Richard Tugume
Managing Director at YSB Uganda
Richard T. Tugume previously worked as an external auditor with PwC, a Finance Manager with TechnoServe Uganda, a Senior Financial Controller with Kilicafe (a triple certified coffee exporting Coop) in Tanzania, a Regional Portfolio Manager with Root Capital, a US-based Social Investment Fund, in charge of portfolio (at various times) in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and the DRC, and is currently the East Africa Director for Investment with Yunus Social Business Uganda. He holds a B.com(Acc) degree from Makerere University in Uganda, and an MBA from the University of Nairobi in Kenya. He is an avid practicing farmer, a champion of environmental conservation and social justice, loves traveling and learning new ideas.
Benson Agwena
Investment Associate
Prior to joining YSB, Benson was an Investment Associate at KawiSafi Ventures (KSV), US$100 million impact investment fund created to drive off-grid solar power in East Africa by investing in clean energy companies providing household solar technologies. He was involved in sourcing and evaluating investment opportunities, all transaction functions and portfolio management activities. Before joining KSV, Benson was an Associate at I-DEV International (Nairobi Office), an investment and strategy advisory firm based in San Francisco. He focused on building growth strategies and raising capital for small and growing businesses in emerging markets, particularly in the clean energy, tech and agriculture sectors.
Prior to that, Benson was a Senior Financial Analyst at KPMG Deal Advisory where he was involved in delivering transaction and restructuring advisory mandates on behalf of private equity firms, multinationals, banks and financial development institutions. He was also an auditor in KPMG specializing in provision of financial statement audits, project audits, expenditure verifications, financial reviews of projects, programs funded by various development cooperation agencies and donors.
Benson holds a Bachelor of commerce (Finance) degree from Strathmore University and is CPA (Kenya). He is currently pursuing CFA qualification.
Charles Kadde
Finance and Portfolio Manager
Prior to joining YSB Uganda, Charles was a Financial Accountant and Credit Controller at Bata Shoe Company, a position he attained after serving in several other capacities in the finance section. Before joining Bata Charles worked as the Financial Accountant/Administrator at Budadiri Arabica Coffee Factory.
Charles holds a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration (Accounting) and currently at his final level of Certified Public Accountancy Uganda.
YSBFB Investment Committee
Karen Hitschke
Co-Chief Investment Officer, YSB Global
An investment executive and strategy consultant with over 20 years of international experience, Karen has a professional background in venture capital with extensive expertise in fund structuring, investment processes and fundraising. Before joining Yunus Social Business in early 2012, she served as the Chief Financial Officer at biotech start-up Affectis AG where she successfully extended the investor base and raised over 4 million EUR of funding for the company. From 1997 to 2003, Karen was an Investment Manager at the leading international Private Equity group Apax Partners with a focus on the life sciences sector. Karen started her career as a consultant at McKinsey & Co.
Karen graduated with distinction from INSEAD, Fontainebleau, and holds an M.Sc. in Biology from the University of Constance, including her international studies at Ben-Gurion-University in Israel as well as Sussex University. Adding to her international background, Karen lived in Japan for 5 years prior to joining YSB.
In addition to her responsibility at YSB, Karen has been an advisor to Swiss based business angel network “Brains to Ventures” since 2004 where she is still a member of the Investment Committee. She has held several board positions in European life science companies.
Global Team
Prof. Muhammad Yunus
Co-Founder and Chairman
Professor Muhammad Yunus co-founded YSB Global Initiatives, and currently serves as the Chairman of the Board for YSB Global Initiatives. He is additionally the founder of Grameen Bank. Today, Grameen Bank has over 8.4 million members -97 per cent of who are female and has lent over US$12.5 billion since its inception. In 2006, the Norwegian Nobel Committee jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Peace to Professor Yunus and Grameen Bank “for their efforts to create economic and social development from below.”
Since 2006 Professor Yunus has focused on spreading and implementing the concept of social business. He has written three books about micro-lending and Social Business: “Banker to the Poor” (2003), “A World Without Poverty: Social Business and the Future of Capitalism” (2008) and “Building Social Business” (2010).
Among Professor Yunus’ many awards and honors he has received all three highest US Civilian awards (Presidential Citizens Medal, the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Gold Medal). Thereby he is one of only seven people in history that has received these awards, along with recipients Martin Luther King Jr., Mother Teresa or Nelson Mandela. In 2009, Forbes named Professor Yunus one of its “10 Most Influential Business Gurus.”
A leader in the Social Business Movement, Saskia Bruysten was Co-CEO of Grameen Creative Lab prior to founding YSB. She started her career at the Boston Consulting Group in Munich and New York. She was appointed to the EU Commission’s expert group on Social Business and has assisted Professor Yunus on UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon’s MDG Advocacy Group. She holds an MBA from the European Business School, Germany and a MSc in International Relations from the London School of Economics.
YSB Uganda Partners
