Mary has over 17 years’ experience in capital markets development, regulation and legal practice. She is passionate about supporting transformative capital market initiatives that promote economic development in Africa.
Mary currently manages several projects on policy and regulatory reform, market infrastructure and product development. She leads the implementation of FSD Africa’s flagship Africa Regulatory Support Programme (ARSP), whose objective is to strengthen the capacity of securities regulators in seven countries and the West African Economic and Monetary Union. She also coordinates FSD Africa’s support for the establishment of a credit enhancement facility in Kenya and leads FSD Africa’s work on gender bonds. She has a keen interest in green finance and exploring long term finance solutions to address Africa’s housing and urban infrastructure needs.
Before joining FSD Africa, Mary worked at the Capital Markets Authority, Kenya (CMA Kenya) for almost nine years as Manager, Corporate Approvals, responsible for coordinating the review of capital raising transactions and license applications. Mary was also directly involved in policy and regulatory development for new products such as green bonds, exchange-traded funds, REITs and asset-backed securities as well as licensing of the first derivatives exchange in Kenya.
Prior to joining CMA Kenya, she worked as a corporate and commercial associate in A. F. Gross Advocates, a legal practice in Nairobi, providing advisory services on a variety of financial transactions in capital markets, banking, mergers and acquisitions, intellectual property and real estate.
Mary holds an MSc in Finance and Financial Law from SOAS, University of London and a Bachelors’ degree in law from the University of Manchester, UK. She is an Advocate of the High Court of Kenya.