Meet the Facilitators

Hany Assaad is Co-founder of Avanz Capital Management and the Chairman of Avanz Capital Egypt, its Egyptian subsidiary, established to manage fund-of-funds and other specialist private capital funds investing in private equity and venture capital in emerging and growth markets.

Clarisa De Franco
Founder, Impact Advise (3x Impact Partner)
Sr Advisor, Allied Climate Partners

Clarisa De Franco, is a seasoned impact investing expert with 25 years of experience. Founder of Impact Advise, she specializes in LP/GP relationships, due diligence, investment selection, and firm building across emerging markets. As a senior advisor to Allied Climate Partners, she aims to boost capital flow to climate projects. She led the PE funds team at British International Investment, managing a $2.5 billion portfolio, across Africa, Asia and the Caribbean. 

Melanie de Nysschen is a financial services industry professional with a legal background and extensive experience in the investment banking industry. Her expertise lies in corporate finance and capital markets, including advising and executing on local and cross-border transactions such as mergers, acquisitions, and disposals, takeovers, listings, de-listings, public and private capital raisings, block trades, and selldowns.  

Andrea Heinzer

Founder and Managing Director, Omnia Impact
(3x Impact Partner)

Andrea Heinzer has 20 years of experience in impact investing, development finance and a background in strategic leadership. Since early 2024, she is the Founder and Managing Director of Omnia Impact Advisors, an independent investment advisory firm. Prior to this, she held the position of CIO at Obviam, where she was overseeing portfolios of private market impact investment strategies including the Swiss DFI SIFEM.  

Alison Klein is managing director of Akmazo, an independent advisory firm dedicated to helping investors flourish through strategy formation, due diligence, firm-building and investment selection. Alison is an experienced private equity investor with nearly 20 years of experience in funds and co-investments in both developed and emerging markets. She spent over 10 years in the private equity team at FMO, the Dutch development finance institution, and was previously part of the funds team at AlpInvest, a commercial PE asset manager.  

Paola Ravacchioli 
Coach and Consultant 
P.O.E

Paola Ravacchioli is a funds-of-funds investment specialist providing strategic advice on risk capital investing to a wide range of actors, including private equity and venture capital firms, consultancies, development finance institutions, and government agencies. Her work has focused on training and advising fund managers and investors, carrying out project appraisals, and advising on programs to promote the private equity and venture capital industry in various countries.