Team

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.

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.

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.

Gert-Jan de Bruijn has over a decade of legal experience. He has broad experience in international transactions and implementing good corporate governance with a strong focus on the private equity industry.

Gert-Jan started his career at Intertrust, where he assisted a broad portfolio of clients in their global investment structures as a senior company lawyer. During this period he also acted as interim legal counsel for an international healthcare corporation. In 2017 he joined Alter Domus as Legal Manager and currently heads the Private Equity and Corporates practise at Alter Domus Netherlands.

Gert-Jan holds a LL.M. Master’s degree with specializations in Corporate Law, Civil Law and Criminal Law from the University of Groningen, the Netherlands.

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.

Rosalind Kainyah MBE is the founder and Managing Director of Kina Advisory Limited, a trusted advisor to Boards and Senior Executives of global companies on Sustainability and responsible business investment and partnerships in emerging markets. She has almost 30 years of combined international, senior management, executive and board level experience in companies and organisations including Linklaters, Anglo American Corporation of South Africa, De Beers, Tullow Oil plc, the United Nations Environment Programme and ERM, and on projects across Africa, in Western and Eastern Europe, North & South America, Asia, and the South Pacific.

Rosalind is also an experienced non-executive director, chairing Remuneration, Nominations and Sustainability Committees. She has recently been appointed to the Board of discoverIE group plc, effective 1 January 2022, and is currently a Non-Executive Director of London listed Gem Diamonds Limited and of CAL Bank Limited, Ghana.

Rosalind holds a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Ghana, a Bachelor of Laws degree from University of London and a Master of laws degree from University College, London.

Eme Essien Lore has over 20 years of experience as an international development finance professional.  While at IFC, the private sector arm of the World Bank Group, she served in leadership roles including, as head of the Nigeria office where she had oversight of the implementation of the country strategy, the investment program and government relations until 2021.  Earlier, while at Rockefeller Foundation, she led an initiative to provide market driven solutions in response to the youth unemployment challenge in several countries across Africa and served as the regional focal point for the Foundation’s Harnessing the Power of Impact Investing initiative.

Currently as Senior Advisor and Independent Consultant, Eme provides guidance to for-profit and non-profit enterprises in Africa on pursuing improved governance and organizational health.  She also advises investment firms on financing and business development strategies.  She has served on several boards.

Eme holds a BA in Economics from Columbia College at Columbia University; she also earned an MBA in Finance from the Wharton School of Business, University of Pennsylvania; and an MA from the School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University.

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.

Adrian has over 20 years’ experience in various finance positions, including working for over six years with KPMG in their Corporate Finance and Financial Services Tax departments advising on Public Private Partnership and corporate restructurings.

In addition, Adrian was part of the finance team in Trinergy that refinanced and sold a €1.8bn portfolio of wind energy assets in Italy and Germany. Adrian holds a Degree in Actuarial and Financial Studies from UCD and an MSc in Industrial and Financial Mathematics from DCU. He is a qualified accountant and an Associate of the Irish Taxation Institute.

Thérèse Wijnen has more than 30 years of experience within the financial services industry. Her expertise varies from Structured Finance, Private Equity, Multinational corporations and  Real Estate in different roles both legal as managerial.

Therese started her professional career with ABN AMRO and Credit Lyonnais Bank and worked for 20 years with TMF Group.  She was one of the founders of Structured Finance/Capital Markets for TMF Group and Headed this global department for 13 years after which she became Head of Directorship Services whereby she had a strong focus on directors responsibilities, litigations and insurances. As of 2019 Therese is the Country Executive of Alter Domus in the Netherlands.

Thérèse holds a LL.M Master’s Degree in Corporate Law from Vrije University Amsterdam, the Netherlands.