As Head of JLL in East Africa, Wayne leads a team of regionally focused business lines from Nairobi, Kenya. working in close collaboration with JLL’s global network of real estate experts to help our clients achieve their ambitions in East Africa and the broader Africa region.

Wayne also leads JLL’s Hotels & Hospitality Group within Africa, helping clients with a range of services that includes management consulting and investment advisory for acquisitions and development, valuation and investment sales of hotels.

Wayne has a BA in Tourism Development from the University of Johannesburg, a PDM from WITS Business School and an MSc in Property Studies at the University of Cape Town. Wayne has over 15 years’ experience in property services within Africa and the Indian Ocean.

In addition to hospitality, Wayne focuses on all asset classes with a particular focus on alternative real estate.

Since 2019 James leads Gatsby Africa’s sector engagement with Government, State Agencies and Sector Associations to create an enabling environment for commercial forestry investment in Kenya. He is also the project lead for the FCDO funded UK PACT project “Unlocking private investment in commercial forestry to deliver on Kenya’s Climate Strategy”. He has previously held different Director positions Fairtrade Africa covering 33 countries across the continent. He was also a Competitiveness Consultant supporting value chain projects across Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda and Mozambique. He is a qualified CPA and has an MBA from the Cranfield University, School of Management UK.

Nasra is the CEO and ESG lead of the Kenya Green Building Society, an independent, non-profit, non-political, member-based organization formed to lead the transformation of the built environment in Kenya toward environmentally sustainable buildings, promoting a healthy and efficient built environment.

As a member of the World Green Building Council, the Kenya Green Building Society convenes businesses and the government, at both national and county level, to collectively drive environmental, economic and social impact within the built environment on a national, regional and global scale.

Nasra is a lawyer by profession and has a passion for ESG. She enjoys policy work, and is an active member of the Public Policy and Advocacy committee member of the Kenya Property Developers Association (KPDA), and a member of the Affordable Housing Taskforce in KPDA too.

In terms of experience in legal practice Nasra previously worked for the Kenya and London offices of the largest law firm in the world where she was a member of the global ESG practice group, Corporate Commercial, Real Estate, Environment and Natural Resources teams.

Nasra has an L.L.B from the University of Nairobi, is an advocate of the High Court of Kenya, Commissioner for Oaths, and has completed the Materiality of ESG Factors, ESG Specialisation course from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Nickson Otieno is a registered architect, an environmental design and sustainability expert who is committed to creating a better world by designing and co-creating more ethical, ecological and socially-just built environment.
He leverages system-thinking, data and technology to contribute to a reduction of the environmental impact of buildings and sustainable development of local communities.
Nickson has spearheaded the development of local green building standards and certification systems in Kenya.
He is currently serving as the CEO of NIKO GREEN, a ‘think-do-tank’ that enables the transition to a climate-smart, circular and sustainable economy through design, research and technology. One of Nickson’s achievements at NIKO GREEN includes leading the development of Endelevu.Africa – a pioneering digital building material estimator, material exchange and construction crowdfunding platform.
Nickson was awarded the prestigious Eisenhower Fellowship in 2022 in recognition of his outstanding leadership work.

Wekesa is a Kenyan licensed architect and the Mass Timber lead at BuildX. He has worked on projects focusing on alternative building technology to advance environmentally conscious materials, affordable healthcare and socially responsive design solutions. He is an advocate for mass timber in Kenya and East Africa which he hopes will steer the long term transformation of the construction industry towards a sustainable low carbon future.