I joined Carne Luxembourg in December 2019 as a Manager of Investment Risk and recently moved over to Associate Director in Risk Management.

I’ve spent my financial investment career to date in Investment Risk Management. I joined Carne from Invesco Asset Management Luxembourg, where my main responsibilities were to assess the investment risks of alternatives investments and manage private asset valuations. The role gave me a wide exposure across opportunities and challenges in the private market in terms of deal structuring, transaction valuation, investment, and regulatory risk management. Before Invesco I had gained experience in advisory consulting in EY Luxembourg, where I collaborated with multiple players in the asset management industry. My interest in the investment industry began when I joined State Street Bank as part of the derivatives centre of excellence in Luxembourg.

Prior to joining Carne Luxembourg, I lived in London where I coordinated the restructuring of a family corporation, and in the same period co-founded a VC-RE incubator, A&M based Democratic Republic of the Congo, one of my native countries. This experience in DRC gave me the rewarding opportunity of promoting the African Business Angel Network. It also drove my passion for innovation and shaped entrepreneurial skills that still impact my work in the funds industry.

I must admit that I am quite lucky and grateful to be from a multicultural background by having Congolese and Russian roots while being born in Belgium and working mainly in Luxembourg. This mixture and exposure allowed me to be continuously exposed to different cultural norms and to seize opportunities in this context. This open-mindedness becomes increasingly crucial in the international financial environment, especially in Carne given the diversity of clients we serve.

The opportunity to use all my skills and experience developing innovative solutions motivated me to be part of the Carne team. Since joining Carne, I’ve been working on Risk and Valuation Management processes across Luxembourg and Ireland. These processes include:

• Development of analytical pattern recognition tools to make systemic analysis possible.
• Consolidation of intelligence on various risk classes; especially liquidity and sustainability that are in line with regulatory requirements.
• Creation of risk management frameworks at the Group level.

I believe that the investment management industry plays a key role in transitioning to a sustainable economy, and I’m fortunate to be part of this transformation with Carne. Nowadays, the regulatory environment (e.g., SFDR and EU Taxonomy) migrates in this direction and investors have revealed an appetite for more sustainable products. Over the past two years, it’s been part of my role to formalise a sustainability risk management framework which evidences substance and minimises risk of greenwashing.

I’ve also been devoting my time to supporting sustainable projects outside of the asset management industry. In 2018, I co-founded the Empowering African Women (EAW) charity, to support female entrepreneurs based in sub-Saharan Africa. EAW is committed to promoting and investing in projects that utilise raw materials available locally that are wasted or unexploited.

Given the rapid changes we are witnessing within and outside the fund industry, it’s exciting to be part of the development of sustainable projects. Although I am proud of what I have achieved over the past few years, I’m very much looking forward to the journey ahead!