Michael Till says; “The excitement of this job is in meeting extraordinary entrepreneurs who are building businesses which make a difference. But all these years later, it is the people at Actis who make me stay – engaged, committed, thoughtful and respectful with a love for working in growth markets and a wish to make a difference.”
Michael’s family history is peppered with people who have lived and worked in developing countries, including his parents who lived and worked in East Africa (Kenya and Tanzania). After leaving Durham University with a degree in Economics and passing his Chartered Accountancy exams, he packed his bags too: spending time first at Shinyoung Securities in Seoul, and then at Arthur Andersen in London and Buenos Aires.
Michael came across CDC in 1990 and it stuck in his mind as one of the few organisations building sustainable profitable private sector enterprises in the developing world. Five years later he decided to join them.
Michael moved to Latin America with CDC in 2000, where he lived for six years. He took on responsibility for several new and follow-on investments and for managing and fully divesting CDC’s equity portfolio worth US$250m throughout the region. This is where he learned most about realising maximum value from equity investments through different parts of the investment cycle and about patient investing and partnership with local entrepreneurs.
Michael Till was involved with the spin out of Actis from CDC in 2004 and returned to London to become Head of Energy at Actis in August 2006, divesting Actis’ first energy fund and raising its second the following year. In 2011, Michael refocused his attention on Latin America once again and moved back to the region as Actis seeks to further grow its business there. He lives in Buenos Aires with his family and travels extensively throughout the region.
