Delivering public goods for a sustainable future.

CEO, Clean Tech Hub Nigeria

Ify Malo

As the CEO of the Clean Tech Hub and the Energy Innovation Center in Abuja, Nigeria, Ify heads a prominent social enterprise and an energy access incubator for new ideas, technologies and business models across Sub Saharan Africa. She is also the Country Campaign Director for Power For All in Nigeria, where she leads the Nigerian campaign to promote distributed renewable energy as the fastest and most cost effective means to universal energy access. One of Africa’s principal energy access experts, Ify has initiated, led and implemented several initiatives and programs in regards to delivering energy access to communities in Nigeria, and provided market entry and business support services to a multitude of companies. An experienced growth market entrepreneur and design thinking expert, she draws from extended experience within senior government and policy level positions, and has worked extensively on issues surrounding energy access and climate change, tech innovation, poverty alleviation, gender mainstreaming and stakeholder partnership initiatives. Ify has, amongst others, previously consulted for the European Union, DFID, USAID, GOGLA, Practical Action, WoMIN, and the World Bank. She currently serves as a member on several boards, including Greenpeace International, Norrenberger Financial Services, Extractive 360 and the UNEP GEO for business Advisory Council. Ify is an Archbishop Desmond Tutu Fellow and sits on the programme nomination and selection committees. She is also an Eisenhower Fellow and a Global Leadership Academy Fellow. I am very honored to join the advisory board of A2EI and working with amazing people in this organization on providing relevant and timely data through research and development for the solar industry. A2EI’s mission is pivotal in advancing energy access, improving on older technologies, and critical to creating new solar products, to business planning and for decision making across the global solar ecosystem. Ify is a bibliophile often reading 3 books a week and frequently dabbling into poetry writing.

CEO, SEforALL

Rachel Kyte

Rachel Kyte is Chief Executive Officer of Sustainable Energy for All (SEforALL), Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Sustainable Energy for All and Co-Chair of UN-Energy. Rachel is a leading advocate for sustainable development and drives SEforALL’s work to mobilize action towards its 2030 goals on universal energy access, energy efficiency and renewable energy. As Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General, she is the UN point person for the global goal on sustainable energy. Before taking up her role with SEforALL in January 2016, Rachel Kyte served as World Bank Group Vice President and Special Envoy for Climate Change, leading integration of climate across the Bank Group’s work as well as support for an ambitious agreement at the 21st Convention of the Parties of the UNFCCC (COP 21). She was previously World Bank Vice President for Sustainable Development and was the International Finance Corporation Vice President for Business Advisory Services. A recipient of numerous awards for leadership for climate action and sustainable development, she is a Professor of practice in sustainable development at Tufts’ Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. A2EI asks the right questions. Unafraid to be ambitious it has its eyes on pathways to scale. My nicknames in the past have included “Tonka”, “HotLips” and “Madame Nyet”.

MD, Empowering Clean Economies, Rocky Mountain Institute

Richenda Van Leeuwen

Richenda Van Leeuwen is the Managing Director for Empowering Clean Economies at the Rocky Mountain Institute. She joined the Institute in May 2019 from the non-profit Global LPG Partnership where she had served as Chair, International Institutions since 2016, working with African governments and other partners on residential energy solutions in Sub-Saharan Africa. She has also served as a member of the World Bank’s Energy Program’s (ESMAP) Technical Advisory Group (TAG), providing strategic oversight of their $135 million energy portfolio. From 2010-2016 she founded and led Energy Access at the United Nations Foundation including its engagement with the UN Sustainable Energy for All Initiative. She established the “Energy Access Practitioner Network” which rapidly grew to over 2,300 members delivering a range of off-grid and mini-grid renewable energy solutions to address lack of electrification in many developing countries. Richenda has more than 25 years of executive management experience and previously worked in private equity and as an impact investor on a range of emerging markets renewable energy solutions. She served as a founding board member of the Good Energies Foundation which supports a range of energy access solutions in East Africa, South Asia and, at that time, in Central America. She also served as CEO of international women’s micro-entrepreneurship NGO, Trickle Up, for nearly five years. Richenda is currently a board director of SELCO India and Energy 4 Impact and since 2010 has served as a founding U.S. Women’s “Clean Energy Ambassador” within the U.S. Department of Energy’s Clean Energy, Education and Empowerment (C3E) initiative. The A2EI is providing a much needed service by focusing on the R&D and appliance innovations needed to ensure many more people can fully utilize the benefits from clean energy access in their daily lives and creating new business opportunities. I fell in love with solar power at the age of 10 during a family vacation day visit to the Center for Alternative Technology in Wales (UK). It was raining hard that day.

Partner, Dalberg Global Development Advisors

Michael Tsan

Michael is a Partner who splits his time between the US and Africa and co-leads Dalberg’s Global Energy Practice. Michael is a leading expert on off-grid energy access markets in the developing world and has spent the past decade working on off-grid solar household energy, mini-grids, productive use appliance, clean cookstoves and cooking fuel markets in Sub-Saharan Africa, South and Southeast Asia, and Latin America. Michael specializes in developing and assessing inclusive energy access business models and BoP-focused market transformation programs for off-grid energy products and services. As part of this work, Michael works with large corporates, commercial and impact investors, early-stage private enterprises, NGOs, foundations, and DFIs to support investor due diligences, conduct market assessments, develop new product strategies and business models, and develop new off-grid financing and clean cooking energy facilities. Examples of Michael’s work include leading Dalberg’s work with the World Bank Group’s Lighting Global, supporting the development and roll-out of off-grid energy strategies for funders like UNDP, UNF, AfDB, ADB, IDB, FMO, CDC, the Rockefeller Foundation, and Hewlett Foundation, and leading commercial due diligences of over two dozen energy enterprises in Africa and Asia for leading global PE/VC investors during the past few years. Michael also writes and presents extensively on energy access issues. He has served as lead author or co-author of most of the definitive reports on the sector over the past decade for clients like the World Bank, GOGLA, RF, UNF, UNDP, and the Clean Cooking Alliance including ~10 clean cooking sector landscaping reports, WB/GOGLA off-grid lighting sector reports (2010, 2013, 2015, 2018), and, more recently, productive off-grid energy reports at the ag-energy nexus. Michael currently serves as a board member or advisor to several companies including BioLite (Advisory Board member), Inyenyeri (Board member), Koko Networks (Advisor), and the Access to Energy Institute (Advisory Board member). Prior to his work in Dalberg, Michael spent six years at McKinsey & Company in the US, Europe, and Asia, where he gained extensive experience advising across the private, public, and non-profit sectors, with a focus on financial services, telecommunications, energy, and media clients. Michael earned a J.D. from Yale Law School with a focus on International Law and Development Economics where he was an Olin Scholar in Law, Economics, and Public Policy. Earlier he received a mini-MBA from Tuck Business School at Dartmouth, and a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and History from Swarthmore College, where he was a Phi Beta Kappa. It is an honor and a privilege to join the Advisory Board of A2EI, which fills a critical R&D and thought leadership gap in the energy access sector and which arrives during a vitally important turning point for the entire energy sector. While much has been achieved in the past decade in terms of bringing low cost energy access devices and services to the masses, we stand at the threshold of even more disruptive technology and business model changes. A2EI has the opportunity and the capabilities to advance the sector beyond basic energy provision to high value productive energy appliances and services which will generate incomes, create new jobs, enhance the economic viability of private sector actors, and address vital public service delivery challenges in areas such as connectivity, agriculture, water/sanitation, health, and education. Michael is a happy long-term victim of wanderlust.

Founder, Catalyst Off-Grid Advisors

Dan Murphy

Dan Murphy is the Founder of Catalyst Off-Grid Advisors, a consulting firm that specializes in supporting clients to help accelerate access to modern energy services in developing countries. Catalyst Off-Grid Advisors work with established and emerging entrepreneurs, development partners, governments, and investors to tackle strategic, operational, financial, programmatic, and policy challenges associated with this industry. Dan has over 20 years of experience working in 20+ sub-Saharan African countries. Prior to Catalyst, Dan co-founded and was CEO of Sage Systems, a Côte d’Ivoire-based off-grid solar company. While at the World Bank from 2002 to 2015, he managed Lighting Africa, the World Bank’s flagship program to support off-grid energy access, led teams dealing with some of Africa’s most complex power generation projects, managed the World Bank office and portfolio in Cameroon, and designed community development projects in West Africa. He holds a Master’s Degree from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and a Bachelor’s Degree from Bates College. A2EI will develop, host, and promote energy access related knowledge and innovation – as an industry that is still evolving, such an entity will be critical to its success. Dan’s early career was centered on managing study abroad programs in Botswana (conservation and ecology focused) and Uganda (grassroots development focused); prior to that he was a professional whitewater rafting guide.

Programme Manager, Good Energies Foundation

Brenda Obilo

Brenda Obilo is a Programme Manager at Good Energies Foundation, responsible for managing Clean Energy grant-making in Africa. With over a decade of experience in international development, she brings expertise in programme strategy, grant-making and partnership management, alongside experience across energy access, resilient livelihoods, development research and sustainable investment. Brenda has previously worked with Christian Aid, the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) and the Thomson Reuters Foundation. Her professional interests include equitable energy access, locally led development, and sustainable and inclusive growth across Africa. She holds a Master’s degree in Poverty Reduction: Policy and Practice from SOAS University of London.

Senior Programme Manager, Nefco

Anders Arvidson

Climate finance and sustainable development professional with more than 30 years of experience across Africa, Asia and Europe. I have helped mobilise climate finance at scale and expand modern energy access to more than 16 million people. I work at the intersection of public finance, private capital and market development to accelerate energy access and climate action.