Stephen D. Cashin Director
Steve Cashin is the founder and CEO of Pan African Capital Group (PACG) – a firm that leverages its pool of permanent capital to make direct investments in financial services companies, participate in private equity funds and work with African and global clients to advise on structured lending, corporate finance, and other transactions in Sub-Saharan Africa. He has spent three decades as an investment banker with a focus on the Sub-Suharan African Markets, and he has applied that insight to private equity and mutual funds markets throughout Africa, both as the sponsor of a number of funds and direct investor in the African equities market. Starting his career at HSBC Equator Bank, Mr. Cashin opened and managed the East Africa office in Nairobi. From this strategic vantage point, he focused on trade and bridge finance, structuring trend-setting products that addressed particular conditions in various African markets, initiating the first debt conversion deals in Tanzania in 1988. Subsequently he served as the banks’ representative in Washington DC where he managed the bank’s corporate finance portfolio and championed the introduction of sovereign credit ratings into the African markets. In 1997, Stephen Cashin launched the Modern Africa Fund, a US$105 million OPIC-sponsored fund for investment in middle-market companies across Africa.
Mr. Cashin has served on numerous boards over the years, and he is currently the Chairman of the Board at Africare. He has served as Vice Chair of the Corporate Council on Africa and Finance Chair of the African Wildlife Foundation. He currently serves on Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service Board of Visitors and the Jesuit Refugee Service, and he holds active membership in several prominent international affairs groups including the Council on Foreign Relations. He frequently addresses panels and briefs media about the development of Africa’s financial markets. In his own right, together with his family, he is active in numerous philanthropic initiatives that support education and entrepreneurial development, with particular focus on Africa.