Amyn Esmail

Founder & Managing Partner at Amal Sustainability Partners

Panellist

Amyn Esmail is the Founder and Managing Partner of Amal Sustainability Partners, a Gulf-based ESG and sustainability advisory firm operating at the intersection of capital, policy, and performance across the Middle East and Africa. Amal partners with institutional investors, family offices, and corporates to embed sustainability into strategy, governance, and investment readiness, turning ESG from a regulatory requirement into a source of capital access, competitiveness, and long-term value.

Amyn is actively working to connect Gulf capital with African investment opportunities, focusing on sectors such as agribusiness, infrastructure, and manufacturing. He has advised diversified family groups, venture funds, growth-stage businesses, and corporates across the GCC and Africa, conducting pre-transaction ESG due diligence and developing frameworks that align enterprise performance with investor expectations and international disclosure standards.

After almost a decade in private banking, product development, and investment advisory with ABSA Bank and First National Bank Private Wealth in South Africa, Amyn transitioned to the agribusiness and trade sectors, where he built and managed operations across East and Southern Africa. His work focused on developing agricultural value chains, improving smallholder farmer productivity, strengthening market linkages, and facilitating partnerships with global food brands entering emerging markets.

This practical experience gave Amyn a deep understanding of the private sector’s role in inclusive growth and enabled him to provide international organizations such as UNHCR, WFP, and DFID with a private sector lens on sustainable development, livelihood creation, and food security.

He later served with the Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development (AKFED) as Regional Agribusiness Development Lead for Central Asia, where he engaged with the IFC, World Bank, and other partners to advance sustainable investment initiatives and strengthen portfolio governance. Amyn’s collective experience, spanning finance, investment, and sustainability, enables him to bring stakeholders together across the value chain to design and implement strategies that create more resilient and sustainable systems. A speaker on sustainable finance and emerging market investment, he participated at COP28, where he discussed the role of technology and governance in reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

He holds a Bachelor of Science in Finance with a Minor in International Studies from Bentley University and continues to advance efforts that bridge Gulf capital with African opportunity