Emma Ahmed (she/her)

Emma works in Altair’s International team, leading on business development, growth strategy, proposal-writing, and project delivery.

Expertise

Sustainable urban development specialist, affordable housing & WASH, impact investment & market transformation for emerging markets, IFC EDGE. Regional expertise in South Asia and South-East Asia

About Emma

Emma is a sustainable urban development specialist with over 15 years’ expertise in developing and delivering international programmes financed by the European Commission, the Asian Development Bank, the World Bank, Sida, and FCDO. Emma has been responsible for investment origination in green affordable housing ecosystem businesses and projects across Asia and Africa worth £500M whilst also overseeing a portfolio of investments of £60M including large-scale climate smart affordable housing developments, net-zero pilot schemes, reduced carbon incremental self-build and WASH projects. She has delivered technical assistance to private, public and third sectors in support of creating conducive policy, regulatory and financial frameworks for the provision of sustainable, effective affordable housing ecosystems and value chains. Emma is also an Independent Board Director for a pioneering digital platform Non-Banking Finance Company (NBFC) providing mortgages and home loans to low- and middle-income customers in Pakistan. Emma holds a BA (Hons) in International Relations and an MSc from the University of Oxford in Sustainable Urban Development.

Recent Altair Assignments

Altair – Director – London, UK
Emma works in Altair’s International team, leading on business development, growth strategy, proposal-writing, and project delivery.

Team Leader – Kigali, Rwanda
Consulting services to’ Review the Condominium Law and Elaborate its Implementing Tools on behalf of Development Bank of Rwanda’.

Team Leader – Santo Dominico, Dominica
Consulting services to undertake the ‘Design of the   rental housing strategy for the Dominican Republic with emphasis on the Historic Centre of Santo Domingo and the design of a pilot for its applicability in the Colonial City’ on behalf of the Ministry of Tourism and funded by the Inter-American Development Bank

Team Leader – Lahore, Pakistan
Consulting services to undertake a ‘Review of the content and respective implementation of the Gender & Equality Policy’ of an affordable housing developer providing recommendations for improvement on behalf of SIDA (Swedish International Development Agency).

Team Leader – Bangalore, India
Consulting services to undertake ‘Financial and Governance due diligence of an affordable housing non-banking finance company’ on behalf of SIDA-funded charity REALL.

Fun Facts

As well as spending quality time with family and friends, Emma loves travelling to new places, learning languages and playing sports.