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Afsane Jetha

Managing Partner & CEO

Afsane Jetha is a prominent figure in the healthcare investment sector, currently serving as the Director at Oncologie et Diagnostics du Maroc (ODM). She is also the Co-Founder, Managing Partner, and CEO of Alta Semper Capital LLP, a private equity firm focused on healthcare investments across Africa.

Professional Background

  • Education: Afsane holds a BSc in Finance, Healthcare & Legal Studies from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
  • Career Path:
    • Before founding Alta Semper Capital in 2015, she was the Managing Director of Duet Group's Africa Private Equity platform, where she managed significant investments across Sub-Saharan Africa.
    • Her earlier roles included positions at GI Partners, Permira, Wasserstein PE, and Merrill Lynch, focusing on healthcare and consumer sectors.

Contributions to Healthcare

Afsane has been instrumental in advancing healthcare infrastructure in Africa. Under her leadership, Alta Semper Capital has invested in various sectors including pharmaceutical manufacturing and cancer care. Her work has significantly impacted healthcare accessibility and quality in countries like Egypt, Nigeria, and Morocco.

Personal Ties

Afsane has strong personal and professional connections to East Africa, being a fourth-generation Tanzanian. She is multilingual, speaking conversational French and Gujarati, along with basic Swahili.

Her expertise and commitment to healthcare investment make her a key player in enhancing health outcomes in emerging markets.

Highlights

Oct 9 · linkedin

Are Women Good for Business?

As we kick off this year's World Bank / IMF meetings in Morocco, I wanted to share some of my thoughts from last year's meetings to hopefully foster more continued fruitful debate.

Last year, I had the pleasure of participating in a spirited discussion at the World Bank / IMF Meetings on "Empowering Women to Unleash Green, Resilient and Inclusive Development". Thankfully, the overwhelming data-driven consensus is that women are indeed good for business.

  1. Boards with women / companies with women outperform ("Board Gender Diversity and Firm Performance: The Role of Firm Size”, Sana Mohsni and Alia Shata, Carlton University, August 2021).

  2. Female fund managers, particularly in times of negative market sentiment, take less risk for similar return (“In Times of Stress, Female Fund Managers Take Less Risk Than Men – For the Same Performance”. Institutional Investor, Jul 19 2022).

  3. Gender balanced PE / VC fund managers across emerging markets outperform the benchmark by 20%. (Moving Toward Gender Balance in Private Equity and Venture Capital”, IFC et al 2019)

Yet global trends don’t support capital flows to women. We continue to see low levels female VC / PE partners and stagnant levels of women on boards and as executive managers at large corporates and women still get a fraction of institutional funding vs men; this is even less so for women of colour.

Why is this? My belief from the plethora of research and from the incredible women and men with whom I had the opportunity to present, is that the market is mispricing the value of women and this market dislocation has to do with deep-routed unconscious and conscious bias.

1.     Women are perceived to be inferior negotiators, lack confidence and be risk averse and yet research the does not support this, “What Most People Get Wrong About Men and women”, Harvard Business Review, June 2018.

https://lnkd.in/eWUdbZf6

2.     Part of the reason is probably that these biases translate into how we treat men and women, which is hampering their relative progress, “3 Workplace Biases that Derail Mid-Career Women” Harvard Business Review, Sept 16 2022.

https://lnkd.in/efYA-Kxh

One of the most powerful things I took away from the discussion is that “Diversity is being invited to the party. Inclusion is being asked to Dance". I would implore everyone to share this research widely, particularly this week, to continue foster more discussion.

Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative (We-Fi), The World Bank International Monetary Fund, Parwati Surjaudaja Mercedes D'Alessandro Dr Saira Siddique Svenja Schulze Mamta Murthi Wendy Teleki Shakuntala Santhiran Kristin Williams Mugford Randolph Cohen Boris Groysberg Lindeka Dzedze Cami Mbulawa CA (SA)

Jan 11 · linkedin

I am delighted to be speaking at IFC’s Global Health Conference in Cape Town, South Africa on February 14-15. I will be participating in a plenary session on “Making Smart Investment Choices.”

This conference is focused on private healthcare in emerging markets and over 400 industry executives, investors, and government representatives are coming. Join us! https://lnkd.in/ee_WnDqa

#futureofhealthcare #emergingmarkets  #healthsystems #medtech #pharma #lifesciences #investment #impactinvesting

Related Questions

What are Afsane Jetha's main responsibilities at Oncologie et Diagnostics du Maroc (ODM)?
How has Afsane Jetha's career evolved since founding Alta Semper Capital?
What are some notable investments made by Alta Semper Capital under Afsane Jetha's leadership?
How does Afsane Jetha's background in finance and healthcare influence her role at ODM?
What are the future plans for Oncologie et Diagnostics du Maroc (ODM) under Afsane Jetha's direction?
Afsane Jetha
Afsane Jetha, photo 1
Afsane Jetha, photo 2
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Location

London, England, United Kingdom