Team

Chris has extensive experience in developing power and infrastructure projects in Africa, having overseen initiatives valued at more than $4 billion combined. He was appointed as CEO of Lekela in March 2015 by the board.

Before joining Lekela, Chris spent eight years as Group Vice President at Bombardier Transportation, one of the largest rail-equipment manufacturing and servicing industry companies in the world. Based in Berlin, he was responsible for close to $10 billion in global sales and business development.

Swiss-born, Chris has been active in the energy and infrastructure industry since 1987 in sales and business development positions, including senior management positions at ABB, the leading global electrical engineering group. During an 11-year spell at the company, his roles included Business Area President for ABB Equity Ventures, Regional VP for Asia Pacific and Regional VP of Europe, Middle East and Africa.

Mikael is Head of the Energy team at Actis. He has 25 years of experience in developing, investing and operating power businesses, mostly in the emerging markets. Mikael joined Actis in 2012 as a Partner and became Co-Head of Energy in 2015. He was previously CEO of Globeleq and played a key role in Fund 1’s initial investments in 2002/03. Before joining Globeleq, Mikael had a long career with ABB Energy Ventures, where he held positions as global head of project development, head of Asia Pacific and head of Europe, Middle East and Africa as well as chair of the Investment Committee.

Mikael holds a Masters in Science degree in Industrial Engineering and Management from Linkoping Institute of Technology in Sweden and an MBA from the University of Massachusetts in the U.S.

Femi Akinrebiyo, a Nigerian national, is a Principal Investment Officer with International Finance Corporation (“IFC”), the private sector arm of the World Bank Group. He has been with IFC since 2006 and has over 20 years of principal investment and project management experience.

Femi has played leading roles in structuring and investing over a billion dollars for IFC in Asia, Latin America, and Africa. Most recently, Femi led the implementation of the Joint World Bank Group (“WBG”) Energy Business Plan for Nigeria, a WBG initiative supporting the Federal Government of Nigeria to accelerate implementation of power sector reforms, attract private investment, and fast-track key projects to financial close.

Femi’s background includes working for ExxonMobil as a Project Engineer and other multinational companies, including Philips Projects and Spar Aerospace.

He holds a Bachelor of Engineering in Electrical Engineering from the University of Ilorin, Nigeria and an MBA from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University, Illinois, USA.

Mr Giller has over 35 years of experience in the international power industry.

From 2000 to 2002, he was chief executive of International Power, a FTSE-100 company. Previously, he was president of ABB Energy Ventures, responsible for the global development, ownership and operation of power plants, including in the United States, Latin America, Asia and Africa. He was a non-executive director of Globeleq Africa until its sale in 2015.

Peter holds a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical and Electrical Engineering and a Masters degree in Business Administration.

Bart is Chief Operations Officer of Mainstream, having overall responsibility for the Group’s project development, construction and operational activities.

Previously Bart was employed by Airtricity, a global renewable energy company, where he led the construction of a large number of windfarms on the island of Ireland and was involved in the development and construction of Airtricity wind projects in Scotland and the United States.

Before moving into the renewable sector, Bart worked with PM Group, a world-class engineering and project management company; and with Schlumberger Oilfield Services.

Bart graduated as an Electronic and Electrical Engineer from Trinity College Dublin and holds an MBA from University College Dublin

Suman Babbar has been actively engaged with the infrastructure sector and project finance over the last four decades, including in his early career being a founding member of the National Thermal Power Corporation in India before joining the World Bank in a number of senior positions.

For nearly a decade he managed the Project Finance and Guarantees program which supported mobilization of private capital for infrastructure using the World Bank guarantees. He has had operational involvement in more than thirty countries across all regions, where he was extensively involved in the energy sector and the IPP program for the World Bank.

More recently he has been advising regional energy teams, supported Independent Evaluation Group and Operation Policy teams for the World Bank as well as being a senior advisor to Actis and being a non-exec director on a number of Boards

Sjef Klijberg has over 7 years’ experience in the financial services industry, working with clients on financial reporting, treasury management and international business restructuring.

Sjef started his career in financial management with roles at ATC Group and Intertrust Group. He currently works for Alter Domus, where he has spent over 3 years as a Finance Manager. He is responsible for a team of financial experts in the Private Equity & Corporates team and has managed a diverse portfolio of clients, including listed multinational companies, private equity funds and individuals.

Sjef holds a bachelor’s degree in International Business from Hanze University, Groningen, and is studying for a Master’s in management at Nyenrode Business University.

Rick Van de Weerd has almost 10 years of experience within the financial services industry in the Netherlands. His expertise lies in Private Equity, Multinational corporations and oil & gas companies.

Rick started his professional career with PwC in Rotterdam and worked for more than 5 years with Intertrust Group in Amsterdam. There, he attained the positions of Senior Company Lawyer and Commercial Executive, with a strong focus on North American Private Equity firms. Currently, Rick is a Director at Alter Domus in the firm’s office in the Netherlands, having joined in January 2018.

Rick holds a LL.M Master’s Degree in Tax Law from the Erasmus University Rotterdam, the Netherlands.