Vinayak Mahbubani joined The Afara Initiative in July 2021 as Chief of Staff. Having built his career in investment banking, he joins our team to drive and support key strategic initiatives, including a specific focus on our for-profit endeavours around funding transitions and investing in ventures that accelerate our work.
At Deutsche Bank, he was part of the Europe Prime Finance desk responsible for carrying out risk and pricing analysis for hedge fund clients. More recently, he worked with DC Advisory India, advising clients on fundraising and M&A transactions in the Technology (Education, Logistics, Marketplace) and Industrials group.
Vinayak holds an M.Sc in Economics and a minor in Mathematics, and he has successfully passed all three levels of the CFA examinations. He served as President for AIESEC in IIT Kharagpur (India) in 2016 and has served in a consulting capacity to various non-profits across India.
Adejoke is the co-founder of the Bridge Program (the flagship program of The Afara Initiative) and lead creative at BDS.
Adejoke is passionate about national and international development and currently leads an indigenous brand challenging the reliance on imported products and creating superior products that can compete in international markets. She is an astute commercial lawyer and general counsel, with two decades of broad-based and cross-geographical experience. She has worked in both the public and private sectors, leading the management and delivery of legal services across multiple projects and companies in West Africa.
Adejoke holds an LLB from the University of Warwick, an LLM in International Business Law from the London School of Economics and is admitted to the Nigerian Bar.