, which commenced in January 2024, she was Vice-President/Head of Investor Relations, Fundraising & Communications at Verod Capital. Verod is a leading award-winning African investment management firm. Their private equity arm manages over US$364 million in assets and has invested in over 25 middle-market high-growth companies across 3 funds. Verod Capital’s private equity funds invest in a range of industries including healthcare, education, agribusiness, renewable energy, consumer products and services, financial and business services with investments ranging from US$10 million to US$25 million. The venture capital fund (Verod-Kepple Africa Ventures) focuses on early to growth stage tech-enabled start-ups in Nigeria and the rest of Africa.

Prior to joining Verod, Ori was Group Head of Investor Relations at FCMB Group Plc for over a decade, where she set up one of the first in-house investor relations departments in a listed company in Nigeria, and steered its growth over the years to a full-suite service provider to all the operating companies that make up FCMB Group Plc. In an expanded role, she also led the digital transformation of FCMB Trustees Ltd, revamping FCMB Trustees’ clients’ path to accessing digitalised estate planning tools and dashboards and catalysing the company’s growth to becoming a top-3 player by 2025.

An advocate for women empowerment, Rewane says widely acknowledged data indicates that women account for 60% to 80% of smallholder farmers in Africa, and that despite this, fewer than 20% of landholders on the continent are women.

According to her, though this figure fluctuates between countries, one fact remains, and that is, women in Africa’s sub-Saharan agricultural economy deserve far more agency.

For Ori, the pace of change has been slow, and we need more initiatives to redress the balance and close the gender gap even in agriculture by supporting women across the value chain.

Rewane has a background in international re-insurance from Swiss Re in Zurich and London, and financial PR and investor relations consultancy experience from Citigate Dewe Rogerson in London. She holds an LLB in Law from the University of Hertfordshire and an LLM in Petroleum Law & Policy from the University of Dundee, Scotland and has attended executive training programmes at leading business schools including Harvard, INSEAD and Columbia Business School.