Mercore Capital, the lending arm of Mercore Group, has appointed Anne-Marie Woolley as chief executive officer as part of a wider leadership reshuffle that also saw Johnny Ohgrøn Hansen join as deputy CEO.

Woolley joins Mercore months after stepping down as CEO of Africa Global Trade Finance (AGTF), the London-headquartered boutique lender to African SMEs backed by impact investor Zebu Investment Partners.

She will lead Mercore Capital, which is the structured trade and supply chain finance business within Mercore Group, providing receivables and payables finance, structured trade finance and buy-now-pay-later solutions to corporates across the UK, Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Before stepping down in February this year, Woolley had been at the helm of AGTF since 2021, having taken the role after almost four years working as an independent consultant.

Prior to that, she spent more than three decades in structured trade finance across Africa and other emerging markets, working with commodity traders, large corporates, state-owned enterprises and SMEs.

She also held senior executive roles at Standard Bank, Nedbank, Standard Chartered and Barclays.

Meanwhile, Hansen joins as deputy CEO with more than 30 years of investment experience across Africa, Asia, and Central and Eastern Europe, Mercore said in a LinkedIn statement.

He previously held senior leadership positions at the African Food Security Fund, Impact Fund Denmark and the Confederation of Danish Industries, and is also an operations manager at Trade Finance Conference of the Parties (TF COP), the global coalition working to close the trade finance gap.

Hansen specialises in structured trade finance, private equity and impact investment, with a focus on value creation for SMEs with strong ESG credentials, according to the statement.

Both hires have experience in food and agri-commodities, energy, and metals and mining.

“Between them, Anne-Marie and Johnny bring hands-on experience and established relationships across the markets Mercore Capital serves – exactly why we’re so pleased to have them on board,” Mercore Capital said.

The new hires coincide with a broader reshuffle across Mercore Group. Charlie Lazenby, Anthony Wadsworth-Hill and David Stafford have moved into the roles of group CEO, group deputy CEO and group CFO respectively, overseeing strategy across both Mercore Capital and Mercore Digital – the group’s fintech arm, which won last year’s GTR Leaders in Trade award for best fintech newcomer in trade.

They are joined by Jessie Gittins as group chief of staff, Ian Spowart as group chief credit officer, and Giles Marshall as group chief operating officer.

Mercore Group said the changes marked “a natural next step” for its wider leadership as it continues to expand its trade and supply chain finance offering, as well as its syndication proposition for banks and non-bank financial institutions.

The company – which became an accredited lender under UK Export Finance’s General Export Facility earlier this year – also hinted at new announcements at Mercore Digital “in the coming weeks”.