Increasing Participation of Women in Private Capital

This training was led by key industry players who are laying the groundwork for organizational change in their firms by providing practical systems, processes and recommendations about how to attract more women and support their career progression.

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Sessions

Session 1: Building Senior Buy-in for Real Change in Organizational Culture 

Shami Nissan, Partner at Actis, led the push for broader inclusion of women throughout the firm and worked with Neil Brown, Partner, as an early proponent of change. Together, Shami and Neil will share how they are generating and harnessing momentum to execute an actionable strategy and increase the number of women on investment teams within Actis.

Session 2: Practical Approaches to Recruiting, Retaining, and Promoting Women 

In this session, faculty will address how to design and implement policies that support the broader inclusion of women. Presentations will discuss where to find talent, which recruitment approaches work, and how to collaboratively create and institute policies that encourage representation, retention, and internal ascension of women. Practitioners will speak from their own personal experience as change-makers within their respective firms.

Faculty

Shami leads Actis’ approach to sustainability, ESG and impact, working closely with investment colleagues and company management to assess and manage ESG issues, helping to build world-class businesses which are leaders in sustainability, and which deliver measurable benefits to society and the planet.

Shami is a member of the Actis Executive Committee and Inclusion and Diversity Committee. Shami is an Advisory Board member of the World Bank/IFC’s Operating Principles for Impact Management and is an Advisory Panel Member of the G7 Impact Taskforce (ITC).

With over 20 years of experience in responsible investment, primarily serving the private equity, banking and development finance sectors, Shami was drawn to Actis by its leadership in sustainable investing, the firm’s diverse culture and the opportunity to focus on global infrastructure markets.

Before joining Actis in 2014, she was a senior consultant at PwC’s Sustainability and Climate Change team for ten years. Prior to this, Shami led the London business of Innovest Strategic Value Advisors, providing sustainability research and analytics to institutional investors and asset managers. Shami has also worked with the United Nations Development Programme in Central America.

Shami holds an MSc in Environmental Technology, with Distinction, from Imperial College London and a BSc in Biological Sciences from the University of Durham.

Neil joined Actis in 2013 as head of the Investor Development Group based in London, he is responsible for Actis’ global fundraising and investor relations activities. He is a member of Actis’ Executive Committee and Exit Committee and sits as an observer on Investment Committees across all Actis’ asset classes.

Prior to joining Actis in 2013, Neil worked in Sydney as a Founding Director of the boutique Private Equity advisory firm, Minerva Capital Advisors Ltd (2009-2013).

Previously, he was Head of Global Debt & Equity Capital Markets and Head of Funds Management at Allco Finance (Sydney, 2007-2008). Neil also brings experience from his time as Global Head of the Sales, Products & Client Services division with Citigroup Alternative Investments (New York, 2004-2007).

Neil holds an MBA from Melbourne Business School where he was the Clemenger medal winner on the Dean’s list, and he also holds a First Class Honours degree in Industrial Chemistry from The University of New South Wales, where he graduated first in his class.

Roshini is a Managing Director, Private Equity at Everstone Capital Asia Pte based out of
Singapore. Her role includes driving value creation in investee companies across all
verticals in the areas of high-performance teams and human capital management, brand
transformation and ESG. Roshini also heads Diversity and Inclusion for the firm and its
investments.

Roshini serves on the boards of 2 public companies –Persistent Systems Ltd and JM Financial. She was earlier on thecboard of Max Healthcare, the largest hospital network in India.

Roshini has more than 30 years of general management and marketing experience and
strong track record in consumer industries, setting strategy and improving operational
effectiveness to deliver greater financial returns.

Prior to Everstone, she was the CEO and Managing Director for the Walt Disney
Company’s Consumer, media and retail business for South Asia, where she set up and
grew the business to more than $400 million in revenue. Some of her earlier roles were
with Unilever, American Express, Mattel, and Polaris

She believes very strongly in entrepreneurship as the future for innovation and growth and
works pro bono with Endeavor.org as their global ambassador and panelist helping
shortlist the next generation of growth businesses from emerging markets across the
world. She also supports Enterprise Singapore, A Govt of Singapore enterprise as a
mentor to some of the tech and consumer startups based in Singapore. In addition to this,
Roshini is the co-chair of the DEI committee at the Singapore Venture Capital Association.

Roshini holds an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management (Ahmedabad, India) and
an undergraduate degree from St Stephens College (Delhi, India) majoring in Economics
(Hons).

She is a keen marathoner and passionate about running, and loves exploring new places
during her runs.

Additional practitioners are to be announced.