Our executive team provide strong leadership and strategic direction for Solevo. Their experience, dedication and commitment to enabling growth across Africa underpins our ability to best serve and empower customers and communities across the continent.
Our Executive Team
Our Board of Directors
Henri Nejade is an accomplished executive with over 36 years of experience in the chemicals and ingredients sector. He has held leadership roles at Brenntag Group, Solvay, and GE, earning a reputation as an expert in specialty chemicals, mergers and acquisitions, and global business development.
Known for his strategic vision and ability to navigate complex challenges, Henri excels in fostering customer-centric solutions and driving growth across APAC, EMEA, and beyond. His leadership combines deep cross-cultural insights with a track record of delivering exceptional business results.
Henri Nejade is an accomplished executive with over 36 years of experience in the chemicals and ingredients sector. He has held leadership roles at Brenntag Group, Solvay, and GE, earning a reputation as an expert in specialty chemicals, mergers and acquisitions, and global business development.
Known for his strategic vision and ability to navigate complex challenges, Henri excels in fostering customer-centric solutions and driving growth across APAC, EMEA, and beyond. His leadership combines deep cross-cultural insights with a track record of delivering exceptional business results.
Jean-Christophe Juilliard brings extensive international leadership experience to Solevo’s Board, having held executive roles across Europe, the Americas, Africa, and Asia in both public and private companies. With a career spanning agribusiness and FMCG sectors, he has successfully driven operational excellence, innovation, and cultural transformation.
Jean-Christophe has a proven track record in developing new business models, executing mergers and acquisitions, and navigating crises. As an independent director, he provides objective insights, leverages his global network, and acts as a trusted advisor to foster collaboration and sustainable growth.
Babacar Ka brings over 20 years of private equity and investment advisory experience, with a dozen of those years spent in private equity in Africa. He leads investments at DPI, including sourcing, structuring, and exiting transactions, and serves on multiple boards, including Solevo Group; COFINA Group; Atlantique Business International (Banque Atlantique Group); and KMR Holding Pédagogique.
Babacar has been instrumental in private equity and M&A transactions valued at over $3 billion. Previously, he held roles at Standard Bank and the International Finance Corporation. Babacar holds a BSc in Finance from UC Riverside and an MBA from the University of Oxford.
Adefolarin Ogunsanya is a partner within the investment team at DPI with over 17 years of private equity and investment banking experience. Prior to joining DPI, he worked as an investment professional at Helios Investment Partners and was an investment banker within Credit Suisse’s Leveraged Finance and Restructuring group in New York.
He currently serves on multiple boards including Solevo Group, Food Concepts Plc, HomeChoice Ltd (JSE listed), Pan African Towers and Moniepoint Inc. Adefolarin holds a BSc (Hons) in Computer Engineering from NJIT and an MBA from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
Marc Stoneham is a Partner and senior lead of the value creation team at DPI. He is a member and observer of multiple portfolio company boards and committees across the portfolio, including Food Concepts, Cofina, Moniepoint, Pan African Towers and B.TECH. With over 20 years of experience across Africa and the Middle East, he previously worked at McKinsey & Company, Actis, and Kingdom Zephyr.
In 2020, Marc was named one of Private Equity International’s Future 40 Leaders of Private Equity. A British citizen, Marc holds a BA (Hons) in Modern History from the University of Oxford and an MBA from INSEAD.
Aissatou Dia is a private equity investment professional specialized in African markets. Before joining DPI, she worked at Argos Wityu, a European-based private equity firm, and previously at PwC France and Deloitte, focusing on M&A transactions, valuation, LBO modeling, due diligence, and investment strategy.
At DPI, Aissatou oversees several portfolio companies, including Solevo, and collaborate with teams to identify, evaluate and execute investments. She has passed CFA Level II and is an alumna of ESCP Business School.
Joris Coppye
After 2 years as a member and chairman of the Board of Directors, Joris Coppye was appointed Chief Executive Officer of Solevo in June 2020. He reports to the Board of Directors.
Joris has a strong business and financial background, a business development mindset and extensive change management experience. He was the former CEO and co-founder of Incendin and had executive roles in Common Ground Corporate Finance, Azelis, Sibeco Group, KBC bank and Imec.
Joris is a Belgian national and brings extensive experience in the chemicals sector.
Ownership
Previously a branch of Louis Dreyfus Commodities and under the ownership of Helios Investment Partners and Temasek between 2017-2023, Solevo was acquired by Africa-focused private equity firm Development Partners International (DPI) in April 2023.
London-based DPI has been investing in African companies since 2007 and is one of the most active private equity investors across the African continent, with approximately US$3 billion in assets under management and co-investments across three funds.
The investment in Solevo was made from African Development Partners III (ADP III); a private equity fund advised by DPI. DPI’s third fund, ADP III, was chosen as the first 2X Flagship Fund as part of the global 2X Challenge, committing to integrating a gender lens into its investment process, and reflecting DPI’s long-standing commitment to gender equity.
DPI’s partnership will help us to accelerate our scaling in new geographies, expand the firm’s portfolio of specialty chemicals across key sectors and implement digital transformation.
We are working closely with our DPI colleagues on a new digitalisation and technology strategy to drive greater efficiencies across Solevo’s extensive distribution platform.
We are also collaborating to advance a comprehensive ESG and Impact across the firm, to ensure that sustainability is embedded across the company’s operations and supply chains, as Solevo increases its commitment to be part of the solution to solve critical development challenges such as food-security.
