Dr. Richard von Kalmar

Dr Richard von Kalmar has been involved in the development and financing of many hospitality projects and also worked across a number of other industry sectors, including power, FMCG, banking, shipping and aviation.

Richard started his career with Standard Bank. He later worked as a consultant at Siemens Business Services, the consulting and outsourcing arm for Siemens, where he was involved in developing one of the world’s first internet trading platforms.

In 1998, Richard founded a financial technology firm in South Africa, which he sold to Dimension Data in 2003 and that they sold to Sungard Data Systems several years later. Subsequently, he was employed by Charles River in London and then Bearing Consulting, where he became a Partner and worked on strategy and project finance assignments for six years. In 2007, Richard founded a fashion retail business in South Africa that owned two Paul Smith franchise stores and Loom, a multi-brand store and e-commerce business. The business was sold in 2012.

In 2014, Richard founded Senga Bay Capital, a hospitality-focused project finance advisory firm and became Director at RLA in 2017. He’s worked on the financing and development of a long list of hospitality projects, primarily in Africa. Some of his recent assignments include the financing of a Fraser Suites, a Ramada Plaza hotel, a Le Meridien and a Four Points by Sheraton hotel among many others.

Richard was born in Germany and spent his childhood in a number of European and African countries, including Italy, Lebanon, Malawi, South Africa and the United Kingdom. He completed his education in the United Kingdom with an MBA in Finance and a Doctorate in Industrial Economics & Competitive Strategy at Cranfield University.