Laureen Kouassi-Olsson

Laureen Kouassi-Olsson
Founder & CEO, Birimian Holding
Ivory Coast

Laureen Kouassi-Olsson is the Founder and CEO of Birimian Holding, an operational investment company dedicated to luxury and premium African heritage Brands.

She is a seasoned executive in the African financial services and private equity industries. She has over a decade of experience in investing in private companies and financial institutions on the African Continent. Her professional achievements and commitments have gained significant recognition within the African financial services and private equity industries. Mrs Kouassi-Olsson was identified as one of the 100 most influential African Women by Avance Media and was nominated twice on the Choiseul Institute list of Emerging Economic Leaders.

Leveraging on her track record and expertise, she serves as a Non-Executive Director to the board of financial institutions such as Fidelity Bank, Ghana 4th largest Bank and most recently, Orange Abidjan Participations, Holding in charge of the commercial Banking activities of the Orange Group in West Africa, She is also a Member of the Advisory Board of ARISE IIP, a leading institutional investor developing integrated industrial platforms across Africa and serves as an Independent Director to the board of the African Venture Philanthropy Alliance.

Until September July 2020, Mrs Kouassi-Olsson was Investment Director at Amethis. She headed Amethis’ practice in the Financial services industry in Sub-Saharan-Africa as well as Amethis regional office based in Abidjan.

Ms. Kouassi-Olsson was responsible for Amethis’ investment strategy in the financial sector, including the sourcing, structuring and supervision of deals execution as well as the management of the Financial Institutions investment portfolio.

As part of her duties, she served as board member for different blue-chip financial institutions on the continent: the NSIA Group, regional Banking insurance Group in Western & Central Africa; Fidelity Bank, 4th largest bank in Ghana; Ciel Finance Limited, diversified financial platform based in Mauritius.

She was deeply involved in the governance of these institutions, sitting at their respective Strategic and Risk Committees. She indeed for instance chaired the Risk Committee of Fidelity Bank, Ghana’s largest indigenous independent bank.

Ms Kouassi-Olsson also oversaw Amethis West Africa, Amethis’ investment vehicle dedicated to Francophone Western and Central Africa, for which she led the structuring and fund raising. She was thus responsible for the monitoring of Amethis’ major investments in the region, and essentially Côte d’Ivoire.

Ms Kouassi-Olsson is founding member and General Secretary of the Ivorian Venture Capital Association created in 2017 and gathering the main actors of the Private Equity in Côte d’Ivoire.

She is personally involved in various initiatives promoting women Empowerment, fostering entrepreneurship and philanthropy on the continent.

Prior to joining Amethis in 2013, Ms. Kouassi-Olsson was Investment Officer in the Financial Institutions Group of Proparco, based in Paris, where she was responsible for the appraisal and structuring of investment opportunities in the Sub-Saharan Africa financial services industry. Previously, she worked in Mergers and Acquisitions for Lehman Brother’s Investment Banking Department in London.

Mrs Kouassi-Olsson holds a dual French and Ivorian Citizenship.

She was listed in the second and third publications of 100 Most Influential African Women in 2020 and in 2021 by Avance Media.