Michelle Essomé

Essomé was born in New York[4] in October, 1968.[5] She was raised in Washington D.C. and also lived in Niger for a short period as a child.[6] She has an MBA in Finance from Columbia Business School,[7] where she was a Robert F. Toigo fellow.[4] She also obtained a BBA in Finance from Howard University[8] in Washington DC, where she was the recipient of scholarships including one from the Wall Street Journal.[9] She was initially interested in politics and her father encouraged her to be a journalist but during her time at Howard, her interest switched to Finance and she moved to the Howard University's School of Business. Later on, whilst working for Goldman Sachs, she won an MBA scholarship at Columbia Business School, where she is still involved, interviewing prospective students.[6] She is the inaugural recipient of the Columbia Business School Young Alumni of the Year Award (2014).[9]

Essomé's investment banking career has spanned over 30 years with roles in equities, fixed income and investment management. She has worked in the US, UK and France.[4]

After university Essomé started her career at Merrill Lynch in New York.[6] She later moved to Goldman Sachs and, after business school, to Chase, (later JPMorgan Chase), where she spent time in London in Global Syndicated Finance and on the Securitisation Team.[6] After leaving JPMorgan Chase, she went to Paris and worked for a woman’s organisation, promoting women in business.[6] She was then recruited back to Lehman Bros in London in a strategic role to attract more women and ethnic minorities to the bank.[1][6] Afterwards she moved to Nomura, when Lehman was bought by them in the UK.[4][6][7] She was previously a Director at Neuberger Berman[8]

In September, 2011, Essomé was appointed chief executive officer of the African Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (AVCA), a pan-African industry body which aims to catalyse investment in Africa,[10][11] to promote the continent and enable private equity and venture capital investment there.[10][11] She describes the reason for her recruitment as being to drive the company forward from its then position as a defunct association, into an organisation with global reach, able to provide world class research, networking and convening opportunities for fund managers and advocates on their behalf to the world.[6]

When she joined, she had to wind down the legacy entity and set up a new one in the UK, recruit the board and new members, establish good governance, attract a team and build up a research capability to prove Africa’s attractiveness as an investment location.[6] From 2011-2020, AVCA grew both in size and services offered; its members are now made up of more than 150 companies that manage more than $ 1.5 trillion in assets and the number of attendees at its annual conference has more than doubled since 2011.[12] From 2013-2018, PE investment in Africa totalled $17.8bn.[13]

Whilst at AVCA, she developed a deep understanding and appreciation of how investors - both multinational companies and private equity investors - were succeeding in the consumer sector on the African continent.[14]

Essome has worked in the US, UK and France.[4]

Hobbies include running, swimming, reading and travelling.[6]