Carmen Turner
(Managing Director)

Carmen is a Chartered Accountant (SA) and a Chartered Financial Analyst® (CFA) Charterholder. She qualified as a Chartered Accountant (SA) after completing a three-year training contract with Grant Thornton in 2014, where she gained broad sector exposure across financial services, manufacturing, hospitality, compliance, and agriculture. 

In 2015, Carmen joined Velocity Trade South Africa and PKF Capital Markets (formerly Direct Markets Africa). She served as Chief Financial Officer of Velocity Trade South Africa from 2017 to 2019. In early 2020, she transitioned to a full-time role at PKF Capital Markets and was appointed as a Director.

Carmen brings extensive experience across corporate finance, capital markets, listing sponsor advisory, financial services, financial management, business administration, and regulatory compliance, among others.

Nico Ackermann
(Director)

Nico began his career at PKF (then Fisher Hoffman Stride) in Cape Town in 1995, where he completed his articles and served as Senior Audit Manager. He later became Group Financial Director of a listed venture capital company before founding a consulting firm focused on corporate governance and sustainable business strategy.

He has held senior roles in corporate finance, including Director of Capital Markets at Grant Thornton, where he played a key role in establishing the first Seychelles Stock Exchange and developing its listing requirements.

Nico led Seychelles’ most successful Sponsor Advisory and Broker-Dealer firm for 13 years and co-founded the Solid Oak Insurance Group, where he now serves as Managing Director. His industry experience spans real estate, packaging, biotech, agriculture, financial services, and mining, with executive and non-executive roles in both listed and private companies.

Daniel Carter
(Director)

Daniel joined Goldman Sachs investment bank in London as a graduate in 1997. Starting out on the “sell’’ side of the bank he moved across to the “buy” side where he joined the European Active Equity group as part of Goldman Sachs Asset Management. In 2003, Daniel left London for Cape Town, South Africa and formed a venture capital consulting business with colleagues. He went on to consult to international businesses looking to enter the South African and Sub-Saharan market across different sectors, although maintained a bias towards financial services throughout.

Since arriving in South Africa, he has been involved in the establishment and growth of a number of ventures as both stakeholder and investor spanning: securitisation, quantitative asset management, hedge fund, derivatives broking, trading technology and professional education. After starting his career in banking Daniel specialises in business strategy and capital raising for small to medium sized businesses as well as wealth management and investment strategies for high net worth clients.