The African Development Bank Group appoints M. Solomon Quaynor as Vice-President, Private Sector, Infrastructure and Industrialization

AfDB NEWS & EVENTS

03-Mar-2020

The African Development Bank Group is pleased to announce the appointment of Mr. Solomon Quaynor as the Vice President for the Private Sector, Infrastructure and Industrialization Complex, effective from 1st May 2020.

Quaynor, a national of the United States of America, brings over 25 years of experience in development finance and investment banking. He is an emerging markets specialist with experience investing across financial institutions, Technology, Media, and Telecommunications, Infrastructure, Energy, Manufacturing, Agribusiness and Services. He also has experience supporting private sector executives and boards in growth strategy assessment; key government/regulatory and private sector relationship engagement; and served as trusted advisor to the C-Suite of companies across multiple sectors in Africa.

Since October 2018, Quaynor has served as Senior Advisor to Rothschild Global Advisory for Africa. In addition, he was Senior Advisor to IFU (a Danish Development Financial Institution) for sub-Saharan Africa; served on the investment committee of a West African private equity fund; and was senior advisor to boards of medium corporates in Africa, as well as international companies exploring market entry in Africa.

A particular area of interest and focus for Quaynor has been infrastructure development and channeling African pension funds into this asset class. In this regard, he has served as Senior Independent Advisor to the ARM Harith Infrastructure Fund; Board Advisor to Verdant Ventures, developers of US diplomatic housing complexes across sub-Saharan Africa and as board member for InfraCredit Nigeria (a credit enhancement agency on infrastructure corporate bonds). He founded Mkobi Afrika Pensheni (MAP) Investments which was established to pool African pension funds to invest cross border in existing debt or income yielding financial assets in infrastructure, industry, commercial property and affordable housing.

Prior to August 2018, Quaynor had a distinguished global career with the International Finance Corporation (IFC) spanning almost 20 years, during which he served in different capacities. For the last four years at the instiution, he was IFC’s Chief Investment Officer in Client Leadership Group, engaging strategically and long-term with the C-suite and Boards of select key strategic IFC clients globally, with a focus on Africa.

Prior to this, he served as IFC’s Country Manager in Nigeria and led the development of its diversified business in Nigeria into the ninth largest country portfolio globally, and largest in sub-Saharan Africa. He also partnered with the World Bank in setting up the pre-eminent global best practice demonstration on World Bank and IFC collaboration in Nigeria to deliver greater impact in key sectors such as energy, infrastructure, agriculture, affordable housing and Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) development. He also proactively built strategic relationships with government and regulators in priority sectors including the central bank, pension commission, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Debt Management Office and national electricity bulk trader, thereby serving as a trusted advisor to public sector institutional leaders.

Before Nigeria, he served as IFC’s Head of Infrastructure for sub-Saharan Africa, and prior to that he oversaw IFC’s overall business in Ghana, Sierra Leone, Zambia and Zimbabwe. After joining IFC in 1999, he first worked on projects in Eastern Europe and subsequently led IFC’s Infrastructure Advisory Services Group in sub-Saharan Africa.

Before IFC, Solomon worked in investment banking for Merrill Lynch and Bear Stearns in New York City as an Associate and Vice President in the generalist and media & communications groups, respectively. Prior to that Quaynor was a college professor at the Atlanta University Center in Mathematics and Engineering.

Quaynor holds an MBA from the J L Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, an MSc in Electrical Engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology, and a BS in Applied Physics from the Atlanta University Center.

Commenting on the appointment, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, President of the African Development Bank said: “I am delighted that Solomon Quaynor will be joining the senior leadership team at the African Development Bank. Solomon is a distinguished development finance and investment banker who brings over 25 years of global career experience in private sector, deep and extensive knowledge of Africa, and development financing experience and networks that spans Africa, Western Europe and Asia. Solomon’s remarkable record as a strategic and innovative thinker, developer of transformational projects and initiatives, and strong results-orientation will be strong assets for the African Development Bank”.