This meet-up is part of a series of EVPA events on Investing for Development.
What is this fail lab about?
Even though "fail fast" is a key principle tought in any accelerator program and lean start up course, it is still a taboo subject in many countries and cultures and few people openly want to talk about their failures. This is true for start up founders and entrepreneurs but also those that support and invest in entrepreneurship.
In this new edition of Investing for Development, EVPA members will meet in a safe space to share their most disastrous, challenging and unsuccessful experiences in entrerpreneurship support and finance in an informal and humorous way, explaining the points where things did go unexpectedly and what they think they could have done differently at that time. The EVPA FaiLab is a new way of sharing and learning! Provide and receive support by your peers in the Investing for Impact Community!
If you are an EVPA member, you support and invest in entrepreneurship in emerging countries and you would like share your experience at the EVPA FaiLab please contact Anja König or Martijn Blom!
> Register here
Laure Wessemius-Chibrac
Laure Wessemius-Chibrac is Managing Director of Cordaid Investment Management BV. She has 20 years of experience in banking and investment.
She started working in 1995 at Banque Nationale de Paris in Equity Advisory, then joined ABN AMRO Rothschild in 2000, first in Paris where she structured equity transactions, and from 2001 in London where she directed marketing and syndication of equity and equity-linked transactions. She then moved to The Netherlands and in 2010 co-founded a consultancy firm in strategy and financial advisory. In parallel, Laure was involved in various projects as a volunteer. Since June 2013, she has been heading the investment activities of Cordaid, managing EUR 70m investments in MFI's and SME funds in fragile and developing countries. She holds various board positions in other funds: Secretary of the Board of PYME Capital Latino America, Member of the Board and of the Audit Committee of FPM (Fond pour l'inclusion financiere au Congo) in DRC and Member of the Supervisory Board of the Rabo Rural Fund in The Netherlands.
Laure holds a Masters in Management from NEOMA Business School.
Julia Rohe-Frydrych
Keith Wallace
Keith Wallace is a Scotsman with a passion for entrepreneurs and deal-making. Having co-founded the Dutch Investors Club (DeInvesteerdersClub) he put his vision of joint investments within the Netherlands and further afield into effect.
With deals in Africa and Asia, as well as Europe, this small group of active investors has striven from the beginning to make impact as well as financial returns. Working with the Hivos Foundation, he was part of the team that founded Hivos Impact Investments, where he sits in the investment team and manages the portfolio companies of the Hivos Food and Lifestyle Fund. Keith is also Global Ringmaster of Get In The Ring, an international entrepreneurial competition that takes place in over 100 countries and allows him to work with entrepreneurs and investors from a different perspective.