Coaches
Our Coaches
In addition to our in-house experts, AHI has teamed up with seasoned housing practitioners, developers, and entrepreneurs who bring regional hands-on experience and strategic insight to every stage of the accelerator journey.
These Chrysalis Coaches act as trusted advisors and thought partners that work closely with each cohort member to sharpen business models, navigate real-world challenges, and accelerate impact in affordable housing.
Irfan Keshavjee
Founder, Karibu Homes
Irfan Keshavjee is a seasoned entrepreneur, business leader, board advisor, and executive coach with over 27 years of experience operating across East Africa. He is the founder of two award-winning impact enterprises and was awarded the prestigious Ashoka and Acumen Fund Fellowships for uplifting the lives of marginalized communities.
Irfan founded Karibu Homes, one of Kenya’s leading affordable housing companies, which has developed and sold over 500 homes to lower-income families. He also founded Honeycare Africa, a pioneering social enterprise that has impacted over 20,000 smallholder farmers across East Africa, helping lift many above the poverty line. Honeycare is featured as a business case study at Harvard Business School.
Potential support areas: Founder and executive coaching; enterprise growth and scaling; affordable housing business models; leadership and team building; operational systems; East African market and stakeholder navigation.
Pamela Lamoreaux
International Consultant
Ms. Lamoreaux has over 35 years of experience across housing finance, real estate investment, construction and development, structured finance (including MBS), and ESG. She has worked with Fannie Mae, the International Finance Corporation (IFC), and International Housing Solutions (IHS) in South Africa. She helped establish secondary mortgage market institutions in countries like Hong Kong, Colombia, and Korea, which continue to operate today. Before returning to the U.S. in 2017, she lived and worked in several emerging markets, including South Africa for 10 years, as well as Turkey, Colombia, Hong Kong, and Korea. Over her career, she has established strong relationships with several DFIs and impact investors.
Potential support areas: Equity and debt capital raising; institutional investor and fund perspective; affordable housing investment; rental and for-sale housing; DFI engagement; ESG and impact measurement.
Campbell Mayer
Co-founder, Africa Home Builders
Campbell Mayer is an affordable housing developer and builder with over 25 years of experience leading development teams and forging partnerships to deliver impactful, purpose-driven housing in emerging markets. He is the co-founder of Africa Housing Builders (AHB), a social housing company that combines technology, finance, sustainability, and local partnerships to transform real estate markets across urban Africa. AHB creates affordable homeownership opportunities by balancing market-rate developments with low-cost community housing, providing investors with a stable, socially impactful platform to engage with African markets. Campbell sees housing as the foundation of social equity in the developing world, a bridge between formal and informal economies, and a critical link between national development goals and individual empowerment.
Potential support areas: Affordable housing development and construction; project delivery and execution; development partnerships; locally appropriate building technologies and green construction; scaling housing delivery in African markets.
Debra L. Erb
Director, Chrysalis
Debra L. Erb is a distinguished housing finance executive with over 30 years of experience in international housing and real estate finance. Debra recently completed 21 years of service as the Managing Director of Social Infrastructure at the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC, formerly OPIC), where she led a global team in the origination of housing and real estate transactions. Under her leadership, DFC committed more than $2.5 billion across 50+ debt transactions in 31 countries, supporting construction finance, mortgage finance, securitization, and other housing-finance models. Her work with DFC has empowered organizations and individuals worldwide to implement innovative housing finance solutions. She is the Director of the Affordable Housing Institute’s (AHI) Chrysalis Housing Impact Accelerator.
Potential support areas: Housing and real estate finance; debt structuring and underwriting; construction and mortgage finance; investor readiness; DFI and institutional lender engagement; risk assessment.
Larry English
Senior Affordable Housing Expert, AHI
Larry is a developmental entrepreneur, investor, and senior executive with 35 years of experience in urban and housing development and investment across 37 countries in Africa, the Middle East, South Asia, and Southeast Asia. He has worked from the ‘ground up’ and the 'top down’, across the public-private spectrum, and his knowledge and expertise span the value chain from policy through planning, financing, and implementation - encompassing architecture, urban design, spatial-investment modeling, institutional structuring for investment and development, and the management of housing and urban settlements. He is currently working as a Senior Affordable Housing Expert at the Affordable Housing Institute (AHI).
Potential support areas: Housing enterprise and platform strategy; project and pipeline structuring; land and development strategy; PPPs and institutional partnerships; investment structuring; scaling housing enterprises.
Alex Krell
International Board of Directors,
Habitat for Humanity International
Alex Krell is Vice Chair of the International Board of Directors of Habitat for Humanity International, where he also chairs the board's Operations Committee, co-chairs the International Strategic Advisory Council and the MicroBuild Fund II Capital Campaign and serves on the Advisory Board of the Terwilliger Center for Innovation in Shelter and Habitat’s Development Council for Latin America. A Habitat volunteer since 1985, he has devoted his post-retirement career full time to expanding access to affordable housing in developing economies.
Potential support areas: Development and land strategy; project underwriting and investment decision-making; private equity and institutional capital; pipeline and portfolio management; operating efficiency; scaling development companies.
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