Dr. Wilmot Allen is based in Nairobi, Kenya where he is engaged as an entrepreneur, investor, management consultant, transaction advisor and political economist. Wilmot is Founder of VentureLift Africa (VLA) which is manager of a venture studio and a deal advisory service focused on facilitating greater economic engagement between the global diaspora and the continent of Africa. 

VLA accelerates sustainable businesses via: i) connecting African businesses to required financial and strategic resources, particularly with the Diaspora; ii) recruiting international firms to Africa through JV partnerships with African Co-Founders; and iii) incubating viable business models with the local and Diaspora management talent. VLA prioritizes pre-established customer demand and buyers and works across energy, agriculture, healthcare, manufacturing, entertainment, textile apparel and technology sectors.

Wilmot is a Venture Partner with RH Managers (RH Bophelo) based in Johannesburg, a private equity fund investing in healthcare across Southern and Eastern Africa. Related to healthcare, he is a Lead Consultant to the Healthcare Finance Consortium for deal construction for medical oxygen, clinics and med-tech. Wilmot was recently a management consultant to the African Union Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to create the strategy, fundraising and operational plan for its new Africa Public Health Foundation (APHF) which aims to strengthen healthcare systems across the continent. He served on the AU CDC COVID-19 Response Taskforce. His other roles in healthcare include genomics company Co-Founder, management consultant to the R&D division of Allergan Pharmaceuticals and a clinical researcher with Procter & Gamble.

Wilmot previously worked as the Director of East Africa with CrossBoundary LLC, leading the transaction advisory practice and the transaction team for a USAID Presidential Trade Africa initiative, the East Africa Trade and Investment Hub, from Nairobi. The team facilitated over $120 million in closed investment deals in two years and established the firm’s most successful advisory office.

Prior, in finance roles, Wilmot worked with the International Finance Corporation (IFC) in Washington DC, executing investments totaling over $300 million and managing a portfolio of $2.5 billion with the private equity, financial institutions and infrastructure groups. At the IFC, he was also Senior Advisor to the CEO Lars Thunell on entrepreneurship initiatives supporting SMEs in Africa, Asia and the Middle East. In other roles, Wilmot executed over $4 billion in combined transactions as a venture capital investor in women and minority-owned businesses with the Commonwealth Enterprise Fund in Boston, a technology M&A investment banker with JPMorgan to Silicon Valley and international firms in San Francisco, and a private placement and IPO investment banker with Merrill Lynch in New York. 

In other affiliations with African institutions, Wilmot is a current or recent member of the Kenya Private Sector Alliance (KEPSA) Economic Diplomacy Board Committee and the Kenya Association of Manufacturers as a Diaspora engagement expert. He is an advisory board member of Melvin March International (Kenya; tea), Ludique Works (Kenya; gaming and eSports), DGrid Energy (US-Africa: Cold Storage); Pryzm Institute (US; Life Sciences) and shareholder of Popote Payments (Kenya; fintech). Wilmot is a business coach and advisor to entrepreneurial ecosystems supporting startups and SMEs throughout Africa (Antler, Harare Tech Hub, Ada Labs; Shona, Nailab, GreenHouse Lab and Pangea).

Wilmot has a PhD from Georgetown University in Comparative Political Economy, an MBA from the Wharton Business School, an MPA from Harvard University and BA from Yale University. He was selected as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum and is a co-author of the forthcoming Sovereign Wealth Funds and the New State Capitalism in Africa (Palgrave MacMillan, Q1 2023).