In this episode, I have the pleasure of speaking with Simba Marekera, Head of Investment Management at Brightlight Group and a long-standing advocate and active community member in the gender finance field. This beautiful conversation dives into place, belonging, and how courage can also mean using your privilege, and speaking up for those who can't be in the room. We speak about the reframes needed in economics, finance and the power of ancestral wisdom, as well as the role of more proximate knowledge in investment decision making. We also discuss privilege and the role of men in gender-smart investing. Simba Marekera is the Head of Investment Management at Brightlight Group, an impact investing fund manager dedicated to investing with the goal of transforming lives. He specialises in innovative financing and blended finance across a variety of Private Markets asset classes including infrastructure, real estate and credit/private debt both in developed and developing markets. Simba is active an philanthropist and social entrepreneur focused on empowerment of beneficiaries. He co-founded New Africa Foundation (www.newafrica.foundation) a charitable organisation that empower African communities through targeted philanthropy and investments in education, healthcare and entrepreneurship. He is also a co-Founder of EdFin (www.edfin.com.au), a fintech company that is a pioneer in providing affordable and responsible international education financing in Australia and Ignition Impact (www.ignitionimpact.com), an Angel Network that invests in high growth and high social impact African SMEs. Show Notes What Simba is reading: Wayfinding Leadership: Groundbreaking Wisdom for Developing Leaders by Dr Chellie Spiller, Hoturoa Barclay-Kerr, John Panoho Words he holds close are from the Book of Michael in the Bible " Seek justice, love mercy and walk humbly to your God" Example of a community-driven infrastructure debt strategy that Simba has led. Te Puna Hapori is grounded in indigenous principles, co-creating with the community and embeds a gender and broader inclusion lens into the financing strategy