Kenya

We welcome Dr. Hilary Akhaabi, as Senior Vice President, Finance & Operations (USA & East Africa) & President I-Go Capital East Africa Limited

Dr.  Akhaabi brings a wealth of experience and knowledge to the team that will yield positive result well into the future.

Dr. will be assisting Go Africa in the USA in the areas of Finance,  risk and new developments.

Dr. Will also be working with the Go Africa team in East Africa to drive projects and initiatives over an evolving time frame.

About Dr Hilary Akhaabi

Experience:

Dr. Hilary AKhaabi is a Senior Director at American Express Global Risk Oversight Group heading the functions of Credit Risk Model Validation and Review. He possess over 13 years experience within the  financial services industry.  His technical expertise includes financial model development and implementation of credit risk management frameworks, oversight of funding and liquidity risk; as well as technology solutions to solve financial risk problems (Fintech).

Dr. Akhaabi has been instrumental in development of risk governance frameworks including policies and standards; board and senior management reporting across key risk pillar within American Express including interpretation of regulatory guidance SR 11-7 (Guidance on Model Risk Management). Automation of model risk management processes including model auto-retraining, validation, machine learning. He has also offered consulting expertise to startup companies.

Education:

Dr. Hilary Akhaabi holds PhD in operational research with an emphasis in financial economics. His dissertation focused on Veblen’s theory of conspicuous consumption highlighting the effects of relative income and its implication to debt increase with particular focus into the 2006-2010 great recession.  He also holds a MS in Risk Management from New York University; an MBA with an emphasis in Finance and information Systems; as well as a BSBA in Finance and Economics from Northern Arizona University. Plus other certificates.

Publications:

Akhaabi, Hilary and Teukuarkyansha Meraxa (2019). Leveraging data to drive early detection and model risk monitoring;

Akhaabi, Hilary and Teukuarkyansha Meraxa (2016). Assessing Model Risk in the Aggregate: Model Risk Score

Dissertation/Published Work:

Akhaabi, Hilary (2010, December). Relative Income and Consumer Debt: Evidence from the Survey of Consumer Finance. Pro Quest, Ann Arbor, Michigan

Interests:

Dr Akhaabi’s interest lie in enhancing the social economic well being by working collaboratively with institutions both private and public to hasten financial deepening and acumen within East Africa.

Memberships:

Global Association of Risk Professionals (GARP)

Council of Urban Professionals (CUP)

New York University Stern Business School Alumni Association

Black Employee Network, American Express