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 modelling, institutional structuring for investment and development, and the management of housing and urban settlements.
Prior to AHI, Larry worked for Urbuntu, focusing on building housing enterprises, one of which is Placemakers in Kenya, which structures social housing through SPVs. This work provided the foundation for advising development banks and financial institutions in Kenya, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Indonesia, India, and Ukraine on development, investment, and public-private modalities, including PPPs.
Before Urbuntu, Larry was the CEO of Reall (Real Equity for All), a non-profit seed investor in approximately 15 housing development enterprises (HDEs). During his tenure, Reall built a loan book of ~$60 million and successfully produced housing and settlements across 65 cities in Africa and Asia, leveraging an asset value of ~$0.6 billion.
Prior to this, Larry was the CEO of Homeless International, where one of his notable achievements was the Community-Led Infrastructure Finance Facility, which was awarded the UN-Habitat Scroll of Honour in 2013.
A native of South Africa, Larry was involved in multiple post-apartheid reconstruction and development programs focused on urban upgrading and housing. The most significant of these was Nelson Mandela’s Cato Manor Urban Renewal Project, which was recognized as a UN “International Best Practice” in 2000. Larry also co-founded Habitat for Humanity in South Africa and later served on the International Board of Habitat for Humanity. He had the privilege of inviting, organizing, and directing the Jimmy Carter Work Project in South Africa in 2002.
Larry is an architect, urban planner, and designer by profession, with further education in International Housing Finance and Real Estate from Wharton and SBS Oxford, respectively. As an advocate for bridging practice and theory, he has served as an adjunct professor at Eastern University, Pennsylvania, and has taught part-time at the Universities of the Witwatersrand, Natal, Pretoria, Free State, and Cambridge, as well as contributing a case study at Harvard Business School.