Thabo Ncalo is Founding / Managing Partner at Savvy Capital Partners, an investment firm focused on Venture Capital & Equity investing in Africa. He has over 14 years’ investment management experience and was previously Portfolio Manager at STANLIB Asset Management (part of the Standard Bank Group) managing the firm’s suite of Pan-Africa Equity Funds. Prior to this he was an Equity Analyst on the same STANLIB funds from 2007. In these roles, he traveled extensively on the continent engaging with company executives, industry & financial sector players, regulators & public officials.

He was previously at Investec Asset Management ending as an Equity Analyst on the South African industrials, healthcare and small cap sectors on the JSE Securities Exchange.

Thabo is currently a 2017 / 2018 Harvard University – South Africa Fellow and a PLD (Program for Leadership Development) candidate at Harvard Business School. He holds a Bachelor of Commerce in Finance, Investments and Accounting from the University of the Witwatersrand; Registered Persons Exam in Equities & Bonds; and a CAIB (SA) from the Inst. of Bankers. He has also completed the Advances in Equity Portfolio Construction programme at the EDHEC Risk Institute in London, and the SAVCA / GIBS Foundation and Advanced Programmes in Private Equity.

Thabo is a 2015 Mandela Washington Fellow under the U.S. Department of State’s Young African Leaders Initiative and underwent studies in Business & Entrepreneurship at Clark Atlanta University’s School of Business in the summer of 2015.

A panelist at Harvard Business School’s 2015 Africa Conference in Cambridge, Thabo was a finalist for the 2013 ABSIP Equity Manager of the Year award in South Africa and was awarded the Young Banker of the Year by IOB/SASBO in 2007. He appears regularly on various media (such as CNBC Africa) as a commentator on African markets and companies.

Thabo serves as a Business Mentor for Startupbootcamp (CapeTown) – one the largest accelerator programmes in the world, and was a Judge at the 2017 Seedstars World competitions in Johannesburg & Maputo. Thabo works to give back to his community by serving as an Executive Trustee on the Sisters of Mercy Education and General Trusts in South Africa; and as an Executive Committee Member of the Tsogo Alumni Society, which supports Tsogo Secondary School in South Africa.