Amanda is a trustee for Balloon Ventures and Managing Director of the French operation of HW International Group, an insurance brokerage with offices across Europe, North America and in Australia and Hong Kong. With many years’ experience working in the insurance industry, both as a broker and also for one of the largest insurers Aviva, she is qualified and regulated to work directly in the UK, French and Swiss insurance markets. At sector level, Amanda works with global and large corporate, chemical, real estate and fine arts clients, providing client advice, developing customer-focused propositions and managing complex programmes. She also has a number of start-up, scale-up and family office clients, seeking risk management support as they grow.

Amy is the Group Finance Director at Balloon Ventures responsible for all aspects of financial planning and management. Amy joined Balloon in 2017. Before Balloon, Amy worked for 8 years at PwC progressing to Manager level. At PwC Amy firstly worked in Audit before moving into Forensic Services where she specialised in developing anti-money laundering policies for global investment banks and conducting reviews of internal controls and processes. Amy qualified as an ACA Chartered Accountant in 2013 and graduated with a 1^st in Business Accounting and Finance from Newcastle University.

Doug Co-Founded Balloon Ventures in 2012 and has led the scaling up of Balloon programmes. He managed Balloon’s £4.7m multi-year UKAID project delivered across 11 communities in Ghana, Kenya and Uganda. The project, which combined business consultancy with low interest loans to informal sector entrepreneurs, was rated A or A+ in all DFID Annual Reviews.  Doug has also coordinated an external randomised control trial to evaluate the project’s impact, being implemented by researchers at Stanford University. As a trainer in enterprise and innovation, Doug has delivered programmes to staff at Citibank, Fujitsu, BT and Cisco Group. He holds a BA from the University of Warwick and an MSc from University College London.

Josh is the co-founder and CEO of Balloon Ventures, a family of social enterprises with a shared mission to defeat poverty by creating good jobs where they are needed most. Josh co-founded Balloon in 2012 after working in Kenya researching the post-election violence of 2007-08. An experienced entrepreneur, he has conceived and scaled a diverse range of business models including investment funds pioneering affordable financial products for small-scale entrepreneurs in emerging markets, volunteering programs delivering major public and private sector contracts and tech platforms which democratise access to Balloon’s entrepreneurship curriculum globally. During this time, Balloon has invested $1,000,000+ in small-scale entrepreneurs, provided 1 million hours of support and supported 4,000+ entrepreneurs across 42 countries. Josh has forged and managed senior relationships with clients as diverse as the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID), Citibank and the University of Cambridge. Josh was appointed the youngest ever Visiting Fellow at Cass Business School, where he taught entrepreneurship to MBA students. He holds a BA from the University of Bristol and an MA from the University of British Columbia.

Melinda retired in 2010 after 16 years as Chief Executive of one of the UK’s largest care and housing providers. During this time she managed 17,000 homes and a team of 7,200 staff. Upon her retirement, the company had a turnover of £200m. Melinda now works with Balloon providing strategic and operational support.

Prabhay is a Trustee for Balloon Ventures and a Project Leader at the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), with a focus on M&A transactions and investor-lens work. He has held previous roles in sustainable investing at Morgan Stanley and trade finance at Citigroup. Prabhay is passionate about supporting entrepreneurs and worked on Balloon’s 2017 Volunteer Africa program as well as volunteering in Kenya in 2013. He holds an MBA from Columbia Business School, where he graduated with Dean’s Honours, and a BSc from University College London.

Will is a Trustee for Balloon Ventures and Human Capital Manager at Helios Investment Partners, the pan-African private investment firm, where he partners with 25+ portfolio companies across questions of talent, compensation, organisation structure, corporate governance etc. He previously worked for Skillcapital, an executive search firm focused on private equity backed portfolio companies. Will is passionate about entrepreneurship and the development of the private sector in Africa, working on Balloon’s 2013 and 2014 programmes and spending time as an Investment Associate in the Kenya Office in 2018. He holds a MA in International Relations from Kings College London and a BA History from Exeter University.