Erika Wiese.
Global Partnerships and Growth Manager
Erika joined Innovation Edge shortly after it was founded in 2014. Previously, she was Head of Portfolio Management at IE where she was responsible for the growth and scale of the investment portfolio. Now based in London, Erika leads the engagement of IE’s global partnerships and influence agenda to increase the pool and diversity of funding available for Early Childhood Development and to inspire and inform greater innovation, within and across organisations and geographies.
Prior to joining Innovation Edge, Erika was part of Leaply, a digital recruitment startup focussed on connecting promising graduates to career opportunities. Erika also has more than 10 years of experience working as a management consultant for PricewaterhouseCoopers in Amsterdam and Cape Town across multiple sectors including telecom, financial services and risk management.
Erika is passionate about promoting gender equality to prevent violence against young girls and women and as a registered counsellor with the Health Professional Council of South Africa she spent 6 months working for The Trauma Centre in Cape Town, where she counselling refugee women who were survivors of torture.
She has a Bachelor’s Degree in Politics, Philosophy and Economics and a Psychology Honours from the University of Stellenbosch, a Masters in Financial Management from Nyenrode University in the Netherlands and an Executive Coaching Diploma from the University of Cape Town.
“I believe that innovation happens when there is curiosity, creed and need!”