Raquel Wilson
Reimagining capital, ownership and governance for more equitable cities
Raquel Wilson is a business strategist and entrepreneur working at the intersection of capital, cities, and community ownership. With more than two decades of experience across international development and development finance, she designs frameworks that align capital, governance, and community interests to build more equitable and regenerative urban economies.She is the Founder and CEO of Building Equity, an urban intelligence firm reimagining how wealth and opportunity circulate through cities. Building Equity partners with cities, civic institutions, development agencies, and values-aligned investors to develop ownership, finance, and governance strategies that help communities retain more of the value created through investment and development. Its work is anchored in the Local Capital Loop, a proprietary framework for assessing whether capital entering a place builds local assets or exits through absentee ownership and non-local institutions.Raquel also serves on the Board of Advisors of Kasi Desert Circuit, a planned climate-aligned innovation district in Kenya that uses advanced mobility and motorsport as platforms for accelerating clean technology, battery manufacturing, and sustainable industrial development.Her private-sector experience spans venture capital, logistics and community enterprise. She has sourced and evaluated high-growth opportunities for Roselake Ventures, a venture fund investing in African startups; supported investor-facing positioning for Senegal’s National Office of Sanitation; co-founded Jetstream Africa, an Accra-based logistics company simplifying exports for African suppliers; and launched the Dakar Farmers Market, a community enterprise supporting local food producers.As a consultant to the African Development Bank Group, Raquel has led narrative and communications strategy for major development finance and partnership initiatives. Her work on the 17th replenishment of the African Development Fund translated complex financing instruments, institutional priorities, and development results into evidence-based investment cases and partner-facing materials for a multi-billion-dollar replenishment campaign.A former diplomat with the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, Raquel led the launch of the organization’s first digital platform for hate crime monitoring, strengthening the use of data in international human rights work. As Head of Strategic Communications for the USAID-funded Somalia Stabilization Initiative, she developed a national radio program connecting rural women and communities with essential public services.Raquel is the co-editor of No Tees Please: Why Africa Aid Campaigns #FAIL, a crowdsourced examination of harmful narratives in international development. She also managed Social Media Week Lagos’ #55FORWARD initiative, which convened ambassadors from 55 African nations to explore how digital platforms could respond to the needs of a rapidly growing youth population.Her commitment to place-based development also includes How to Build a Community, a civic engagement and participatory design initiative supported by a New York City Partnership for Parks grant.Raquel holds an MBA from Imperial College London, where her studies focused on strategies that balance people, planet, and profit, and a Bachelor of Science in New Media from Indiana University.Known for her ability to connect people, ideas, and institutions across sectors and geographies, Raquel is committed to redefining wealth as stewardship and building systems that enable communities to own, shape, and sustain their economic futures.She is currently based in the United States and works internationally.