Board Of Directors

ENGELHARDT, Thomas.

(Chairman of the Board, appointed Feb. 2019)
Nationality: German

Mr. Engelhardt is AccessHolding’s Chief Operations Officer. He joined LFS Advisory GmbH as a Partner in 1996 and has served on the AccessHolding management board since its foundation in 2006. He was also the first General Manager of AccessBank Azerbaijan and held other managerial positions in Berlin and abroad. Mr Engelhardt has an M.Sc degree in Economics, and speaks German, English, Russian and Serbo-Croat.

BASH, Jennifer.

(Member of the Board, appointed May. 2019)
Nationality: Tanzanian

Jennifer Bash is a renowned Tanzanian agri-business entrepreneur and a marketing expert committed towards making agriculture production a sustainable and profitable business across the value chains that she engages with.
She is the Founder and CEO of Alaska Tanzania, a food manufacturing company that operates through agro processing and trading commodities. Alaska Tanzania’s business model involves empowering smallholder farmers by improving access to markets, providing relevant information and adaptation of global best practices.
Jennifer launched Alaska Tanzania in 2011 and has grown the company to incorporate various segments including grains, poultry and processed foods distributed in over 5 African countries with a mission to reach 20 by 2025.
Jennifer is also the Founder and Managing Partner of AgriSoko- a digital platform that connects farmers and vendors to fair, trusted markets across Africa and Founder of Mama Alaska Jamii- A not for profit organization that provides farmers and micro-businesses in Tanzania access to markets, financial products and services, capacity building programs and equip them with essential business development skills that are pertinent to their business growth.
Jennifer dedicates her efforts to building strategic collaborations within Agriculture stakeholders in the public and private sectors that impacts the bottom of the pyramid with the mission to improve business economics and profitability across agriculture supply chains.
She is driven to see agriculture as the backbone of African economies develops to its full potential. She has participated in a number of panel discussions across Africa and globally, sharing her insights and contributing towards the critical conversations on the transformation of Africa through agriculture and the role local and international partners can assume.
Her work has been featured on a range of international and local media outlets including How We Made It in Africa: The Book, with other distinguished 24 African entrepreneurs leading change in their communities.
Jennifer who is a mom of 3, holds a Bachelor of Business Administration in International Marketing from Baruch College, New York. She also serves as a member of the Tanzania Entrepreneurship Competitiveness Centre (TECC) Board of Trustees, member of the Board of Resolution Insurance as a Non-Executive Director and a member of the board of AccessBank Tanzania Limited as an Independent Director.
Some of her other accolades include:
– 2017 East Africa Young Business Leader by All Africa Business Leaders Awards (AABLA2017)
– 2016 Women’s Award of Excellence in Agribusiness Sector by Clouds Media Group
– 2016 VV Grow Fellow by Vital Voices
– 2014 Goldman Sachs 10,000 Women Alumni
– 2017 Member of the Africa List Tanzania Working Group.

MAINHARDT, Johannes.

(Member of the Board, appointed June. 2018)
Nationality: German

Mr. Johannes Mainhardt is an expert in investment, risk and financial advisory, he has worked in the banking industry for more than 11 years. He has worked with Deutche Bank (Germany), MSME Finance Consultant with AccessBank Azerbaijan, SME Advisor & Branch Manager with AccessBank Liberia, Financial & Operations Manager of AccessBank Tajikistan, Chief Credit & Operations Officer/ Deputy CEO of AB MFB Nigeria for 2 years, Senior Banking Advisor at LFS and Finance & Risk Director at JSC Credo Bank, and is currently the Head of an Investment Unit at AccessHolding of which he has held the position for 8 years now. Mr. Yohannes also has experience in Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise (MSME) loan Management, Product Development and Implementation, Retail Banking, Strategy and Business as well as Marketing.

LACKNER, Kyle.

(Member of the Board, appointed Oct. 2020)
Nationality: American

Kyle Lackner started his career within the AccessHolding network in 2007 when he joined AccessBank Azerbaijan, initially as a Peace Corps Volunteer assigned to the institution. Following his Peace Corps service, Mr. Lackner worked in AccessBank Azerbaijan as an Executive Assistant to the Management Board, supporting on a wide range of quantitative and governance tasks. Mr. Lackner subsequently joined the Management Board of AccessBank Liberia as the Operations Manager. Later, he joined the Supervisory Board of the Bank, during which time he assisted in stakeholder communications and corporate strategies through the Ebola crisis. Since 2017, Mr. Lackner has been the Risk Manager of AccessHolding – responsible for the risks of both the parent holding company as well as the group of Network Banks. In this role he has focused on credit risk quantification and credit scoring, as well as financial risk quantification and management. Mr. Lackner has a Bachelor’s degree in Economics and Philosophy of Law and Ethics from the University of Rochester and an MBA from the University of Pittsburgh. He joined the Supervisory Board of AccessBank Tanzania in 2020.

SANGA, Patrick.

(Member of the Board, appointed Dec. 2021)
Nationality: Tanzanian

Patrick Sanga is a Partner at Vemma Attorneys and Heads the Firm’s Corporate and Intellectual Property Practice Department. He is an Advocate of the Court of Appeal, High Court of Tanzania and Courts subordinate thereto. He is a member of Tanganyika Law Society, East Africa Law Society, SADC Lawyers Association, Chartered Institute of Secretaries and Administrators, London, Chartered Institute of Trade Mark Attorneys, London, International Trademark Association (INTA), New York and currently he is serving as a member of the INTA Anticounterfeiting Committee, Global Project on Anticounterfeiting Policy and a member of INTA’s Global Advisory Council for Africa. He is also a member of International Association for the Protection of Intellectual Property (AIPPI), Switzerland.

Patrick previously worked for the United Bank for Africa (Tanzania) Limited, Africa’s Global Bank as the Head of Legal, Compliance and Company Secretary and dotted line reporting as Regional Head Legal for East and Central Africa and before that he worked at Exim Bank. Over the span of years of working with highly regulated companies, Patrick has a profound knowledge and experience in conducting legal compliance audits to ensure compliance, dealing with complex regulatory and governance compliance matters such as Corporate Governance Structures and Compliance, Anti-Money Laundering, Anti-trust and Anti-Bribery laws and regulations.

He contributes regularly to the World Bank research on the world business competition surveys for Tanzania Chapter (Doing Business). He is also regular and lead contributor to the Lexology Getting the Deal Through for the Tanzania Chapter on the Trademarks practice.

As a seasoned transactional lawyer, Patrick has been recognized for his corporate and commercial work by global leading legal directories IFLR1000 and World Trademark Review (WTR1000). He holds a Bachelor of Laws Degree from Tumaini University, and he is alumnus of Harvard Law School’s Negotiation and Leadership Programme from Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts. He also sits on the Board of Directors of The School Fund, Tanzania an American Non-Government Organization with concentration of helping students in need of school fees; so far, the fund has funded 1550 schools, 865 students in 15 countries.

He has keen interests in leadership, economic development, championing for financial inclusion and advocating micro-lending across Africa and is constantly engaging on start-ups and building stronger businesses.

MULENGA, Maximo.

(Member of the Board, appointed Nov. 2021)
Nationality: Zambian

 

Mr. Maximo Mulenga is currently the Chief Financial Officer / Deputy CEO of AB Bank Zambia Limited. Prior to joining AB Bank Zambia, Maximo worked for Citibank for over fifteen years in various capacities both at country and regional level and served in senior management positions. Maximo has gained valuable experience in finance, manufacturing and public practice having spent years working for Zambian Breweries Plc, Renco Associates Chartered Accountants and KPMG. Maximo is a Chartered Accountant and Fellow of Zambia Institute of Chartered Accountants (ZICA) and ACCA. He holds a Master’s Degree in Business Administration from Heriot-Watt University and a Diploma in Accountancy from the Copperbelt University.