Bespoke research and strategic advice for sub-Saharan markets
Bespoke research and strategic advice for sub-Saharan markets
Our team
We are a team of committed Africa specialists with decades of combined experience advising the most influential companies and organisations on the continent. Our core team have significant on-the-ground experience living and working in Africa.
With a shared enthusiasm for generating positive impact, our core team members have diverse professional backgrounds and complementary skillsets developed in business, development, academia, consultancy and journalism.
Through our experiences, individually and together, we have developed specialist knowledge in a number of high-impact sectors, including energy, financial services, agriculture, health, human rights and peace building.

Jay Ireland
Non-Executive Chairman
Prior to his GE Africa appointment, Jay led GE Asset Management (GEAM), a global investment firm with approximately US$120 billion in assets under management. Before heading GEAM, he was President of NBC Universal Television Stations and Network Operations and was also the CFO of GE Plastics. Jay has held a number of Africa-focused executive positions outside of GE, including as the co-chair of the U.S.-Africa Business Center at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce (2017-2018), a vice chair and member of the Corporate Council on Africa (2012-2018), and the chairman of the U.S. President’s Advisory Council on Doing Business in Africa (2013-2018). Jay was named “International Business Leader of the Year” in both 2012 and 2013 by Africa Investor Magazine. He currently serves as a board member of the MasterCard Foundation, a charity dedicated to promoting youth employment in Africa.
Jay received a BA in Political Science from St. Lawrence University and serves as a member of its Board of Trustees.

Jyrki Koskelo
Advisory Board Chairman

Todd Johnson
Advisory Board Member
Prior to joining Sofala, Todd worked from 2019-2022 as the Risk and Intelligence Leader for a large, privately-held holding company and family office where he directed all aspects of global non-financial risk mitigation. From 2011-2019, Todd was the Johannesburg-based Risk Leader for GE Africa. In this position, he managed all non-financial risk mitigation efforts for GE’s component businesses across sub-Saharan Africa. From 2008-2011, Todd worked for GE’s global leadership team, including the CEO, on a wide variety of corporate strategy projects. Todd began his career at the Central Intelligence Agency, where he served for eight years as an Africa-focused political-military intelligence analyst.
In addition to his professional roles, Todd currently serves as an adjunct lecturer at IESE Business School in Barcelona, where he co-teaches a course on business in Africa to both MBAs and EMBAs. He also serves as a board member and finance committee chair of Emerging Public Leaders, a non-profit offering public service fellowships in Africa aimed at recruiting the continent's most promising future leaders and placing them in meaningful civil service positions. Previously, Todd was an adjunct faculty member at NYU’s Center for Global Affairs, where he taught a graduate course in African politics.
Todd has a BA in Political Science with Distinction from the University of Kansas and a Master of International Public Policy with Honours from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies.
He has published a wide variety of op-eds and book reviews focused on Africa, global security, and military history in publications including the Daily Maverick, Small Wars Journal, The War Room, Strategy Bridge, and Current Economics.

Baïdy Dieng
Advisory Board Member
For his last 12 years at EY, Baïdy held senior leadership positions including Advisory Services Leader for French Speaking Sub Saharan Africa (FSSA), Business Development Leader for FSSA, and member of the Africa Advisory Executive Committee for the Africa Region. Since leaving EY in 2019, Baïdy has created an investment vehicle taking minority influential stakes in SMEs, while participating in Senegalese investment clubs and networks as a board member to support local private sector development. He has also served on the board of the Economic Policies Study Centre (CEPOD) of Senegal’s Ministry of Economy since 2003 as a private sector representative. Baïdy holds a Master’s degree in Management and Finance from the Paris Business School (ISC) and an Executive Master’s degree in Public Affairs from the Paris Institute of Political Sciences (Sciences-Po).

Anna Riley
Managing Partner
A dual Finnish-British national, Anna started her career as a reporter at the Finnish News Agency (STT) and later led advocacy for investors in Africa towards multilateral bodies at the Brussels-based Private Investors for Africa. Anna’s motivation lies in supporting private sector-led development in the region. Anna has degrees in Political Science and International Relations from the University of Edinburgh and the University of Helsinki, respectively. She speaks French, Spanish, Finnish, and Portuguese.

Kitty Llewellyn
Managing Partner
Having begun her career at the International Herald Tribune in Paris, Kitty speaks French and has worked throughout French speaking Africa, particularly in Gabon, the Republic of Congo and the DRC. Kitty ran the Africa desk at Aegis Advisory before heading their specialist investigations division. She has a Master’s in African politics and history from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London. In 2009 she founded the charity ‘A Partner In Education’ which works to improve the quality of teaching and learning in Rwanda.

Ashley Elliot
Senior Advisor
Early in his career, Ashley worked in the office of the director of strategy at the World Bank Group in Washington, D.C. and at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Nairobi. He holds a BA in Social and Political Sciences from the University of Cambridge and an MA in International Relations and Economics from the Johns Hopkins University Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS).

Joshua Cauthen
East Africa Associate Partner
Joshua’s early career included managing a Gates Foundation-funded WASH project in eSwatini with Sister Cities International, and supporting Eastern Congo Initiative’s US-facing advocacy campaigns to promote security sector reform in the DRC. He holds a BA in Political Science from Texas Christian University and a Master’s degree in Public Administration from the Evans School of Public Policy and Governance, University of Washington. He is a Fulbright public policy fellow and during his fellowship served as a special assistant on policy and budget in the Ministry of Agriculture in Malawi.

Chiedza Danha
Southern Africa Director
Chiedza began her career with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in Nairobi, in the Department of Communications and Public Information as an environmental youth advocate. She went on to consult with various Africa-focused strategy firms where she worked closely with organisational leadership to increase visibility and helped them develop their local and global profiles. She has led teams in the research, strategy design and implementation of interventions intended to strengthen relationships with influencers within the stakeholder world, including host governments, regulators, consumers, rural communities and the general public.
Born in Zimbabwe and raised in Kenya and the UK, Chiedza has had a longstanding interest in the application of advocacy principles to align the complex, disparate and sometimes conflicting interests of Africa and its investment community. She has a BA in Law and Sociology from the University of Kent and an MA in Broadcast Journalism from the University of Sheffield. She also served as a Washington Mandela Fellow under President Barack Obama’s Young African Leadership Initiative.

Duncan Gellatly
Principal
Duncan began his career in Kenya with a Nairobi-based risk consultancy, producing regular country risk reports on South Sudan, Sudan, Somalia and Kenya, as well as leading the company’s forecasting and scenario planning capabilities. Duncan has also consulted for several Africa-focused political risk and intelligence companies as an analyst and a researcher. Duncan holds an MA in International Conflict Studies from King’s College London’s Department of War Studies and a BA in History from the University of Bristol.

Wadeisor Rukato
Principal
Before joining Sofala, Wadeisor was a researcher at International Crisis Group in Nairobi, Kenya, where her research was focused on the conflicts Sudan and South Sudan. She has conducted extensive research on Africa-China relations and, in 2020, she published a chapter on student movements and autocracies in Africa in an edited volume titled Gender, Protests and Political Change in Africa. Born in Zimbabwe and raised in South Africa, she has long been interested in how private sector-led development can generate social impact and transformation in Africa. She holds MA in Security, Leadership & Society as a fellow at the African Leadership Centre, King’s College London, as well as an MA in China Studies, from the Yenching Academy at Peking University in Beijing, China.

Victoire Malier
Senior Analyst
Prior to joining Sofala, Victoire worked as an analyst within Risk Advisory Group's Africa practice. There, she conducted enhanced due diligence investigations for asset management firms and private clients, enabling them to assess and manage integrity and regulatory risks across African jurisdictions. She has extensive experience leading projects in the renewable energy, infrastructure and logistics sectors. Victoire began her career with a financial services networking platform, specialising in investment research projects in emerging markets. Victoire holds a MSc in African Politics and a BA in Politics and International Relations from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS). Victoire is fluent in French and Spanish.

Florence Mghoi
Senior Analyst
Prior to joining Sofala, Florence worked for Control Risks’ Compliance, Forensics and Intelligence team where she supported clients with proactive and reactive risk management solutions. There, Florence played a lead role in forensic investigations, risk management advisory and due diligence assignments, working with clients across a broad range of sectors, from finance and natural resources to agriculture and international development. Florence is also a Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE) and, prior to joining Control Risks, worked in the actuarial and banking sectors. She holds an MBA specialising in Global Value Chains from the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing, China, and a BSc in Actuarial Science from Strathmore University in Nairobi. Florence is fluent in Kiswahili and is proficient in French and Mandarin.

Wambui Njehu
Analyst
Wambui has a legal background and started her career at a boutique commercial law firm in Nairobi, before joining the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP). There, she assisted in the prosecution of major anti-corruption cases and worked on the ODPP’s Law Reform Committee. She has previously worked with the World Youth Alliance, providing training on human dignity and human rights across Africa and advocating for the eradication of poverty and preventable disease with the ONE Campaign in East Africa. She holds an LLB in Law from the University of Nairobi and a Postgraduate Diploma in Law from the Kenya School of Law. She is also an alumnus of the Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI).

Leyla Haroon
Junior Analyst
Leyla is a recent graduate of King’s College London and holds an MA in International Political Economy. During her academic career, Leyla has conducted various research projects on political economy dynamics specific to the Great Lakes region and East Africa, notably on renewable energy transition in DRC. She also holds a BA in Politics and International Relations from Queen Mary University of London, during which she specialised in the political economy of development, with her thesis focusing on Kenya’s post-independence development dynamics.
Our in-country teams
We have over 100 in-country team members across the region, who provide advice, insights and bespoke research. This way of working allows us to combine deep analytical and advisory expertise with unique and bespoke local-level insights to provide the best-in-class advice and intelligence to inform clients’ decision-making.
Countries with 4+ team members:
Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Senegal
Countries with 2-3 team members:
Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe, DRC, Angola, Cameroon, Gabon, Guinea, Côte d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Mauritania, Egypt, Madagascar
Countries with 1 team member:
Burundi, Malawi, Central African Republic, Namibia, Botswana, Mali, Guinea-Bissau, Gambia, Togo, Benin, Sudan, South Sudan, Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Mauritius, Libya, Niger, Chad, Somalia, Lesotho, eSwatini, Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Liberia

Siriki Traoré
Côte d'Ivoire

Yvonne Maingey
Kenya
Yvonne has completed a PhD in climate change and adaptation at the University of Nairobi, Institute for Climate Change and Adaptation. Her research focused on the connection between national development and climate change adaptation, with a specific interest in multiple stakeholder engagement as a tool for mainstreaming climate change adaptation into national infrastructural development. Yvonne has a Masters degree in environmental education from New York University and a LLB in Law from the London School of Economics (LSE).

Yared Sertse
Ethiopia

Nana Osei Mainoo
Ghana

Thierry Viengele
DRC

Daisy Kambalame
Malawi
Work with Sofala
We’re focused on building a team of people who inspire us
We’re looking for bright, curious people with strong analytical and problem-solving skills who thrive in fast-paced, dynamic environments and have a passion for driving positive impact on the African continent. We are committed to building a company which is – simply put – a nice place to work. Our working culture is relatively informal and flexible. We believe that for teamwork to thrive we need to treat each other with respect, politeness and kindness.
Join our African consulting network
What we do would not be possible without our network of dedicated, in-country research partners, subject-matter experts and consultants. At Sofala Partners, we offer a wide range of consulting assignments with prestigious clients working on some of the most interesting and consequential projects in Africa. If you are interested in exploring consulting opportunities with us, please direct enquiries to consulting@sofalapartners.com. Please note that we cannot guarantee a response in all cases.
Opportunities
Sofala Perspectives Newsletter
A platform for friends of Sofala covering our latest news and insights on African markets.