Natacha Kofoworola Quist

 Director World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), Central Africa

Corporate Management  - Strategy, Project management, Finance
Natasha has over 15 years of corporate management experience. And more than 6 years of development experience in Africa and Central America and Caribbean.  Before moving back to Africa in 2003 Natasha was the head of Strategic Planning for Nike Inc for Europe Middle East and Africa.  At Nike she was responsible for developing the strategic plans and identifying new businesses development opportunities.  One of these new opportunities led to her transfer to France to lead the Nike Women’s Business.   Prior to joining Nike Natasha worked for the Walt Disney Company (Europe Middle East and Africa) in a variety of capacities including – New Business Development, Consumer Marketing, Brand Management and Corporate Alliances.  Natasha began her professional career on Wall Street working as a bond Analyst for Salomon brothers and later Morgan Stanley Dean Witter.

Experience in International Development
Natasha is currently the Central Africa Regional Director for the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). She recently joined the organisation and is focused on developing the Congo basin’s ability to respond to the pressures of climate change, the new Carbon Emission laws and mining and infrastructure development. She is based in Cameroon and covers Gabon, DRC, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo Brazzaville, and Equatorial Guinea.  She was recently elected to the WWF Advisory board.

Prior to joining WWF Natasha was the West Africa Regional Director for Oxfam GB based in Senegal.  In this role she was responsible for a £20 million program, 9 country office offices and more than 450 staff.  She was responsible for all the humanitarian interventions in this region (Including the Chad, Liberia and Sierra Leone conflicts), the development programs and advocacy and campaigning activities.  As Oxfam’s Global Lead for Private Sector Engagement she managed some of the regions oldest micro finance programs and developed Oxfams’s small business development programming.

Natasha was born in the UK to Nigerian and Jamaican Parents.  She has lived in the USA, France and The Netherlands as well as the Caribbean, West and Central Africa.  She is fluent in French and English.
                   
Natasha holds a Bachelor of Science from, Leeds University UK and her MBA from the Wharton School of Business in Pennsylvania.  She has studied at the Institut D’Etudes Politiques and HEC Paris and is a 7th year PhD candidate at the American Graduate School of International Relations Paris.