Our Team
The people behind Verdant Ventures.
Tim Redman
Chief Executive Officer
Tim has 30+ years of experience in Africa and the Middle East. His exposure to the Middle East was as CEO of Omran, the Real Estate Management & Development
Company of the Sultanate of Oman, where he successfully managed the setup and delivery of company & project structures with values of over $5B.
Tom McCallum
Chief Investment Officer
Thomas has 30+ years of real estate experience behind him. He is the founder of Richard Ellis (Canada) Inc and Deloitte Real Estate Advisory Services, Canada. He has spearheaded many of Sub-Saharan Africa’s largest real estate debt and equity transactions on behalf of IFC.
Scott Friesen
Co-founder + Board Chairman
Scott is a serial entrepreneur with 18+ years’ experience in founding, growing and successfully exiting 4 technology businesses in the US and 5 in Ethiopia. He served in roles as CEO, COO, CFO & Head of Sales.
Russ Murphy
Co-founder + Board Director
Russ has 15+ years of experience in real estate development. He has built more than 4,000 units valued at over $2 billion. He is the co-founder of Aspen Heights, a multifaceted real estate development company with annual revenues above $500m.
Faizal Bocus
CFO (Mauritius)
Faizal is the former Senior Finance Manager for the UK and European Outlet Mall Fund of Nuveen Real Estate. He was responsible for reporting, implementing an FX IT system, and working alongside transaction teams on the acquisition/disposal of assets.
Sherri Holland
Financial Controller
Sherri has 25+ years of experience in the Controller role. Her background includes founding, scaling profitably and selling businesses in the technology and media industries. She is a talented financial and operations leader who is able to successfully manage all aspects of a highly profitable business.
Claire Anami
Head of Development
Claire is the former Country Operations Lead of CBRE Global Workplace Solutions in Nairobi, Kenya. She led a team of 78 staff and ran 9 key client accounts in Kenya as a global provider of integrated facilities & corporate real estate management.
Fraser Kadera
Advisor
Fraser is the Managing Principal and Founder of Linchpin Project Consulting. He spent three years as the Senior International Realty Specialist for the Bureau of Overseas Building Operations & brings valuable expertise from his tenure at OBO & managing real estate development & construction projects from concept through delivery.