About Us

Laura Deering has spent almost 20 years in the investment industry, including 16 years in private equity. 

Since co-founding Intaba Capital in January 2019, Laura has advised numerous clients across a range of industries and investment opportunities in sub-Saharan Africa, South America and Europe.  Laura has provided transaction management support, performed financial and commercial due diligences on behalf of incoming investors, assisted businesses with the creation and development of business plans, and advised on business development and capital raisings.  She has also utilised her distressed investing experience to advise businesses on balance sheet restructuring. 

In addition, from July 2021 onwards, Laura was the PMO lead for B4SA’s Covid-19 national vaccine rollout as B4SA, in partnership and in support of the South African government, co-ordinated the entire private sector’s Covid-19 vaccine response.  She continues to provide PMO services to B4SA as required on specific projects.

Laura has 16 years private equity experience, the majority of which gained with a London-based PE fund, where she worked on stressed and distressed investment opportunities across multiple industries and geographies including Western and Eastern Europe, West Africa and the Far East. She has significant transactional experience, alongside extensive experience in the management of portfolio companies and the execution of the exit process, and was appointed to the board as the shareholder representative in 3 of the fund’s investments.  Prior to this, she spent 4 years in a London-based hedge fund, analysing and investing in distressed debt and other special situations, primarily in Europe.

Laura holds a BA(Hons) in Economics with Maths from the University of Durham, UK, and is a CFA Charterholder. 

Ewa Harcourt-Wood has spent the past 16 years in the broader investment industry, and has more than 10 years experience in private equity and venture capital.

Since founding Intaba Capital in January 2019, Ewa has inter alia advised numerous clients (from listed blue chip customers to foundations) on investments and M&A transactions, and performed financial and commercial due diligences on behalf of incoming investors. In addition, Ewa has worked on numerous bespoke on-balance sheet investments on behalf of Intaba. 

Before founding Intaba, Ewa spent 5 years in a private equity firm as a principal in the deal team. During her time she worked on 5 successful transactions across multiple sectors and geographies (3 in South Africa and 2 in Central and Eastern Europe). Further to this, she analysed more than 50 transactions across sectors and geographies (in South Africa and CEE) and was tasked with a number of value-enhancing projects and assisted with various exit strategies, including IPOs. 

She started her career at Standard Bank, where she spent the first 3 years in equity derivatives trading, followed by 3 years in equity research covering small cap stocks on the JSE spanning numerous industries. During her time in equity research she attained a #1 FM rating for her sector.

Ewa holds a BSc Actuarial and Financial Mathematics and a BCom in Investment Management from the University of Pretoria. She is also a CFA Charterholder. 

Waseem Hassen has spent nearly 15 years in the investment industry, including over 10 years in private equity and corporate finance.

Waseem joined Intaba in 2024, and operates across M&A advisory, financial and operational restructuring, and value creation, as well as providing PMO lead services to Intaba’s clients.

Prior to joining Intaba, Waseem spent 5 years as an independent consultant, across a variety of lead roles that included balance sheet restructuring and refinance, M&A, operational restructuring and value creation, in both the listed and unlisted spaces while representing various financial shareholders. He also spent 15 months as the interim MD of the FMCG business to implement the strategic turnaround of its branded product portfolio, rationalising the cost base and moving the business to outsourced manufacturing.

Waseem started his career in Allan Gray’s strategy and special projects team, before moving into private equity in 2014 where he worked alongside Ewa as part of the deal team. While there, he  fulfilled various roles across a number of successful funding and M&A transactions, in both South Africa and Eastern Europe. Waseem brings a wide breadth of experience, spanning across the full private equity transaction cycle starting at deal sourcing, through evaluation, execution and fundraising, and concluding with portfolio oversight, operations and value creation in both traditional and distressed scenarios.

Waseem holds a B.Bus.Sc (Hons) in Finance (distinction) with Statistics (distinction) from the University of Cape Town, and is a CFA Charterholder.