< Go Back

Advisory Board

Mr. First joined Delphos in 2022 as the Southern African representative with an emphasis on providing the group with impact investing and climate finance expertise.  

Mr. First has over 18 years of investment banking experience working in Toronto, London and Johannesburg and 9 years of development finance experience focused primarily on Southern Africa.  

At the Development Bank of Southern Africa, Mr. First developed innovative structured finance solutions and sourced blended funding for large infrastructure projects in Sub Saharan Africa. He led the DBSA’s initiative to create a green bank which culminated in the establishment of the GCF co-funded Climate Finance Facility in 2018. Mr. First is chair of South Africa’s first Green Outcomes Fund and is an advisor to Climate Policy Initiative the secretariat for the Global Innovation Lab for Climate Finance. He was part of the task team that set up the Impact Investment National Advisory Board in South Africa and was a board member. He was recently appointed as an advisor to the Impact Boards, Emerging Markets. 

Mr. First qualified as a lawyer in South Africa.