CDC Group, the UK’s development finance institution, has appointed Frances Reid to the newly created role of Chief Investment Officer. 

She joins CDC with immediate effect and will oversee the organisation’s investment processes and the financial performance of its portfolio as well as playing a central role in both strategic planning and the allocation of capital across CDC’s target geographies of Africa and South Asia.

Frances has over 35 years of investment experience in developing and developed markets.

She joins CDC from the US foreign aid agency, the Millennium Challenge Corporation, where she was most recently Senior Investment and Risk Officer with responsibility for agency-level risk management, portfolio analysis, and strategic planning.

Prior to joining MCC, Frances was a Senior Policy Adviser to the Undersecretary for International Affairs at the US Treasury, having previously spent eight years at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), where she focused on direct investment and corporate finance.

Before working at EBRD, she was a Managing Director of Lehman Brothers Global Investment Management, and a member of the International Advisory Group, a consortium of Lehman Brothers, Lazard Freres, and SG Warburg advising governments in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Eastern Europe on economic development, direct investment, debt restructuring and financial management.

Earlier in her career, she served as International Counsel for FirstNational Bank of Boston, covering sovereign debt restructuring and global corporate investment, and taught political economy at two major American universities,

Diana Noble, CDC’s CEO, said: “Frances is enormously experienced, with a background that spans investing, financial and development organisations, so I am delighted that she is joining CDC.”

“This is an important new role necessitated by the growth and transformation that CDC has undergone in the last few years. CDC now invests capital, both debt and equity, directly and through funds in over 1300 companies across Africa and South Asia. Frances’ experience will help us to manage the investment risks and opportunities that come with our growth and enable CDC to play an even more important role in supporting private sector development in poor countries by getting the right type of capital to those businesses that can have the greatest impact.” 

CDC is one of the largest, long-term investors in South Asia and Africa.

Its portfolio is valued at over £2.5bn ($3.94bn), supporting businesses that employ over 1.1 million people.