Kwabena Poku-Amanfo

Biography

Before forming ECM, Kwabena was a director in Standard Chartered Bank, covering Corporate Advisory (M&A and Infrastructure) for West Africa - 2011 to 2012. In this role, he advised on several transactions including the ground-breaking UGPL Consortium $500 million recapitalisation of Union Bank, the only one of the CBN mandated Bank recapitalisations that entailed the international investors.

Before joining Standard Chartered, he spent over three years (2008 to 2011) at Diamond Capital, initially as the Co-Head of Investment Banking and later as the CEO/MD of the Captive Investment Bank and Asset Management Firm. The firm had a legacy proprietary and private equity (funds) portfolio in excess of $165mm, spanning several industries including Telecoms, Oil & Gas, Power, FMCG, Real Estate & Lodging, and Healthcare. He represented the Company on the Board of Directors of investee Companies and Investment/Advisory Committees of the funds.

Prior to Diamond Capital, Kwabena was an investment banker with JPMorgan in New York, from 2000 to 2008, where he worked in the Financial Institutions Group, Real Estate & Lodging Group, and Financial Sponsors Coverage team. He was involved in various transactions/roles such as the origination and execution of corporate finance and M&A advisory transactions, in a broad range of industries. (Advised on M&A transactions with an aggregate transaction value in excess of $2.5 billion and raised over $25.0 billion in capital markets transactions). Including the $36 billion sale of Equity One an Office REIT – at the time & still the largest sale of portfolio of Office Properties - Globally

Kwabena began his career as a Treasury Manager/Treasury Analyst of the National Grid Group in London where he was responsible for treasury management and investment analysis. He later moved to Dresdner Kleinwort Benson (London UK) as a Risk and Audit Manager for their Investment Banking and Investment Management divisions. Prior to business school, he was an independent consultant (capital markets and Investment services) for the National Commercial Bank, Jeddah Saudi Arabia.

Kwabena has an MBA (Concentration in Corporate Finance) from Cornell University - Johnson Graduate School of Management, Ithaca, New York and a B.Sc. in Biochemistry from the University of Kent - Canterbury U.K.

Kwabena is an all-round financier/Investment Banker. Hi is also a UK trained Chartered Accountant and qualified member of the Association of Corporate Treasurers UK.