JIM BRENNER Broad Cove’s founder and CEO is equally at home in a rural villages learning about artisanal construction methods as he is in bank boardrooms discussing the risk-management requirements of Basel II. After Wesleyan University—where he built his first solar-house---Jim traveled through Asia as a Watson Fellow visiting small-scale village development projects.Then, after earning a degree in public policy from Harvard University’s JFK School of Government, he found himself a senior advisor to newly-elected U.S. Senator John F. Kerry, responsible for shaping legislation in international trade, banking and taxation. Later, Jim move into the investment industry, as an asset management executive in State Street’s Global Alliance unit, and at AEW Capital Management, where he was a Senior Vice President. Broad Cove allows Jim to utilize his public and private-sector finance skills while pursuing passion for sustainable, grass-roots development.Jim is currently a director of the GSE-listed CAL Bank Limited, of privately-held Ghana Home Loans Ltd, and Ecohomes Liberia Inc., and of the non-profit Overseas Vote Foundation.
Powell Holly
POWELL HOLLY Broad Cove's Managing Director and CFO Powell Holly believes deeply in fostering strong ties between American and African business interests, a commitment which manifests itself in many ways: As a director of Ghana Home Loans, he works closely with company executives to maintain high standards, meet and exceed performance goals, and develop new markets for home financing where none existed before.As a director of the Fredericksburg-Princetown Sister City Association, he actively promotes cultural exchange between two cities – one in Virginia and in Central Ghana – linked by a shared past dating back to Ghana’s fabled and troubled history as the Gold Coast. With nearly two decades of financial services experience, Powell worked in the investment banking group of Pryor, Counts & Co., facilitating numerous transactions in the U.S. and Africa in real estate, structured finance, and public finance.After the company helped lay the groundwork for Ghana’s widely admired financial sector by funding CAL Bank and the Securities Discount Company, Powell worked closely with CAL Bank’s staff to manage back office operations, securities underwriting and loan syndication.He also provided underwriting support to the African Development Bank, and asset assessment for the Resolution Trust Co.Before joining Broad Cove, Powell was, for six years, a fixed income portfolio manager for Wedgewood Capital Management where he was responsible for institutional portfolios totaling $60 million.
John Snow
JOHN R. SNOW To some, Broad Cove Senior Advisor's career in international high finance might be intimidating, but one of the first things you will learn from John Snow is how much satisfaction he derives from carrying on his family’s farming tradition in Vermont.He will also happily discuss the classics from Plato to Plutarch to Shakespeare (he received his B.A. in Classics from the University of Vermont in 1974), or he will draw on his experience as a Peace Corps volunteer in Sierra Leone to speak expansively, and knowledgeably, about the beauties, marvels and challenges of African life, culture and politics.Currently a member of the Global Advisory Board of Millennium Associates, a Swiss mergers and acquisitions firm specializing in the investment management industry, John began his career in banking and investment at The Boston Company, where he established the bank’s UK mortgage business.He went on to be the founding CEO and managing director of PanAgora Asset Management, and later, President of NatWest Investment Management.He then joined State Street Global Advisors, one of the world’s largest institutional investment managers.With State Street he made his greatest mark establishing emerging market subsidiaries in far-flung corners of the world – Rexiter Capital Management in London; Pallada Asset Management in Moscow; European Direct Capital Management in Warsaw; Asian Direct Capital Management in Hong Kong and Bangkok, as well as State Street’s specialist real estate firm, The Tuckerman Group.He retired as vice chairman of the company in 2003.
