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.

Lucy is Chairperson of Lekela Power and a Partner in Actis’ Energy Infrastructure Team. Lucy is Head of Africa for the Energy Infrastructure Team, a role she has held since March 2017, and is the Investment Manager of Lekela Power and Aela Energia, two of Actis’ renewable energy platforms in its third energy fund. Both of these investments encapsulate Actis’ strategy to build world class, scale, generation businesses that can be leaders and long term participants in their home markets.

In addition, Lucy has responsibility for Responsible Investment within Energy Infrastructure, working closely with Actis’ Responsible Investment Team to coordinate activities and impact across the energy infrastructure portfolio and is the Chairperson for Actis’ Remuneration and Inclusion & Diversity Committees.

She has over 19 years of emerging markets investment experience, including 5 years operational experience within an Actis investee power generation company (Globeleq) as a Project Director in business development.

Lucy holds an MBA from INSEAD and has an MA (Hons) in PPE from Trinity College, Oxford.

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.

Malavika Pillai is IFC’s portfolio manager for infrastructure sector investments in South and South-east Asia. She manages debt and equity investments in India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Laos. She is based in New Delhi.

Malavika joined IFC in 2003, and has worked across the manufacturing, agribusiness and infrastructure sectors. Since 2007, she has focused on the infrastructure sector and has worked on originating, processing and managing debt and equity projects across various sub-sectors such as solar power, wind power, gas-fired power, roads and logistics.

She holds undergraduate and MBA degrees respectively from Delhi University and IIM Ahmedabad in India. Prior to joining IFC, she was a consultant with the Boston Consulting Group in New Delhi and Mumbai.