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 Kimani is the founding CEO of the Climate Action Platform for Africa (CAP-A. He has over 20 years of corporate finance and development experience working across Sub-Saharan Africa, North America and South-East Asia, for major multinational organizations. Most recently, he served as the Senior Program Director for the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI) where he led and provided project management oversight across CHAI’s Universal Health Coverage programs and climate initiatives.

Following several years in Corporate America, Jack joined the Clinton Foundation where he rose to be the Africa Director for the Clinton Climate Initiative managing a diverse team working across the continent to address climate change in meaningful and measurable ways, prioritizing on nature-based solutions and integrated development, including other externalities and benefits.

While traveling regularly across the African continent, Jack has mainly been based in Malawi, Rwanda and Kenya for significant periods. He is an MBA graduate of the University of Wisconsin (Oshkosh). He also holds an Economics degree from the University of Wisconsin (Green Bay).