Leah Kibe

Leah is a development finance and philanthropy executive with more than two decades of experience mobilising and governing catalytic capital across Africa. An actuary by training, she is a Certified Public Accountant and holds an MSc in Development Finance from The University of Manchester. She has directed initiatives exceeding US$725 million across 24 Sub-Saharan African countries, spanning health, education, water, sanitation and hygiene, climate resilience, and economic transformation.

Her career includes senior leadership roles at the Children's Investment Fund Foundation and KPMG East Africa, where she pioneered blended finance models and Public–Private–Philanthropic Partnerships that bring together governments, development finance institutions, foundations, and private investors to deliver sustainable solutions to Africa's most complex development challenges.

Leah founded the Africa Corporate Philanthropy Leaders’ Initiative, served as Secretariat Lead for the MDB–Philanthropy Forum, co-convened AfricaXChange alongside the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation, and seeded the Africa Capital Hub. She currently leads Catalyst Giving Collective, a platform mobilising faith-inspired philanthropy and catalytic capital across African and diaspora markets. In 2024, she received the IMPACT Lifetime Achievement Award in Philanthropy, recognising her contributions to innovative finance and strategic partnerships across the continent.