Leadership

James Irungu Mwangi is the founder of the Climate Action Platform for Africa, which he launched alongside Carlijn Nouwen in 2021, to help unlock Africa’s potential to transform its economies while playing a leading role in effective climate action.

Prior to that, he spent 20 years at the Dalberg Group which he helped found; leading the firm’s expansion into Africa in 2007, serving as Global Managing Partner of Dalberg Advisors, and most recently as Executive Director of the Dalberg Group. During his tenure, James led the growth, incubation or acquisition of many of the entities that today constitute Dalberg’s operational footprint in over 25 countries on 6 continents.

James also serves as an independent director on several boards including the Skoll Foundation, the Global Centre for Pluralism, One Acre Fund, Old Mutual Limited and Koko Networks.

He is a 2009 Archbishop Tutu Leadership Fellow of the African Leadership Institute, a 2013 Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum and a 2021 Yale World Fellow. He holds an honors degree in economics from Harvard University.

Carlijn co-founded CAP-A in 2021 and has been leading the organisation's data and analytics work while also shaping its strategy and its various programmes.

Carlijn's work focuses on competitiveness, inclusive industrialisation and inclusive business and investment in Africa. Prior to founding CAP-A, she spent nearly a decade as a senior partner with Dalberg Advisors in Africa, leading Dalberg's inclusive business work. In this role, she developed and pioneered Dalberg's toolkit on competitiveness assessment and investment prioritisation, leading tens of projects in this space across sectors and countries for public, private and social sector clients.

Prior to Dalberg, Carlijn spent 7 years at McKinsey and Company in the Netherlands and worked for the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs. With a master’s degree in Industrial Engineering and Management Science (cum laude), she also leads CAP-A’s engagement on technical innovation in climate action.

Samantha Maasdorp leads CAP-A's strategic and partnership efforts. Her day-to-day focus is on realising CAP-A's bold ambition to realise Climate Positive Growth in Africa. She oversees the growth and development of CAP-A and is charged with driving CAP-A's role as a system orchestrator that works with and through a network of likeminded partners to amplify and accelerate Climate Positive Growth.

Samantha also leads CAP-A's work on green livelihoods, with extensive experience in education to employment pathways on the continent. Previously, Samantha has worked with SmartStart Early Learning Social Franchise in South Africa and Dalberg Advisors Africa where her work focused on livelihoods, employment and enterprise development, and education. She holds degrees in Politics, Public Policy, and Sociology.