LeapFrog hires first head of marketing – Exclusive

LeapFrog Investments has hired Laura Kemp-Pedersen as head of global brand and marketing.

Kemp-Pedersen, who is taking on a newly-created role at the firm, joins from GSMA, the body which represents global mobile phone operators, where she was senior director of global advocacy marketing and industrial purpose.

She will oversee marketing, communications and media, and will report to Stephen Bowey who previously juggled similar responsibilities with HR management.

Since joining the firm in August, Kemp-Pedersen has supervised a newly-launched event aimed at emerging-market focused investors, Leap2016, which will become an annual conference.

Her hire is likely to signal the start of further expansion of the marketing team, part of a wider expansion of the headcount at the firm.

Earlier in September it poached Stuart Bedford, ex head of the London corporate division and the private equity group at UK law firm Linklaters, who joined as general council. 

His hire was preceded by, among others, that of Richard Brandweiner, former chief investment officer at Australian superannuation fund First State Super.

The swelling staff comes as the firm prepares to launch its third fund. Its most recent offering, LeapFrog Financial Inclusion Fund II, was 75 percent committed and reserved, just 15 months after its final close in August 2014.

LeapFrog typically looks to invest between $10 million and $50 million in financial services businesses in South Africa, Kenya, Ghana, Nigeria, India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia and the Philippines.

The firm’s portfolio companies include East Africa-based insurance provider Apollo, African mobile payment service Jumo, and Syn Mun Kong Insurance Public Company, Thailand’s second-largest motor insurer.