Prior to Elevandi, Rafat was based in London, where she worked at OakNorth (mid-market lending focused fintech). At OakNorth, she headed business development and partnership activities for EMEA banks; responsible for full-cycle client management: prospecting, initial engagement, pilot design and execution, and platform roll-out.

Before OakNorth, Rafat was part of the Corporate Development team at Standard Chartered where she was recruited to spearhead origination and execution of acquisitions and divestments in EMEA and Asia. Prior to SCB, Rafat was part of the M&A investment banking team at Goldman Sachs (London), focused on financial services in Africa / Middle East.

She started her career in New York – where she worked in the M&A teams of Lehman Brothers and Citigroup.

BA from Middlebury College; MBA from Stanford.