Alta Semper at a Glance
Democratizing access to generational health and well-being across growth markets
Alta Semper at a Glance
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Focus Sectors
We believe enabling technology is an important part of our entire investment thesis.
Healthcare
Consumer Healthcare / Consumer Staples
Education / Vocational Training
Our Vision
A focus on affordability and universal access is a distinguishing feature of Alta Semper’s strategy, shaping how we design and deliver value across our portfolio.
As an example, healthcare in Africa is a massively underserved market.
Africa's Healthcare Landscape
The Healthcare sector across most of our focus markets is a largely underserved market with steady demand growth, driven by high prevalence of disease, increasing the need for Healthcare Services
Our Team
Afsane Jetha is the Co-Founder, Managing Partner & CEO of Alta Semper Capital, a private equity manager founded in 2015 alongside Ronald Lauder (Chairman of Clinique LLC) and Richard Parsons (former CEO of Time Warner). The mission of Alta Semper is to invest flexible and strategic capital across selected growth markets, with a focus on the healthcare and consumer sectors. Alta Semper today manages funds on behalf of its founding shareholders as well as various US and European institutions, and is the most active investor in the healthcare space in Africa over the last two years. In recent years, the firm has invested in pharmaceutical manufacturing, retail pharmacy, cancer care and diagnostics platforms in Egypt, Nigeria and Morocco. Prior to founding Alta Semper, Afsane spent nearly five years with the Duet Group as the Managing Director of the firm’s African Private Equity platform, investing nearly US$200m across Sub-Saharan Africa. While at Duet, Afsane led the largest private equity transaction into Ethiopia, Dashen Brewery, as well as, sourced and executed on several consumer-facing transactions in Ghana, Uganda and Cote D’Ivoire. Prior to Duet, she was at GI Partners where she executed several transactions in the healthcare, consumer and real-estate sectors. Earlier in her career, she was part of the Consumer Team at Permira in London which followed her time at Wasserstein Private Equity and Merrill Lynch in New York. Afsane holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BSc in Economics, from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. She has strong personal and professional ties to East Africa being a fourth generation Tanzanian. Afsane speaks conversational French, Gujarati and basic Swahili.
Founder, Managing Partner, CEO
Zachary joined Alta Semper in 2016 and brings more than nine years of advisory and investing experience to the firm. Prior to joining Alta Semper, Zachary was a Senior Associate at Emerging Capital Partners where he covered infrastructure and consumer / retail investments in Kenya. He worked across the private equity life cycle including fund raising, new investments, portfolio management and exits. Prior to Emerging Capital Partners, Zachary was an M&A Executive at SABMiller and worked on beverage related transactions in South Africa, Nigeria, Angola, Kenya, Ethiopia, Malawi, and Tanzania. Zachary’s advisory experience was developed within the investment banking divisions of UBS and Goldman Sachs in New York and Johannesburg. He focused on Consumer Products and broader Sub-Saharan Africa. Zachary has an MBA from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and a BA in Economics from Cornell University.
Managing Partner
Kareem is a Director and Head of North Africa at Alta Semper, based in the firm’s Cairo regional office. He brings over 15 years of investment and advisory experience, having executed transactions exceeding USD 7 billion across Egypt and the wider MENA region.
Before joining Alta Semper, Kareem was with British International Investment (BII), where he managed the firm’s on-ground activities in Egypt and oversaw a USD 800 million investment portfolio. Prior to BII, Kareem spent more than a decade in investment banking, holding senior roles at Renaissance Capital and EFG Hermes, where he advised on landmark M&A, Equity Capital Markets, and Debt Capital Markets transactions across the region.
Kareem holds a BBA from the American University in Cairo.
Director, Head of North Africa
Omar Emara is a Senior Associate at Alta Semper, based in the firm’s Cairo regional Office. He joined Alta Semper in early 2023
Prior to joining Alta Semper, he was an Associate in the Investment Banking division at Beltone Investment Banking, where he supported M&A, equity and debt capital raises across Egypt and the broader MENA region. His sector focus includes petrochemicals, telecommunications, tertiary care providers, last-mile logistics and NBFIs.
Omar holds a double bachelor’s degree in Economics and Finance from De Montfort University.
Senior Associate
Hana Kamel is a Senior Associate at Alta Semper, based in the firm’s Cairo regional office. She brings over 7 years of experience across investment and advisory, with a focus on M&A, capital markets, and operational turnarounds.
Prior to joining Alta Semper, Hana was part of the investment team at the Sovereign Fund of Egypt (TSFE), where she led on strategic transactions focusing on mobilizing private capital into high-quality state-owned assets and worked alongside TSFE team to drive operational turnarounds with a strong focus on insurance, and healthcare sectors. Prior to TSFE, Hana held investment banking roles, including at Beltone Holding, working on a range of M&A and equity capital markets transactions across multiple sectors.
Hana holds a BAA From the American University in Cairo.
Senior Associate
Neil O’Leary is the Operating Partner & Head of East Africa of Alta Semper Capital.
Neil founded MyDawa, an Alta Semper portfolio company, and Ion Equity, an investment firm where he created and was chairman of Topaz.
Previously, Neil was a lawyer, a Senior Executive with the London Stock Exchange and an investment banker with UBS where he was responsible for the execution of large transnational deals.
Businesses he currently chairs and/or controls or has major interests in, include Wellvii Inc. a U.S sensor technology business and MyDawa a Kenyan Based healthcare disintermediation company. He has property or mining interests in France, Italy and Tunisia.
He is Chairman of Cork University foundation and has other non-profit involvements.
Operating Partner, East Africa Coverage
Chidi Okoro is the Operating Partner & Head of West Africa of Alta Semper Capital.
Prior to joining Alta Semper, Chidi Okoro was the Founder and Executive Consultant at Drugs and Medicaments Nigeria Limited, a retail chain/own-brands dealer in the pharmaceutical sector. He has consulted in areas of strategy and business development to organisations in FMCG, Pharmaceuticals, Retail, and Africa operations, and is a recipient of numerous awards including Pearl Quoted CEO of the Year in 2013 and the GSK Turn Around Manager award. He is an Adjunct Faculty member at the Lagos Business School, and has over thirty years of experience across industry sectors and geography in pharmaceuticals, personal care, food, and telecommunications as a general management-level executive.
He was the Managing Director and member of the Board of Directors at GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Nigeria, Plc, CEO Africa for Lucozade Ribena Suntory, CEO of UAC Foods/ Tiger Brands SA JV, General Manager at MTN Communications, and was a member of Board of Ogun State Security Trust fund. Currently, he is a member of the Board of Directors at Mecure Pharma Industries Limited, Drugs and Medicaments Nigeria Limited, ARTEE Industries Limited (SPAR Retail), Fundvine Investments Limited. He is also a member of the Advisory Board of Lagos Business School and Hadiel Health Management, and a Partner at Tytron Consulting Group Limited. As an aspiring writer with two books, he has an interest in politics and its relationship to the social and economic well-being of Nigerians.
Mr. Okoro has a Bachelor’s in Pharmacy and an MBA and Executive Master’s degree in Positive Leadership and Strategy.
Operating Partner, West Africa Coverage
Greg Parsons is the CEO of Semper Capital Management, and has been part of Semper Capital since 2008. He also serves on Semper Capital’s Risk Management and Compliance committees. In addition to his role at Semper Capital, Greg is on the Board of Pan African Investment Company, an early-stage venture capital investor in Africa, founded by Mr. Ronald Lauder and Mr. Richard Parsons. Greg is responsible for oversight and portfolio management at PIC. Prior to joining Semper Capital, Greg served as Founding and Managing Member of CP Capital Partners, LP. Previously, he served as an Associate Principal at McKinsey & Company in the Financial Services Group. Greg began his career over 19 years ago and served as a Captain and Infantry Officer in the United States Marine Corps. He holds an AB from Princeton University.
Chairman of the Investment Committee
Stephen M. Sammut is a Senior Fellow in Health Care Management and a Lecturer in Entrepreneurship at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania where he has taught over 11, 000 students in the last 25 years. He is a co-founder of Pangea University for the Health Sciences, a newly formed international platform for medical, nursing and health technology education for the emerging and frontier markets. His health-related management education works includes the design and delivery of the health care management MBA and executive programs at the Indian School of Business, as well as the health care management program at Strathmore University in Nairobi. To support African health management excellence, he co-founded the African Institute for Health Care Management. His research and publications focus on international development with a special focus on capacity building in health care and biopharmaceutical production in emerging economies. He has done extensive work on the implementation of precision medicine in the developing world. He holds graduate and undergraduate degrees in life sciences and humanities from Villanova University, studied medicine and epidemiology at the Hahnemann Medical College, and has an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and a Doctorate in Business Administration from the Fox School of Business at Temple University. He has also studied Precision Medicine at Harvard Business School and Fintech at the Said School of the University of Oxford.
Chairman of Industry Advisory Board
Stuart is a seasoned healthcare operator and investor with nearly two decades of experience both within private equity principally at 3i, and in healthcare leadership across Diagnostic and Pharmaceutical services.
Stuart currently sits on the boards of Sterling Pharma and Genesis Research Group.
Stuart previously served as Chief Executive Officer at Medica Group PLC, the UK’s leading teleradiology services company. In July 2023, Medica was sold to IK Partners following a successful delisting from the main London market.
Prior to his role at Medica, Stuart established and later became CEO of Labco’s UK business which was acquired by Cinven and merged with Synlab in 2015 to create the largest clinical laboratory services company in Europe. At Synlab, he became the Group Chief Commercial Officer and latterly CEO of a fast-growing region spanning 15 countries across Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East and West Africa.
Stuart began his career at Accenture in the health and life sciences strategy consulting practice. He joined 3i plc in 2005 where he managed and executed several healthcare investments
He holds a BSc (Hons) in Immunology from the University of Edinburgh, a PhD in Immunology from Imperial College, London and an MBA from INSEAD in France/Singapore. Stuart is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine and the Royal Geographical Society.
Independent Investment Committee Member