Mercore Capital has a new chief executive with three decades in structured trade finance. Anne-Marie Woolley joins the lending arm of Mercore Group, and Johnny Ohgrøn Hansen comes in as deputy CEO. The report does not say who Woolley replaces.
Woolley left Africa Global Trade Finance (AGTF) in February 2026. AGTF is a London-based boutique lender to African SMEs, backed by Zebu Investment Partners, and she had led it since 2021, after almost four years as an independent consultant. Her earlier senior roles include Standard Bank, Nedbank, Standard Chartered and Barclays, mostly in Africa and other emerging markets.
Hansen has more than 30 years of investment experience across Africa, Asia, and Central and Eastern Europe, including the African Food Security Fund, Impact Fund Denmark and the Confederation of Danish Industries. He is an operations manager at Trade Finance Conference of the Parties (TF COP) and focuses on structured trade finance, private equity and impact investment for SMEs with strong ESG credentials.
Mercore Capital is the structured trade and supply chain finance business within the group. It offers receivables and payables finance, structured trade finance and buy-now-pay-later solutions to corporates in the UK, Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Both new leaders have worked in food and agri-commodities, energy, and metals and mining. “Between them, Anne-Marie and Johnny bring hands-on experience and established relationships,” the company said.
The group changed its wider leadership too. Charlie Lazenby is group CEO, Anthony Wadsworth-Hill group deputy CEO and David Stafford group CFO. Jessie Gittins is group chief of staff, Ian Spowart group chief credit officer and Giles Marshall group chief operating officer. They oversee strategy across Mercore Capital and Mercore Digital, the fintech arm that won the GTR Leaders in Trade award for best fintech newcomer in trade last year. Mercore called the changes “a natural next step.” Earlier in 2026 it became an accredited lender under UK Export Finance’s General Export Facility, and it hinted at Mercore Digital announcements “in the coming weeks.”
Digital Trade Outlook’s View: Specialist Lenders Staff Up
As structured trade finance moves into focus and African banks expand as global lenders retreat, non-bank lenders are competing for the same talent as the banks. DTO also covered Société Générale’s hire to lead supply chain finance in Asia Pacific earlier. Our reading is that Mercore is rebuilding at every level at once, so the deals it announces over the coming months will show whether the new team changes its pace.
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