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What does it take to build a multilateral development bank from scratch — and then lead one of the world's oldest DFIs through a structural reset of the entire development finance system?

In this episode, Leslie Maasdorp traces a career that begins in a South African prison cell and runs through Nelson Mandela's government, Goldman Sachs International, and thirteen years in global investment banking, before arriving at the founding team of the New Development Bank in Shanghai — where he spent nine years building a $40–45 billion balance sheet institution with a AA+ credit rating from S&P and Fitch.

He breaks down how BII's newly launched 2026–2031 strategy is designed to crowd in pension funds, insurers, and sovereign wealth capital at scale — and why perceived default risk in emerging markets is systematically overstated relative to actual performance.

If you work in institutional capital allocation, blended finance, or emerging market infrastructure, don't miss Leslie's practitioner case for why the donor-recipient model is broken and what the next architecture of development finance needs to look like.

Featured guest: 

• Leslie Warren Maasdorp, CEO and Executive Director of British International Investment (BII), the UK's publicly-owned development finance institution
   
  You can reach out to Leslie through:
  LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/leslie-maasdorp-874424352
  Website: www.https://www.bii.co.uk/en/
  
  

Listen Next: 

• Conversation with Mohamed Okasha : Africa’s Unbanked: Where FinTech Is Finding the Most Resilient Returns

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Here’s what you’re in for:
00:00 – Intro & Trailer

01:06 – Guest Introduction & Scott's Framing

03:09 – Goldman Sachs & Early Investment Banking Career

06:58 – Lessons from the 2008 Financial Crisis

08:15 – Building the New Development Bank in Shanghai

11:24 – NDB: Mission, Structure & AA+ Credit Rating

16:07 – Personal Life, Covid & Russia-Ukraine at NDB

19:40 – Arrested Under Apartheid: Detention Without Trial

21:59 – Prison, Solitude & Graduating with Distinction

25:08 – Growing Up in Bethelsdorp & the Road to Activism

32:15 – Trade Unions, London Scholarship & Joining the ANC

38:53 – Building Post-Apartheid South Africa

44:42 – Joining BII: The World's Oldest DFI

46:51 – What BII Does & How It Deploys Capital

53:31 – BII's Mandate to Experiment & the Case for Reform

57:17 – BII's 2026–2031 Strategy: Mobilizing Private Capital

01:02:22 – First-Loss Structures & the Allianz ACE Fund

01:05:53 – Inside the Investment Machine: Growth, Catalyst & Kinetic

01:09:17 – Risk, Returns & Crowding In UK Pension Capital

01:15:11 – Climate Finance: The Ayana Case Study

01:17:22 – Mission 300: Electrifying Africa by 2030

01:20:13 – Growth Investment Partners Zambia & BII's Entrepreneurial Model

01:24:56 – The Big Picture: $2.4T Climate Gap

01:26:48 – Rapid Fire

01:29:44 – Closing & How to Connect with BII

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