Our board and executive team combine deep African market experience with global networks to advance community-led, evidence-based entrepreneurship across Kenya, Uganda, South Africa, and Namibia. Together they provide the accountable, equity-focused leadership required to absorb flexible, large-scale capital and translate it into measurable jobs, investment mobilised, and livelihoods improved.
Board of Trustees
Kenneth Wathome – Board Chair, Transformational Business Network Africa
Kenneth Wathome is an experienced Kenyan entrepreneur and board leader with more than three decades of work at the intersection of real estate, infrastructure, and economic development. He is the Founder and Chairman of NW Realite, a property development and advisory business he has led since 1991, and has served on several national boards, including the Kenya Pipeline Company and the National Standards Council of the Kenya Bureau of Standards.
As Board Chair of Transformational Business Network Africa, Kenneth provides strategic oversight on governance, risk, and impact, with a particular focus on ensuring that TBN Africa’s work expands access to opportunity for entrepreneurs in underserved markets. His leadership is shaped by long experience building Kenyan enterprises from the ground up and by public service roles that required balancing commercial, regulatory, and community interests.
Jacob Zikusooka – Regional Director, TBN Africa & Secretary to the Board
Jacob Zikusooka is the Regional Director for Transformational Business Network Africa and Secretary to the Board, leading TBN Africa’s strategy and operations across Kenya, Uganda and Southern Africa. Jacob is passionate about enabling access to capital for African entrepreneurs and advocates for impact investing as a tool for inclusive economic growth. His work at TBN Africa combines capacity building and capital mobilization, while fostering a community of purpose-driven and values-based founders who are passionate about using enterprise solutions to fight poverty. Together with his team they have, to date, supported 3058 enterprises (53 percent of these are women-owned) to increase their aggregate revenues by USD 8M, and access USD 23.7M of much needed debt, equity and mezzanine capital. These businesses have in turn created an additional 15,558 jobs.
Jacob has, for the last 25 years, been actively involved in the Shipping and Logistics industry besides other entrepreneurial pursuits in Real Estate, Commercial Forestry, Media, and eCommerce. Zik (as he is fondly called) holds an MBA in Entrepreneurship and Innovation from York St John University and is also a graduate of the Stanford Institute of Innovation in Developing Economies, Stanford Graduate School of Business’ initiative for high-potential entrepreneurs in the developing world.
Lisa Parrott – Board Member
Lisa Parrott is a UK-based finance and development professional with more than 18 years of experience across financial services, travel and hospitality, and international development. She has held senior roles including Chief Financial Officer and Group Finance Director in organisations ranging from member-based bodies to listed and private equity-backed companies, where she has led financial strategy, M&A integration, and operational efficiency programmes.
Lisa also brings experience from development work focused on financial services, economic growth, and food security programmes, giving her a practical understanding of how capital and markets can be aligned to improve livelihoods. On the TBN Africa board she contributes expertise in strategic financial leadership, governance, and risk management, helping ensure that the organisation can absorb and steward large, flexible funding while remaining accountable to entrepreneurs and communities.
Andy Kristian Agaba – Board Member
Andy Kristian Agaba is the founder and CEO of Hiinga, a faith-driven impact investing organisation that finances values-driven entrepreneurs in East Africa to create jobs and transform local economies. Through Hiinga, Andy has invested in small and medium-sized enterprises across sectors such as healthcare, education, agribusiness, and manufacturing, pairing capital with business training, coaching, and mentorship.
A Praxis fellow and frequent speaker on entrepreneurship and technology, Andy’s work is grounded in the belief that dignified work and locally-led enterprises are central to tackling poverty. On the TBN Africa board he brings experience in impact investing, SME finance, and entrepreneur support, strengthening TBN Africa’s ability to design programmes and partnerships that connect under-served entrepreneurs with patient capital and values-aligned investors.
Julius Lukwago – Board Member
Julius Lukwago is a Ugandan business leader and marketer who serves as Chief Executive Officer of Solutions Africa, a firm that provides leadership development, marketing, and organisational effectiveness solutions across the continent. His professional background spans engineering, business administration, and marketing, and he holds credentials including BSc Engineering, MSc, MBA, a marketing diploma, and Chartered Marketer status with the Chartered Institute of Marketing (UK).
Under Julius’s leadership, Solutions Africa has partnered with international providers such as Insights and the Chartered Institute of Marketing to deliver customised training and coaching to African organisations on leadership, customer engagement, and strategic marketing. On the TBN Africa board he contributes expertise in market development, leadership coaching, and organisational strategy, helping ensure that entrepreneurs in TBN Africa’s programmes build commercially viable, market-ready businesses that can grow and create jobs.
