Our Trustees

GVEP is governed by a distinguished Board of Trustees representing many years of experience and expertise in fields related to the environment and economic development.

 

Matthew Mendis (chairperson)
Matthew is actively pursuing the development and finance of renewable energy projects in South and South-East Asia. He also serves as Co-Founder of C-Quest Capital, LLC, a carbon finance firm based in Washington, DC. and as the Senior Technical Advisor to the Energy and Security Group. Matthew has been actively involved in clean energy project development and finance for the past 25 years and in over 45 countries around the globe. His work has led to more than a half billion dollars in loan and grant assistance for energy projects in developing countries. His efforts now focus on leveraging private capital for financing renewable energy projects. He is an advisor to many international development agencies and also serves on the Boards of a number of other organizations.

Carole Brookins
The Honorable Carole L. Brookins served from 2001 to 2005 as the United States Executive Director to the World Bank in Washington, D.C. An international consultant, she is currently a Managing Director of Public Capital Advisors LLC (PCA) (www.publiccapitaladvisors.com), and serves as a director on both corporate and non-profit boards.  These have included Climate Exchange plc and the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX) and the NTR plc North American Advisory Board. She  currently is a member of the Rabobank’s North American Agribusiness Advisory Board and the Center for Financial Stability board.

Dr Valery Sorokin
Valery is a professor in the Russian Oil and Gas University and a consultant of the Expert Administration of the Russian President. Previously he spent 10 years in Washington with Russia’s diplomatic service and also worked in Brussels as the Deputy Secretary General of the Energy Charter Secretariat. In 2005/6 he acted as head of the Group on Global Energy Security of the Expert Council on Preparation and Support of the Russian G8 Presidency and since then he consults the Russian participation in G8 and G20 Frameworks on Energy and related issues.

Joe Ludlow
Joe joined Nesta in 2010 to lead their work on social venturing and investment, including making and managing a portfolio of investments in impact investment funds and products. Joe led Nesta's involvement in the development of Big Society Capital both running Nesta's own pilot fund the £1.5million Big Society Finance Fund, and advising the Big Lottery Fund's Big Society Investment Fund. Joe has been active in impact investment since 2005, previously working at CAF Venturesome, a leading UK impact fund, investing in growing social enterprises and charities. At Venturesome, Joe led on £4million of quasi-equity and debt transactions and established the Community Land Trust Fund. Joe began his career with the TeachFirst programme teaching in a secondary school in the London Borough of Hackney.

Emily Unwin
Emily is a lawyer with ClientEarth, a public interest environmental law organisation. She works within the Climate & Forests programme, based in Brussels. She was previously a lawyer with Bates Wells & Braithwaite, a London law firm that works with commercial and third sector organisations, where she advised on environmental and commercial law. She has a Masters in international environmental law and her work focuses on emerging national and international environmental law and policy, which has included a particular focus on the financing and development of renewable energy projects and EU regulatory frameworks.

Marcelo Tokman
Marcelo Tokman (PHD in Economics from UC Berkeley) was recently Managing Director and Vice President for South America of VESTAS. He also was the company's VP for Government Relations in Latin America and the Caribbean. He was President of the National Energy Commission and Chile's first Minister of Energy between 2007 and 2010. Previously he was Chief of Advisors of the Ministry of Finance and Head of Research of the Budget Office. He has also been and still is Board member for major Chilean companies.

Matthew Whittell
Matthew is Chief Financial Officer of Aggregated Micro Power, a renewable energy company. Previously he has worked with the Climate Exchange plc and Schroders. He spent five years in Singapore working for Citigroup, leading financial transactions both in Singapore and for several leading Indian corporates. In 2005, he returned to university to study for a Masters in environmental technology; he also has a Certified Diploma in Accounting and Finance. He is Vice President on the Board of the Carbon Markets and Investors Association.
 
Dr Anil Cabraal
Anil is an independent consultant in renewable and rural energy and a Director of KMR Infrastructure Inc. of USA, and KMRI Lanka (pvt) Ltd. of Sri Lanka.  Until April 2010 he was responsible for guiding renewable energy strategy development and implementation, and renewable and rural energy project development at the World Bank in Washington DC, USA. He designed and launched the joint World Bank/IFC Lighting Africa programme in 2008 and was a contributor to the design of the “Scaling Up Renewable Energy Program,” a grant making facility of the multi-donor Strategic Climate Funds. His publications cover renewable energy in developing countries, and best practice guidance reports on off-grid electrification project design and implementation. His work on photovoltaics for development earned him the Professor Robert Hill award at the 2005 European Photovoltaics and Solar Energy Conference.  He has a doctorate in Agricultural Engineering. He represented the World Bank on the boards of the Triodos Renewable Energy for Development Fund and Photovoltaics Global Approval Program.
 


 

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