Kirsten is a project manager and co-lead of the Innovative Finance Portfolio at the Bertha Centre for Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship at UCT’s Graduate School of Business. Within the Portfolio, her focus is on social and innovative financing for impact in emerging markets, specifically early-stage finance and entrepreneurship support, partnering with social finance experts, investors, governments, enterprises to research, incubate, and test promising social financing vehicles across Africa.

Most recently, Kirsten has led the development and piloting of an Entrepreneurship Impact Measurement Framework through an Indigenous Evaluation lens in partnership with the Mastercard Foundation. The project combines impact measurement and indigenous evaluation towards a more inclusive and context specific impact practice and builds on the use of systems and design thinking towards piloting and systems change. 

With over a decade of experience in research and project management across multiple sectors, she has also co-led research and convenings to strengthening collaborative practices to grow small businesses, contributing to the Western Cape Government’s Economic Development five-year strategy, led an SA Bail Fund Feasibility study and supported multiple university spin-off companies towards the commercialisation and on their respective fundraising journeys.

She holds a MComm in Development Finance (UCT’s Graduate School of Business, with distinction in the dissertation) where her research focused on Financial Innovation and it’s effect on Economic Growth in Africa.