Season 3 | Episode 5 | Crystal Ball

Sean is a professional engineer and Principal Renewable Energy Specialist with the International Finance Corporation, the private sector financing arm of the World Bank Group. His work focuses on due diligence for IFC’s onshore wind investments and upstream work on offshore wind, renewable energy for off-grid mines and scaling wind investments in Africa. Prior to joining IFC in 2011, Sean spent six years as Vice-President of the Canadian Wind Energy Association, a period that saw a tenfold expansion of the Canadian wind industry. He has also worked as a senior energy consultant with ICF/Marbek and spent five years in Madagascar designing, building and installing windmills for community irrigation projects. He holds a degree in mechanical engineering from Queen’s University, Kingston.

Guido Agostinelli has been working in the photovoltaic and clean technology industry for over 20 years. He deals with IFC’s investments in the solar sector and in distributed energy solutions. Prior to joining IFC, he held management positions in industrial R&D, set up a successful technical advisory and management consulting firm, and worked as senior partner at Good Energies, one of the then largest venture capital and private equity funds focused on Renewables. Guido holds a PhD in engineering from the University of Gent and an MBA from SDA Bocconi in Milan.

Elizabeth is an Associate Operations Officer in IFC’s Climate Business department, where she identifies investment opportunities, new technologies, and private sector approaches to scaling renewable energy and decarbonization in emerging markets. Her current portfolio focuses on decarbonizing with green hydrogen, marine plastics reduction, scaling energy storage, and supporting a green recovery in emerging markets. Additional areas of work include offshore wind, distributed energy, biodiversity finance, and smart cities & transport. Previous consultancies with include supporting private sector actors to achieve Côte d'Ivoire’s renewable energy NDC goals, developing climate information systems in Papua New Guinea, and creating equitable agricultural supply chains in Colombia. She has a B.A. from The University of the South in Sewanee, TN; a M.A. from Universidad Autónoma de Madrid; and a M.A. from the Fletcher School at Tufts University in Boston, MA.

Kartik serves as the global electric vehicle (EV) industry specialist at the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a part of the World Bank Group. He is responsible for strategizing and guiding IFC’s investments in EV businesses across emerging markets globally. He has over 25 years of global experience including a decade’s experience in the EV industry in leadership roles. He served as the Chief Operating Officer of the E-mobility business Greaves Cotton Ltd. and prior to that, as the Head of Strategy and Business Planning at Mahindra Electric for 8 years where he introduced EVs into 3 new markets for the first time ever in India and led the transformation of the company into new product categories. He also served as an independent consultant to the UNDP and the Royal Government of Bhutan on their EV initiatives and policies. He also worked for 15 years in global semiconductor companies in Singapore and Germany. He holds Master’s degrees in Management from Stanford University and in Electrical Engineering from IIT-Kanpur, India.

Ruth Hupart is a Climate Business Strategy Officer at the International Finance Corporation (IFC) based in Washington, DC, and leads IFC’s work on carbon capture. IFC—a sister organization of the World Bank and member of the World Bank Group—is the largest global development institution focused on the private sector in developing countries. She previously served as Deputy Chief of Staff and covered the energy and environment portfolio, focusing on tax policy, for a member of the U.S. House of Representatives. Ruth earned her B.A. from Dartmouth College and her M.B.A. from Georgetown University.

James is a Senior Industry Specialist at the International Finance Corporation, the private sector financing arm of the World Bank Group. He has over 20 years of global experience in the solid waste industry and energy sector with a particular focus on climate opportunities in waste in developing countries. Jim provides technical expertise to staff looking at solid waste (SW) opportunities in emerging economies and supports the development and implementation of IFC’s solid waste sector strategy.

Diep Ngoc Do is a green Building Program Lead in Climate Business Department of IFC, based in Vietnam. After graduating from the University of Warwick in the United Kingdom, Diep returned to Vietnam and worked on environmental aspect of the construction industry. During her 11 years working at leading organizations such as Vietnam Green Building Council (VGBC) and International Finance Corporation (IFC), she participated in the research of green building certification systems, especially LOTUS and EDGE (Excellence in Design for Greater Efficiencies) certificates. In addition, as a consultant, auditors and even assessor, Diep has contributed to the development of many construction projects across the country, as well as contacted and successfully persuaded investors in many sectors to build green.

Irina Likhachova is a Senior Operations Officer with IFC Climate Business Department. She is leading policy work on biodiversity finance to incentivize private sector investment to conserve and restore nature and to fight climate change in emerging markets. Irina is a lead author of IFC’s 2019 report “Green Buildings: A Finance and Policy Blueprint for Emerging Markets” and a forthcoming report green post-COVID recovery in emerging markets. Previously she worked on advancing of the adoption of the IFC Operating Principles for Impact Management, national green and sustainable finance policies across emerging markets through the Sustainable Banking Network, and the adoption of IFC’s sustainability and governance standards by stock exchanges in their listing and reporting requirements.

Nina Zegger is Chief Investment Officer and Global Head, Climate Business in IFC’s Manufacturing, Agribusiness & Services (MAS) Department based in Washington, D.C. Nina has held various regional and global roles over her years at IFC, executing corporate, project finance and equity transactions in multiple sectors. She served as Global Sector Lead for Construction Materials for several years. For more than a decade, Nina has focused exclusively on devising strategies, developing business and supporting investments in Climate Business–Energy Efficiency, Renewables, Green Buildings, Climate Smart Agri and other areas across industries globally. She worked on IFC’s Green Building / EDGE (Excellence in Design for Greater Efficiencies) program since its genesis, contributing significantly to the design and growth of what has become a multi-billion business to date. In FY12, she was promoted to Global Head and has since managed her department’s climate investment program which today surpasses $1 billion p.a. More recently, Nina crafted IFC’s approach and strategy for Climate Smart Agri and leads this cross-cutting business line that has contributed more than $2 billion in climate related volume in recent years. Nina has worked on numerous innovative climate finance transactions with different products, including a structured debt fund for the energy access space in Africa and Asia. Nina has a BA in International Relations with concentration on Economic Development from Brown University and an MBA from Wharton (University of Pennsylvania).