NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Suzanne Biegel is theFounder of Catalyst at Large and Investment Director of SPRING. She sits on the Advisory Board for Investors’ Circle in the US (previously CEO). She is Vice Chair of the Board of Directors of Confluence Philanthropy. She also co-chairs the Values Based Investment group of Women Donors Network, and runs Women in Social Finance in London. She is a Catto Fellow at the Aspen Institute. Suzanne is a frequent emcee, speaker, and panelist in the impact investment arena. She brings more than 25 years of experience as an entrepreneur, investor, boardmember, and hands-on operational manager to her endeavors. In the 1990s, Suzanne was the CEO of IEC, an e-learning and communications firm, during which she and her business partner received the Entrepreneur of the Year and Women of the Year awards. Prior to that, Suzanne got her start in the corporate technology world working for IBM and then for the IBM/CBS/Sears startup Prodigy. Since selling IEC, Suzanne has been an active angel investor, philanthropist, and board member, and has played leadership roles in a variety of companies and projects. She also serves on the investment committee of the Patient Capital Collaborative, a collaborative angel investment fund in the US, which she helped to launch.

Patricia Jumi isKenya Country Manager of SPRING and Managing Director of GrowthAfrica. Patricia has worked across Africa and Europe building international partnerships to help East African start-ups flourish. She is the Managing Director of GrowthAfrica a business accelerator, which has helped more than 1500 East African businesses scale through mentorship, training, and patient capital. She is also the Kenya Country Manager for SPRING an accelerator which helps entrepreneurs that develop products that positively impact the lives of adolescent girls living in poverty in Africa. She is an Acumen Fund East Africa Fellow and earned her BBA-Marketing from Makerere University in Uganda and her MBA from Copenhagen Business School in Denmark. Patricia leads and manages all Kenyan SPRING staff, operations, networks, and activities.