Graham joins Challenger as Chairman with over 30 years of valuable commercial experience. Graham graduated with a Bachelor of Accountancy (Honours) and is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia.
Graham worked in various roles within the Lonrho Sugar Corporation in both Malawi and Swaziland, before moving to South Africa and joining Illovo Sugar Corporation, where he eventually became the Group Managing Director between 2009 and 2013. From 2013-2015, Graham joined the Dangote Sugar Refinery Plc in Nigeria where he again was the Group Managing Director and was influential in the growth of the company to where it is now.
CHARLES TABERER
(Founder and Investment commitee)
CHARLES TABERER
After completing his Bachelor of Business Science (Honours) degree at the Universtiy of Cape Town (South Africa) in 1982, Charles returned to his family’s tobacco merchanting company, Tabex (Pvt) Ltd in Zimbabwe. He spent 15 years in the business, the last 5 of which were spent as Managing Director, until in 1997, the business was sold to Dimon Zimbabwe where he spent a brief time as the sales director. Since then, Charles has held numerous executive and non-executive positions in southern African businesses, the likes of which included Falcon Gold Zimbabwe Ltd (listed on the Zimbabwean Stock Exchange) and Blackstar Group SE (dual listed on London AIM and Johannesburg Alt-X). Charles is currently involved in various property development and commodity trading ventures. Charles resides in Zimbabwe.
GARY ISBISTER
(Founder and Investment commitee)
GARY ISBISTER
After qualifying as a Chartered Account in February 2008, Gary relocated to London where he took up an internal consulting role for BNP Paribas Securities Services where he focused on streamlining the internal operations of their outsourced fund management platform. He returned to Johannesburg (South Africa) in late 2009 and took up a deal origination role at Blue Strata Trading, a cutting edge South African import and working capital specialist (now a wholly owned Investec subsidiary). In June 2013, Gary moved to Riparian as Chief Operating Officer and Investment Advisor to its largest client, Barak Fund Management. Over his two years there, Gary was instrumental in the growth of the trade finance fund which quadrupled in size during his tenor. During his time there he implemented the building blocks credit evaluation process, assisted with capital raising, and structured and advised on $60 million worth of transactions.
PAUL TABERER
(Founder and Investment commitee)
PAUL TABERER
Paul has over 30 years experience in the commercial and business sector. After graduating from the University of Cape Town (South Africa) with a Bachelor of Business Science (Honours) degree, Paul joined the family leaf tobacco trading business, becoming Chief Operating Officer (based in England). At the time the business was sold (1997) it had sales revenues of US$800 million and a global multinational footprint. Paul then worked in various Executive positions for Alliance One International Inc. (NYSE), before relocating to Amsterdam in 2007 where he became the COO of CdF International Group (leaf tobacco trade). Paul returned to England in 2013 and currently consults for a major privately owned leaf tobacco dealer.
Matt Lane
(Portfolio Manager - Africa)
Matt Lane
Matt qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 2017 and immediately joined Challenger in early 2018 after the completion of his articles with KPMG. Matt joined Challenger as a Deal Originator, and has progressed to Africa Portfolio Manager, overseeing the loan book, originators and credit evaluations. Continuous learning has always been a key focus for Matt and having studied part-time during his time at Challenger, successfully completed his CFA in 2021. In addition to continuing his studies, Matt is a regular contributor to Trade Finance Global, after being selected as a winner in the International Trade Professionals Programme (ITPP). Matt has been instrumental in structuring deals in Africa, including Cocoa from Cote D’Ivoire, pulses from Tanzania and hard commodity exports from South Africa.
