Rupert Hayward
Vice Chair of the Board
Rupert Hayward, a Bahamian national, is Founder and President at the Blue Action Lab and Blue Action Ventures and is Chairman of the Blue Action Accelerator; a JV with Founders Factory focused on accelerating Blue and Green ESG companies to build a prosperous, equitable and sustainable future for The Bahamas and other low-lying coastal communities. He is an executive director of the Grand Bahama Port Authority and the Grand Bahama Disaster Relief Foundation. He is also an advisor to Global Harvester Holdings, a UK green merchant bank, and to the University of The Bahamas on climate and resilience.
Rupert brings more than 20 years of international investment experience in both emerging and developed markets. He is one of the original partners at Salamanca Group, a British merchant bank. Rupert, alongside his partners, spent almost 10 years building the business from a boutique investment advisory firm into a fully-fledged merchant bank, which included the merger of a risk consulting business (S-RM), the acquisition of Investec bank’s trust business, and the development of 19 offices worldwide.
He completed his MA (Hons) in Geography (Caribbean Development Studies) at Edinburgh University, UK, in 2003 and has an MBA in Sustainable Business Management from Presidio Graduate School, San Francisco.