Founder & CEO - Rendeavour
Stephen Jennings is a pioneer of capital markets in Africa and Central & Eastern Europe, responsible for over $200 billion of investment flows to these regions. He has been living and working in emerging markets for more than 25 years. Since 2012, Stephen has focused on Rendeavour, of which he is the largest shareholder. Prior to Rendeavour, Stephen founded Renaissance Group, in 1995, building investment banking, securities sales and trading, asset management and consumer finance businesses across Central & Eastern Europe, Asia and Africa. During the period between 1983 and 1992, Stephen worked at Credit Suisse First Boston in New Zealand and in the New Zealand Treasury. He also consulted for the governments of New Zealand and Australia on issues of privatization.
Africa is urbanizing at an unprecedented pace, but who is actually building its cities? Stephen Jennings, the visionary behind Rendeavour, has spent years developing some of the continent’s most ambitious new urban projects. In this keynote, he shares the hard-won lessons of building cities from scratch—what works, what doesn’t, and what it will take to scale affordable, investable urban expansion across Africa. Expect big ideas, bold predictions, and a candid look at the future of Africa’s cities from one of the leaders shaping them today.