Co-Development & Investment Holdings
Principals
Our Principals
The Co-Development & Investment Holdings is formed by a diverse group of highly skilled professionals from Africa, Europe, and North America, whose relationships, geographic reach and expertise in business and finance, economic development and government would be extremely difficult to replicate.
Michael Granger
Mr. Michael Granger served as co-Chief Executive Officer of the Co-Development & Investment Consortium. He is Chairman and co-founder of Africa Global Sourcing, LLC, co-founder and general partner of Ark Direct Capital Fund, LP, and co- founder and co-managing partner of Ark Private Equity Partners, LLC., a Chicago-based private equity firm with a national investment scope in middle market companies.
He is Chairman of the Capital Access Forum, an annual forum designed to facilitate and increase access to capital for emerging entrepreneurs and minority businesses, which, under the auspices of the Obama Administration, convened to assess the impact of the financial crisis on SMEs and to devise strategies for increasing the flow of capital to those sectors. Michael Granger also served on a White House Panel of Business Leaders convened by the President’s Chief Economic Advisors.
Michael Granger is currently engaged in bringing a new wave of American industries to Africa for investments in and financing of private sector development projects to support the growth of Africa's small and medium- size enterprises and address the needs of underserved markets. Michael Granger has been instrumental in ‘Power Africa’, a $7 billion U.S. Government's initiative announced by President Obama, of whom he is amongst the earliest supporters, over his latest trip to Africa to double access to power in sub-Saharan Africa. Michael Granger is also advising African governments on how to best build entrepreneurial capabilities to develop these rapidly emerging economies more effectively and fulfil the full potential of the continent in the 21st century.
Prior to forming Ark Capital in 1991, Michael Granger has been an active professional in private equity and venture capital most notably with Xerox Venture Capital and Cigna Venture Capital since 1985.
Michael Granger has been a private equity investments expert for programs at Harvard Business School, Dartmouth College, the U.S. Commerce Department, the Small Business Association, the National Black M.B.A. Association, the Alliance of Business Leaders and Entrepreneurs and the American Association of Entrepreneurs.
He is a member of the Board of Directors of the American Association of Entrepreneurs, the American Youth Soccer Organization (A.Y.S.O.), the Foundation for a World in Transition as well as of several of Ark’s portfolio companies.
His publications include: ‘Case Study on Hospital Management Companies’; an editorial piece in The Wall Street Journal on Capital Gains Tax Reduction; and a Study on Venture Capital Opportunities in the Telecommunication Industry (Tuck Today Magazine).
Michael Granger earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and an M.B.A. from the Amos Tuck School at Dartmouth College. He served in the U.S. Marine Corps for four years during the Vietnam era.
Louis Lyonel Voiron
Mr. Louis Lyonel Voiron served as co-Chief Executive Officer of the Co-Development & Investment Consortium.
He also serves as President of the Foundation for a World in Transition, a Washington DC-based independent, non-profit research centre and public policy forum helping current and future decision-makers shape the future.
Louis L. Voiron has advised governments, international organizations, corporations, investment funds and high net worth individuals in the United States, Europe, Africa, China, Russia and the CIS. He has recently served as Special Consultant to one of the largest and longest established privately owned hedge fund, advising on strategic investments and debt acquisitions in Europe and Africa.
He is the author of 100+ projections on the future developments of political, economic and geostrategic events, including the correct outcomes of all US, Russian, French, German and British elections since 2000 as well as many counter-intuitive and often missed developments or implications of the Iraq War and the 2007 financial crisis.
He served as General Secretary of the World Anti-Illicit Traffic Organization (WAITO Corp.), a Washington DC-based independent, interdisciplinary and evidence-based organization, offering research, educational programs, information, and partnership opportunities designed to assist in fighting against criminal networks, illicit trade, smuggling and new international threats.
He served as a Assistant Director General and as Chair of the Finance Committee of BORDERPOL, an Ottawa-based non-profit, non-aligned, international institution founded by progressive national border administrations and associated law enforcement services and agencies to serve the border security and migration management community, and often referred to as the World Border Organization.
As Managing Director based in Washington DC then in London of a US strategic and risk consultancy, he was responsible for all international operations. He founded offices in London and Paris for specific projects of Washington-based organizations, before launching his own practice with a former member of HM’s Government.
A former Special Advisor for public opinion, speech writing and strategy in the French Government, he served in various parliamentary, ministerial and prime ministerial staffs, and managed a governmental think tank, whose works have been translated into national and EU policies.
Graduated in Business Law, Political Science and Political Communication, in France and in the United Kingdom, co-author of ‘Election Time 03’, Louis-Lyonel Voiron is a member of the Royal Institute of International Affairs, the International Oil Club, the International Association of Political Consultants, the European Association of Political Consultants, the French Association of Political Science and the Defence and Security Forum. He served as member of the Executive Committee and as Senior Advisor to the Chairman of a French free-market think tank, and as a member of the board of directors of a state-chartered heritage foundation.