Mark Laichena is a leader on CIFF’s Africa Girl Capital team, developing and managing investments focused on girls education and young women’s livelihoods. He is passionate about increasing opportunity and agency for young people, and supporting and building African leaders.

Before joining CIFF in 2021, Mark led GiveDirectly’s work in Africa across seven countries, overseeing cash transfer-focused programmes in Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, DRC, Malawi, Liberia and Morocco. This included high growth scale-up of operations, recruitment and management of local leaders, and new business development and partnerships. Prior to GiveDirectly, Mark worked as a management consultant and transformation coach supporting healthcare and public sector leaders, starting with McKinsey & Company and later directly with implementation teams in New York’s public hospital system and the Kenyan Ministry of Health.