Rekia is a Senior Manager, Impact Investing at Stright Hamilton, a boutique consulting firm, specializing in using innovative approaches to measure the social performance of impact investments. Rekia started her career in the private sector, working in the financial services sector across 3 continents, Bloomberg in New York, Barclays in London and JP Morgan in Johannesburg, South Africa, before moving to the non-profit world. As head of project development for the Executive Office of the President of Niger, Rekia helped raise $437 million for two greenfield development and growth-focused projects, including a Climate Resilient Communities project, for the country of Niger. Rekia is an impact investor, climate activist and a passionate speaker on the future of Africa.

Rekia earned an MBA in Finance from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and a B.A in Political Science from Stony Brook University.

What causes are you most passionate about?

I am most passionate about the plight of the world’s most vulnerable communities. I believe we have an obligation and responsibility to look after one another and if blessed with talents, to put them in service of others who cannot help themselves. 

My ideal future world includes…

A world with more neurodiversity acceptance and activism. The neurodiversity movement is aligned with disability rights movements and is dedicated to eradicating stigmas associated with neurological differences. There has been genuine changes in the workplace over the past few years when it comes to racial and gender discrimination. I’d like to see the same for discrimination against intellectual differences, disabilities or challenges. It is about giving more people access to opportunities that didn’t exist previously.

An article or Impact event I would recommend is…

The Investing for Climate Change event.