Upaya Social Ventures is pleased to announce that Kusi Hornberger and Nainesh Shah have been appointed to its board of directors.

Kusi Hornberger is an Associate Partner in the Washington, DC office of Dalberg Advisors. Kusi co-leads Dalberg’s impact investing practice area and is particularly passionate about the use of innovative finance and technology to accelerate the achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Kusi’s recent work includes various projects at the intersection of impact investing/blended finance and agriculture, global health and financial services sectors. For example, in the agriculture sector, Kusi led a financial benchmarking of social lenders providing loans to agricultural small and medium enterprises. In the health sector, Kusi created an estimate funding need for Community Health Workers globally. In the financial services sector, he developed case studies on how data analytics and partnerships can be used to improve the sustainability of financial services to smallholder farmers

Prior to joining Dalberg, Kusi was Vice-President of Investment Research at Global Partnerships, an impact-first investor with investments across Central/South America and East Africa. He also has experience working as a management consultant at Bain & Company in South America and as an Investment Officer with the International Finance Corporation.

Kusi holds a Master of Business Administration from INSEAD Business School in Singapore, a Master of Public Administration in International Development from the Harvard Kennedy School and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Pennsylvania.

Nainesh Shah grew up in Mumbai, India. He holds a degree in engineering from MS University and an MBA in finance from Dalhousie University, Canada.

A keen interest in money management led him to take a position in New York City in 1994 with Sheer Asset Management, which merged with Roosevelt Investments in 2002. As a portfolio manager and senior investment committee member at the new company, he has acted as liaison between the investment, marketing, and sales teams, and communicated portfolio designs and options to outside advisors and investors. His contributions helped grow the AUM from $1B to $6B at its peak.

As a technology thought leader, he has generated fintech motifs such as mobile wallet and robo-advising. Two of his career highlights are the subscription-based Apple valuation, which has become gold standard on Wall Street, and a unique sum-of-the-parts model for Amazon, which added a deeper level to its valuation analysis.

His core principle is “If you manage for returns, you increase risk, but if you manage risk, you increase returns.” This he applied in the 2000 Dot-com bust, 9/11, and the Great Recession.

A Chartered Financial Analyst, Nainesh is also a member of the CFA Society NY. He has presented to over 100 audiences of financial advisors and non-profits on macroeconomic conditions, capital markets, portfolio construction, and risk management. Barron’s and Businessweek have quoted his insights into some of these topics.

Nainesh coaches people in financial need pro bono. Behavioral finance and AI are among his professional interests. His personal interests include practicing meditation, reading autobiographies, and running marathons. His wife is program coordinator for two non-profit senior centers, and their son and daughter are in college.