Africa's Wealth. Reimagined.

Jennifer Kinyoe is the Chief Executive Officer of Ascend Africa Wealth Management and an executive coach with more than 25 years of experience leading businesses across financial services, investment management, healthcare financing, leasing, mobility and corporate strategy.

She is known for combining clear strategic thinking with a practical, people centred approach. Jennifer works with clients and leadership teams as they make important decisions, build stronger organisations and create lasting value.

At Ascend Africa Wealth Management, Jennifer leads the firm's strategy, operations and client experience. She works closely with high net worth individuals, families and business owners to shape tailored wealth management, investment advisory and wealth preservation solutions that reflect what matters most to them and their long term goals.

Throughout her career, Jennifer has mobilised and deployed more than USD 220 million in capital, helped establish and grow businesses, and led multidisciplinary teams through change and growth across East Africa. Her experience includes capital mobilisation, investment advisory, corporate governance, stakeholder engagement, operational transformation and business growth.

Jennifer's coaching is informed by her own experience as a CEO, managing director, board member and transformation leader. She works with senior executives, founders and emerging leaders who want to lead with greater confidence, manage transition well, strengthen their teams and turn strategy into meaningful action. Her style is supportive, candid and focused on accountability, helping clients make progress that lasts.

Before joining Ascend Africa Wealth Management, Jennifer served as Managing Director of Loxea Kenya, Country Director for GE Healthcare East Africa, Senior Vice President at GE Capital Healthcare Financial Services East Africa, and Managing Director at Zohari Leasing, Rivieres Finance and Clarkson Insurance Brokers. Earlier roles at Ernst and Young in East Africa and the United Kingdom, as well as Deloitte East Africa, gave her a strong grounding in finance, audit, governance and business advisory.

Jennifer holds an MBA in Strategic Management from the University of Nairobi, is a Certified Public Accountant of Kenya, and holds an ICF accredited Executive Diploma in Coaching from CDI Africa.

Johnah Munyiri is a Project Manager working with Ascend Africa Wealth, where he draws on over two decades of experience in project and change management in the context of wealth structuring and institution setup work. He has experience with wealth management institutions as his engagement with Optiva Capital Partners, Lagos, Nigeria, an organization dealing with Citizenship by Investment, Residency by Investment and Investment Management of Private Equity and Insurance Services as Team Leader, saw him contracted to develop their Policies, Processes and Procedures. He successfully completed the assignment in 2024.

Johnah has established a career in Project Management Consultancy since 2011, implementing end-to-end institutional set-up and regulatory projects on a consultative basis. His engagements include being the Project Manager of The Premiere in Lagos Nigeria, where he has helped in developing the regulatory framework covering the areas of business case development, policy and procedure manuals, premises and system acquisition, as well as recruitment and training. The project was launched in September 2025. He has been responsible for the end-to-end set up of Mayfair Bank Kenya Limited, which is a new commercial bank involving regulatory approval, systems set up, premises works and product and process development. He project managed the set up of Daraja Microfinance Bank, which involved system testing, staff training, procurement and regulatory follow through.

His consultancy engagements have also included bank set up projects in the region, which include developing all policies, procedures, process maps and risk profile of Bushra Business Bank in Somalia, supporting the set up of the Kenyan subsidiary of Dahabshiil Bank International and closing an assignment to develop policies and procedures for a new bank in Mogadishu, Somalia in 2021. He has also been engaged by Gargaara Company Limited to develop a policy manual on behalf of the German KfW Group for a digital upliftment project in Somalia. He provided Operational Excellence training to high potential employees in the Central Bank of Kenya.

Before his consultancy practice, Johnah worked for over ten years in senior positions in Barclays Bank including as Head of Performance, where he was responsible for performance improvement, process reengineering and budget control of the Operations Division, which accounted for more than 75% of the bank's budget. In his role as Senior Change Manager, he was involved in leading work streams in Barclays' Retail Expansion Programme, implemented ATM software upgrade projects, designed the debt recovery solution for Barclaycard, and was the Pan-African Project Manager of the Local Business initiative. He has also been Programme and Project Manager in Barclays Uganda and Barclays Botswana, where he implemented highly complex regulatory projects including Automated Clearing and Know Your Customer (KYC) compliance.

Vanessa Okwara serves as Head of Brand, Marketing and Communications at Ascend Africa Wealth Management in Nairobi, Kenya. She has played an instrumental role in building the company's brand from inception into a premium, structured market presence, shaping its voice, messaging and communications standards across key touchpoints.

With over 15 years of professional experience, Vanessa's career spans journalism, editorial leadership, digital media, public relations, brand management and corporate communications. Her experience combines strong editorial judgement with strategic brand thinking, enabling her to translate complex business propositions into clear, compelling narratives for clients, partners, media and other stakeholders.

At Ascend Africa Wealth Management, she owns and develops website content and research, co-creates brand guidelines, manages brand assets across digital and offline channels, directs social media and corporate content strategy, and drives visibility through targeted public relations and strategic media engagement. She also cultivates relationships with media, partners and external stakeholders, conceptualizes executive-level corporate events and oversees reputation and crisis communications when required.

A significant part of her work is focused on executive communications and positioning. She supports the CEO on local and international engagements, drafts speeches, presentations and talking points, manages executive social media and personal branding, prepares the CEO for media interviews and public appearances, and helps maintain consistent executive representation across public touchpoints. She also serves as a company spokesperson and official event host.

Before joining Ascend Africa Wealth Management, Vanessa served as Media & External Relations Manager at The Premiere in Lagos, where she was a member of the founding team and contributed to launching and positioning the company from inception. She authored and researched the company's website content, co-developed its brand manual, led media relations and PR initiatives, managed stakeholder relationships, developed corporate and social media content, and supported the CEO's public profile and engagements.

Previously, as Head of Media at Optiva Capital Partners, she led multimedia and social media teams, managed press relations, press conferences, events, sponsorships and marketing activations, oversaw internal and crisis communications, coordinated CSR projects and managed media engagements and strategic personal branding for the CEO. She also created The Optiva Chronicles, the company's journal designed to showcase thought leadership and leadership in the investment immigration industry across Africa.

Vanessa began her career in journalism and publishing, holding editorial and content roles at National Mirror Newspapers, New Telegraph Newspapers, Opera News and Power Woman International Magazine. At New Telegraph, she rose from correspondent to Assistant Editor and later served as Style and Entertainment Editor, coordinating the flagship Body and Soul magazine and managing correspondents, out-station reporters and interns. Her journalism background includes high-profile interviews, feature and news writing, copy editing, digital publishing, SEO and audience-focused content development.

Her core strengths include strategic planning, project and operations management, crisis management, leadership, creative writing, media relations and stakeholder engagement. She is recognized for strong written and oral communication, analytical thinking, teamwork and the ability to deliver brand and communications initiatives from concept through execution.