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Belgrad Kenne is an experienced business executive with a solid track record of value creation in various business sectors. Leveraging his investment banking background, Belgrad is an avid analyst keen to understand drivers of value in any business and subsequently develop strategic responses backed by strong execution plans and teams. Belgrad is an astute negotiator and influencer with a proven ability to lead, motivate and build successful teams.

Early life
Dr. Kenne holds a Doctorate in Business Administration - finance option from the Paris School of Business formerly pole ESG Ecole Superieure de Gestion one of the leading business schools in France. He holds a master degree in Finance from the prestigious International University of Monaco where he worked as a visiting lecturer. Dr. Kenne holds a bachelor degree in Management from the Riga Technical University where he ended top of his promotion in the international student division.

After Graduation
Upon completion of his master degree, Dr. Kenne worked for Centre Court Monaco in 2009 and was part of the team that set up the Yunus Monaco Fund founded by Muhammad Yunus. The fund has an aim to out poverty in poverty museums with a mission of promoting and developing social business to eliminate poverty. Dr. Kenne believed in the concept of microfinance and microcredit. After a short stint at the Yunus Centre Dhaka – Bangladesh Dr. Kenne was appointed first Managing Director of the Jamii Social Business Centre – Tanzania. The centre’s investment focus was on 3 key sectors namely agriculture, healthcare and energy as per the 7 principles of social business set by Professor Muhammad Yunus, the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate.

In 2011, Belgrad joined Made in Africa TV as Chief Operating Officer to drive the business expansion outside Tanzania. 'Made in Africa’ was a series exploring a diverse range of some of Africa’s most pertinent issues. The key objective of the series was to tell African stories from an African perspective and to encourage dialogue and proactiveness towards finding African Solutions to African Problems. ‘Made in Africa’ did this through showcasing exceptional African people and institutions that are currently addressing issues in an effective manner and contributing to the positive progression of the African continent.

The series aimed to create greater awareness of African excellence by placing it on a platform that was accessible to the majority of African people. Positive representation matters, and this show aims to inform and inspire Africans to believe in and strive for greatness through seeing fellow Africans do the same.

This led to the establishment of country offices in Kenya and Uganda where the famous MiniBuzz show featured key comedians such as Anne Kansiime Uganda and Bibi Kiroboto Tanzania.

He joined Swensee Partners, in 2012, a Paris-based, Africa focused investment advisory firm focusing on deal advisory and catalytic investments that aims to generate profit and participate in making a better world. Dr. Kenne's analytical mind collected information, performed research and analyzed assets, such as stocks, bonds, currencies and commodities. Often focus was on specific niches to become experts in their chosen fields, such as a particular industry, a geographical region or a specific asset class. At Swensee Partners, Dr. Kenne was involved in assignments in the retail sector in Ivory Coast and Kenya, advertisement in South Africa and rest of Africa, infrastructure at a pan African level, oil and gas in Congo Brazzaville and Zambia, healthcare sectors in Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya.

In 2014, Dr. Kenne joined (AIB Capital) now AIBAXYS, a leading Kenyan Investment Bank, as the head of deal advisory. Dr. Kenne finds a thrill  with finding a new business opportunity, with strategizing the terms of the transaction and with closing the deal. When the stakes are great, the rewards are greater and it’s this kind of exciting environment that had him Belgrad directly involved in over 30 transactions such as Jamii Bora Bank, VAELLI, Law Africa Publishers, The Karen Hospital etc, from 2014 to 2019 across numerous sectors such as banking, insurance, publishing, horticulture and healthcare among others.

In 2019, Belgrad joined The Karen Hospital, a leading tier 1 hospital in Kenya as a management consultant where he was instrumental in crafting the hospital’s new strategy dubbed 'Karen 2.0' where greater emphasis is placed on business optimization and organizational transformation. In July of the same year, he was appointed Deputy Chief Executive Officer in charge of the execution of the hospital’s new strategy. He has a vast experience with staff, procedural, and economic issues inherent in business environments.

Publications
Dr. Kenne is the author of “Understanding Frontier Markets through the African KINGs – Kenya – Ivory Coast – Nigeria – Ghana available on Amazon - The book aides what several asset-pricing models have attempted to explain, the cross sectional variation in asset prices notably index models and multi factors models. After giving a comprehensive definition of Frontier Markets, this work explores risk factors in African Frontier Equity Markets and subsequently proposes a 3‐factors cost of equity model with implications for investment strategies and risk management. A sample of 4 African equity markets Kenya, Ivory Coast, Nigeria and Ghana coined as the African KINGs was used to decompose Frontier Markets risks factors and therefore identify elements of equity risk premium over and above the risk free rate. By combining quantitative and qualitative analyses we find that equity risk in Frontier Markets is a function of Macro, Market and Micro factors driving returns. These "3-Ms" form the basis of the proposed 3-factors cost of equity model that can be an alternative to the limited CAPM framework currently used in Frontier Markets.

Partnerships
The Karen in 2020 partnered with Meru County in the Mt. Kenya Run where Dr. Kenne participated. Mountain running is slowly but surely gaining momentum in the sport sector. It involves the running of athletes or participants in off road terrains and mostly those that go through mountain routes.