Lourens de Beer
Chief Executive Officer |
Lourens de Beer is an Executive Director, and CEO of Blue Diagonal Capital Ltd. He is a member of the Risk Management Committee.
Lourens has over 25 years of experience working in emerging markets including Standard Merchant Bank in South Africa where he was responsible for derivative trading (fixed income, foreign exchange and equities), WestLB AG in London where he was Managing Director for Central and Eastern Europe, former CIS and Africa (including positions on the Supervisory Boards of the WestLB subsidiaries in the region), and Ukraine Securities Holdings in Ukraine where he provided corporate finance and advisory services, including acting as advisor on several international bond issues.
Lourens is a holder of B.Ing. (Electronics) from the University of Pretoria in South Africa, a B.Com (Law) from the University of South Africa, and M.Com (Finance and Business Management) from Rand Afrikaans University in Johannesburg, South Africa. He is also holder of CySEC Advanced Certification and Global Compliance certificate in regards to the provision of investment services.
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Demetrios Efstathiou
Chief Investment Officer |
Demetris Efstathiou is an Executive Director, and Chief Investment Officer of Blue Diagonal Capital. He is a member of the Investment Committee.
Demetris has over 25 years of experience working in global financial markets with a specialisation in emerging markets and fixed income.
Before he co-founded Blue Diagonal Capital in 2016, he spent 20 years working for financial institutions in London - 15 years as a trader and portfolio manager, followed by 5 years as head of EM strategy and research. He headed Morgan Stanley's CEEMEA fixed income proprietary trading desk in London, while at RBS Global Markets he led the EM cross-asset research and strategy team covering credit, interest rates and currencies.
In addition, since 2017, he has been serving on the board of directors of Hellenic Bank, Cyprus - a Eurozone systemic bank - as an independent, non-executive director.
Demetris is a holder of a B.Eng. in Electronics Engineering and Computer Science (ISE) from Imperial College London, and of an MBA from London Business School.
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Michalis Konnaris
Independent Director |
Michalis Konnaris is an Independent, Non-Executive Director of Blue Diagonal Capital Ltd. He is a member of the Risk Management Committee and of the Remuneration Committee.
Michalis has over 20 years of experiences in banking and financial services. In his latest position, Michalis had been a Chief Dealer (FX), COO and then CEO and Board Member of Easy Forex, one of the top global retail FX platforms. He was responsible for managing the firm’s global business with focus on driving growth and profitability in a highly competitive and regulated environment. Prior to joining Easy Forex, Michalis was Senior Trader for currency options at Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), London. He also worked at EFG Eurobank and Eurolink Securities in Athens, and at Natwest Markets in London.
Michalis has an MSc in Finance, Trade and Shipping from Cass Business School, London and a BSc in Mech. Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia USA (Summa Cum Laude).
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Stavros Yiannouka
Independent Director |
Stavros Yiannouka is an Independent, Non-Executive Director of Blue Diagonal Capital Ltd. He is a member of the Remuneration Committee.
Stavros brings a wealth of diverse experience to the board of Blue Diagonal Capital. Stavros is the CEO of the World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE), a major initiative of the Qatar Foundation, advocating for and promoting high quality education for all. Previously, Stavros was the Executive Vice-Dean at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore where he remains an Adjunct Professor and Advisor to the Dean. Prior to joining the LKY School, Stavros was a senior consultant with McKinsey & Company where he gained considerable experience in supporting senior management to develop and implement new growth strategies and manage change, in sectors as diverse as healthcare, higher education, private equity and financial services. Before McKinsey, Stavros practiced corporate law in the City of London.
Stavros holds an LLB (Honours) from the School of Law, University of Bristol, a Diploma in Legal Practice (Commendation), and an MBA (Distinction & Dean’s List) from London Business School.
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Chris Kenny
Independent Director |
Chris Kenny is an Independent, Non-Executive Director of Blue Diagonal Capital Ltd. He is a member of the Investment Committee.
Chris Kenny has been involved with Emerging and Frontier markets since 1979. He was employed at WestLB AG Group (Germany) / West Merchant Bank PLC, London for a total of 17 years (until 2010) where he served as Head of Local Markets Africa, and was a Member of the Supervisory Board of WestLB Securities SA (South Africa). The WestLB operations based in Johannesburg were responsible for all the Bank’s Capital Market activities in the region including:
- Proprietary portfolios in thirteen African currencies (including South African Rand), trading bonds, money market, derivatives and foreign exchange;
- Flow trading in a further twenty African countries, trading eurobonds, local treasury debt, hard currency trade related debt instruments and distressed debt;
- The provision of Capital Markets advisory and origination services to the Bank’s international and local clients;
- Debt capital markets origination of Eurobonds and locally listed securities.
Prior to WestLB, Chris was at Standard Merchant Bank, South Africa (investment banking subsidiary of Standard Bank of South Africa) where he served over a period of 14 years as fixed income trader, and later as Treasurer and General Manager of an integrated Capital Markets Division of the bank covering Treasury, money market trading, FX trading, commodities trading, and derivatives trading.
Chris holds a BCom.Hons (Finance) from the University of South Africa, Pretoria, South Africa, and a BCom (Finance) from the University of Natal, Durban, South Africa.
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