Raquel Wilson

Raquel Wilson is a strategist, entrepreneur and systems thinker with over two decades of experience in international development, innovation, and inclusive finance. She designs frameworks that align capital, community, and governance to support more equitable and regenerative urban economies.She is the CEO of Building Equity, where she leads efforts to reimagine how wealth and opportunity circulate in cities. Building Equity partners with civic institutions, development agencies, and values-aligned investors to develop alternative ownership and governance models that support inclusive growth and long-term community value.Raquel is also the Founder of Gather Global, a leadership accelerator advancing women’s economic power through leadership development, funding pathways, and policy engagement. In addition, she serves on the Board of Advisors for Kasi Desert Circuit, Africa’s first climate-aligned innovation district, which leverages motorsport to accelerate clean technology and sustainable industrial development.Her private sector work spans early-stage venture, infrastructure, and sustainability. She has sourced and evaluated high-growth opportunities for Roselake Ventures, a venture fund investing in African startups; supported investment visibility for Senegal’s National Office of Sanitation; co-founded Jetstream Africa, an Accra-based logistics platform simplifying exports for African suppliers; and launched the Dakar Farmers Market, a community enterprise supporting local food producers.At the African Development Bank, Raquel led narrative development for the 17th replenishment campaign, translating institutional priorities into investment cases and donor-facing materials supporting multi-billion-dollar commitments. Her work bridged capital, policy, and purpose, amplifying the impact of concessional finance and positioning African markets for global investors. She also contributed to strategic communications for the Bank’s Youth Entrepreneurship and Innovation Multi-Donor Trust Fund and led digital engagement for the Africa Climate Summit and the African Emergency Food Production Facility.

A former diplomat with the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, Raquel led the launch of the organization’s first digital platform for hate crime monitoring, setting a precedent for data-driven human rights work. Her career also includes leadership roles with the International Organization for Migration and UNICEF. As Head of Strategic Communications for the USAID-funded Somalia Stabilization Initiative, she developed a national radio program connecting rural women to essential government services.Raquel is a past recipient of the New York City Partnership for Parks Grant for How to Build a Community, a civic engagement initiative focused on neighborhood revitalization and participatory design.She is the Co-Editor of No Tees Please: Why Africa Aid Campaigns #FAIL, a crowdsourced inquiry into harmful aid narratives, and managed Social Media Week Lagos’ #55FORWARD initiative, convening ambassadors from 55 African nations to explore how social media can respond to the needs of a rapidly growing youth population.Raquel holds an MBA from Imperial College London, where her studies focused on strategies that balance people, planet, and profit, and a Bachelor of Science in New Media from Indiana University. She has also completed the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa’s training for African Women Investors.Raquel is known for her ability to connect people, ideas, and institutions across sectors and geographies. She is deeply committed to redefining wealth as stewardship and to building systems that enable communities to own, shape, and sustain their futures.She is currently based in the United States and works internationally.