Isobel Acquah

Isobel Acquah is the Director of the Center for Law and Innovation (CLI) at Certa Foundation, and is primarily responsible for overseeing the strategic designing, planning, development and implementation of programs in line with the mission and vision of Certa Foundation and the mandate of CLI.

Isobel Acquah is a dual qualified transactions and corporate advisory lawyer with a background in investment banking with a focus in financial services and Tech. She is a multilingual professional (French, German, Spanish &English) with over 20 years of legal and business experience across a number of jurisdictions in Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Africa. Her work experience includes the financing of assets (corporate jets, marine assets, Technology), preparing Tech enabled SMEs for investment and providing strategic structuring solutions to corporate clients. As a consultant for strategic investments in Africa, she has worked with financial actors, Tech Startups and large corporates to provide legal and operational oversight, corporate and board governance, transactional management for big ticket transactions and due diligence support for foreign investors. She is a product of Bank of America Merrill Lynch (UK), CMS Cameron McKenna Law (UK/Belgium), the Whitaker Group (Ghana), AB &David Law (Ghana) and Globetrotters Legal Africa (Ghana/Senegal).

Isobel is a passionate gender and youth advocate. She is a founding member of the Ghana chapter of the International Women’s Forum, a global network spanning 3 countries with the common mission of advancing women’s leadership and championing equality worldwide. She founded the Lady Initiative in Ghana, which has impacted over 300 young women and co-founded the Pearl Safe Haven, which is focused on advocating for and rehabilitating survivors of gender based violence.

As youth advocate, Isobel worked with Bank of America Merrill Lynch (UK) to design and implement their Africa Internship Program and provide training to interns and university aged students. She was appointed to the inaugural governing council for YALI West Africa, funded by United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Mastercard Foundation, which oversaw the dramatic transformation of more than 4000 young Africans, including women identified through CAMFED. She is a champion for youth leadership in Africa and facilitates capacity building sessions for students and young entrepreneurs in partnership with UNFPA (Ghana), Ashesi University (Ghana), University of Legon (Ghana) and the African Leadership University (Rwanda).

Isobel holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Law from University College London, UK (with German law experience from University of Cologne, Germany) and a MA in Intercultural Communication from Birkbeck University, UK. She is qualified to practice law in England and Ghana. Her hobbies include reading, art, travel, gender advocacy and youth empowerment and capacity building.