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.

Jack is the founding CEO of CAP-A. Most recently, he was a Senior Program Director with the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI). Prior to this, he was the Africa Regional Director with the Clinton Climate Initiative (CCI) of the Clinton Foundation working across Sub-Saharan Africa and South-East Asia. He set up the CCI programs in East Africa and initiated joint planning with multiple government, private sector and NGO partners in those countries to develop systems for national measurement, reporting, and verification of emissions within a framework of national development priorities.

From 2006 to 2008, Jack served in various senior roles for the Clinton-Hunter Development Initiative (CHDI), a $100M Initiative focused on effecting economic development in rural communities.

He first joined the Clinton Foundation as a Consultant where he participated in building Africa-relevant fact bases and models for fertiliser production, use and transport. Prior to joining the Foundation, Jack was a corporate finance professional working in the United States. Jack is an MBA graduate of the University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh. He also holds an Economics degree from the University of Wisconsin, Green Bay.