Leslie Cairns is Head of investment at DCC Africa, a privately managed and operated conglomerate, primarily working in mining and extractives, agriculture, food production, transport and logistics, banking and financial services across the African continent.
Leslie is a serial entrepreneur with a more than 30 years’ experience drawn from investments in the mining, raw materials, technology and automotive sectors in Western Europe, East and West Africa. A corporate affairs and structures specialist, Leslie’s work with DCC Africa focusses identifying assets and companies in need of outside investment and refreshed management, and leading on their purchase, restructuring, and consolidation.
Throughout his career, Leslie has been involved with a number of frontier technologies geared to catalyse system-level transformation in developed and emerging market contexts. Leslie was central to restructuring talks for one of the originators of last-mile telecommunications technology in the United Kingdom, before applying this experience to explore acquisition discussions for fingerprint technology supporting money transfers and voter interface in East Africa.
Leslie maintains an excellent network across domestic and international financial institutions, individual Ministries and the wider foreign investment community. Leslie has recently led a series of discussions in the banking sector to promote a new model for foreign investment, lending and currency security in the developing world.
Currently based between London, Dubai and Dar Es Salaam, Leslie is committed to strengthening the overall investment environment in Africa through DCC Africa’s project portfolio, pioneering a new foreign investment model in Africa, and providing wider overall training and education opportunities through his work.
