Mary Boakye

Mary Boakye is a finance lawyer with over 25 years’ international capital markets and investment experience, globally and across multiple sectors. She has advised corporates, investment funds, financial institutions and governments across Africa, Europe, Asia and the United States.

Mary is a dual-qualified solicitor and New York Attorney with a stellar career including in leadership at leading global firms in New York, London, South Africa and Hong Kong. She worked at Allen & Overy and Dentons where she was head of the firm’s Africa Financial Markets Group. She also co-led the team that advised on Ghana’s 2007, 2013, and 2014 sovereign bond issues. Mary is the founder and CEO of Oriol Associates.

Mary is a board member of The Fore Trust and Dentons’ Board Diversity Committee. She has served on numerous advisory boards including the Technical Committee of the World Bank / AfDB All-Africa Conference on Law, Justice, and Development, Business Advisory Board of H.E. Kofi Annan’s Africa Progress Panel, and the China Europe International Business School’s Africa Foundation for Governance and Leadership.

Widely regarded as a leading authority on doing business in Africa, ‘Powerlist’ named her as one of the UK’s 100 most influential blacks and ‘The Lawyer ‘as one of the UK’s “Hot 100 Lawyers” being “skilled in dealing with complex regulatory environments and jurisdictions”. She has been recognized by Cranfield School of Management in its 100 Women to Watch and 50 BAME Women to Watch lists and by the Legal week Class of 2021 as one of U.K.’s leading female lawyers.

Mary holds an LLB, Law (Hons) from Brunel University, Solicitors Final Exams from the University Law, Guildford and Distinctive Leadership in Organisational Leadership from Leadership College, London.