After training with Allen & Overy in London and Hong Kong, I qualified in 2003 into the Global Loans & Restructuring team at Allen & Overy. In 2005, I moved to Amsterdam to join Linklaters’ Banking and Finance team, focusing on European leveraged acquisition finance and syndicated lending and advised European banks, European public and private corporations and private equity investors, and learning Dutch to a fluent level.

In 2014 I returned to London to join the legal team of British International Investment plc (formerly CDC Group plc), the UK’s development finance institution. I stayed for 9 years working myself up to Deputy Chief Legal Officer for Corporate and Financial Institutions Debt and advised on a breadth of secured and unsecured emerging markets financings for corporates, banks and microfinance institutions, on a bilateral and syndicated basis with other DFIs and commercial lenders.

I focused on sustainable finance, climate finance and gender lens investing, principally in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, covering early-stage deal structuring, transaction execution and portfolio management. My trade finance experience includes trade loans and de-risking transactions (funded and unfunded participations).

Through consulting, I am keen to continue working in the impact space to use the experience I have gained to support development finance transactions and help financial institutions and businesses operate more sustainably, as well as putting my experience to use in transactions in the UK and beyond.

Recent transactions

• Advising a US impact fund as consultant in-house counsel, overseeing investment transactions in Cape Verde, Brazil, and Ghana. Conducting transaction document reviews, preparing restructuring term sheets for the fund as lender, and leading negotiations with borrowers and external counsel.
• Providing expert guidance as consultant in-house counsel to European development finance institutions, advising on a West African agri-commodities financing and the restructuring a portfolio investment in a pan-African financial services provider.
• Partnering with UK start-ups and early-stage businesses to advise them on acquisition financings, venture debt, and tailored funding strategies to support growth and innovation.
• Supporting a UK and Balkans-based trade finance platform, acting as consultant in-house counsel, advising on inbound and outbound financings and key corporate matters.
• Assisting a US real estate fund with a focus on Africa, leading advisory efforts on financing aspects of a proposed merger and refinancing of existing indebtedness, to ensure strategic alignment between the parties and mitigating risks to the fund.

Additionally, I am a legal consultant with two UK law firms, working with their teams to support their clients on transactions including:

• for Trinity International LLP, advising a multilateral development bank with a VAT facility tied to a renewables project financing in Uzbekistan, and supporting a Nigerian lender in structuring a bilateral loan for one of its customers incorporated in the UAE.
• for Acuity Law, advising borrowers and lenders on various secured real estate financing transactions across England and Wales, ensuring seamless execution and optimal structuring.