Lisa Pinsley, Director: Head of Africa, Energy Infrastructure, Actis

Lisa joined Actis in 2016 and in 2020 was appointed Head of Africa for the Energy Infrastructure team taking responsibility for originating and managing energy investments across the continent. Lisa has 12 years of experience in power sector investing and 22 years of experience in emerging markets, most recently as Director of Africa Investments at American Capital Energy & Infrastructure. At American Capital she sourced and led the Taiba wind project in Senegal which was bought by Lekela, Actis Energy 3’s pan-African renewable platform and she also sourced and led the Azura gas platform in Nigeria.

Prior to her role at American Capital, Lisa was a Business Development Consultant at Globeleq (2012) and a Vice President at the AES Africa Power Company (AES Corporation’s Africa vehicle, 2009-2011), where she worked on the Dibamba and Kribi projects in Cameroon bought by Globeleq Africa, an Actis Infrastructure 2 platform.

Previously, Lisa lived and worked in Afghanistan for five years, both for the United Nations Development Programme (2003-2005) and then as an Advisor in a chief-of-staff role to the Afghan Finance Minister (2005-2007).

Lisa holds an MBA with honours from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, an MA in Literature with distinction from the University of Sussex, and a BA cum laude in Applied Mathematics and Computer Science from Harvard University.