The combination of Erik’s passion for the natural environment and his deep experience in large-scale, long-term investments in emerging markets, led to the founding of OFC.Erik has over 20 years of responsibility for organic and inorganic growth investments in infrastructure sectors in emerging markets for various entities, with a cumulative project value in excess of US$ 15 billion.
Featured as one of 10 people in the 2018 edition of Africa Power Elites. Prior to founding OFC, Erik was part of the investment team at Climate Fund Managers. He served as Senior Transaction Advisor for U.S. Government’s Power Africa initiative, and held the positions of Head of Energy at Harith General Partners (in excess of USD 3 billion in funds under management), as well as the Head of Business Development at Cennergi (joint venture between Tata Power and Exxaro resources).
He has also provided management and strategy consulting services to various entities including Sasol, Standard Bank, General Electric, Development Bank of Southern Africa, the U.S. Trade and Development Agency, Royal Bafokeng Holdings, Deloitte, Tetra Tech (a NASDAQ listed company), ESBi (Irish utility) and EnBW (German utility).
Jackie Proudfoot is a Chartered Accountant CA(SA) who prior to joining the OFC team was an audit Partner at JPA based in Johannesburg. During her twenty-year audit career, Jackie specialised in the audits of financial services providers and retirement funds, whilst providing a range of business consulting and taxation services to clients.
Jackie brings to the OFC finance table deep operational skill in the application of frameworks and governance models. This ensures that financial compliance is maintained and all stakeholders benefit making it possible to maximise OFC’s commitment to environmental sustainability.Being part of the OFC team fills Jackie with a great sense of pride in playing a role in conservation activities that will provide future generations with access to our shared environmental heritage.
Isobel is responsible for leading the implementation of OFC’s sustainability management system. She is committed to ensuring our projects and investments deliver long-term environmental and socio-economic benefits to the ecosystems and communities where we operate.
Isobel has over 16 years’ experience in effectively identifying and managing environmental and social risks through the full asset life cycle from planning to execution. She has specialised in the development and implementation of environmental and social management systems compliant with international finance standards (e.g. IFC Performance Standards and Equator Principles). Isobel has led environmental teams on a number of major capital projects throughout her career, often located in ecologically vulnerable marine and terrestrial environments.
She holds a BSc Hons in Environmental Science from the National University of Ireland, Galway.
Norman is responsible for all activities associated with planning, implementing, monitoring and reporting of the OFC Sustainability Funding Programme in Ecuador.
Normans’ passion lies in conservation and social justice, where humans and nature thrive together. He was Conservation International’s Programme Manager for the Galapagos for a period of three years. He has since played a prominent role as an advisor to non-for-profit organizations focused on conservation activities such as Ocean Legacy, Pew Charitable Trust, Bertarelli Foundation, and Birdlife International.
He is a former Minister President of the Governing Council of the Special Regime of Galapagos. During this role, he was instrumental in driving the “Galapagos 2030 Plan”. This Strategic Plan for Galápagos Islands seeks to promote wellbeing and provide tools to deliver positive impacts.
Norman’s educational background is in law. He holds a Juris Doctor and a Diploma in Environmental Democracy and Governance from the University of Wolverhampton, UK.
Trevor connects the dots in understanding the objectives of all stakeholders, underlying projects and the optimal financial solution to achieve positive benefit and impact. With over 15 years of structured finance experience, Trevor plays a central role in the development, execution, and management of every transaction.
Prior to OFC, Trevor was an investment manager at Mergon, an investment company with a growth and income mandate to support charitable organizations across Africa and the Middle East. His experience included portfolio and investment management, end-to-end dealmaking and various debt and equity capital raise initiatives.
He also worked in the structured finance team within Corporate and Investment Banking at Standard Bank, involved in various corporate mergers, acquisitions and debt advisory solutions and as a senior tax advisor at Norton Rose Fulbright. He holds a Masters degree in Tax, Honours degree in Accounting and is registered with the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants.
Andrew Johnstone is the CEO of Climate Fund Managers(CFM), a leading climate-centric blended finance fund manager.
CFM’s purpose is to end the climate crisis through the raising and deploying of blended finance funds at scale and at pace, working in partnership to develop climate-resilient solutions.
Andrew has over 30 years of experience in the infrastructure sector and is responsible for setting the long-term strategy of CFM and the overall management of the business units. Under his leadership, CFM has c.1.7 billion USD in commitments and approved over USD 700 million for disbursement to green fields projects in emerging markets.
Prior to CFM, Andrew was the CEO of African Infrastructure Investment Managers (“AIIM”), a joint venture between Macquarie and Old Mutual, where he led the structuring, raising, and deployment of five unlisted infrastructure fund vehicles in Africa. During his tenure, he was also the Chairman of Macquarie Africa.
Harald has more than 30 years of experience in macro-policy advisory and financial risk management.
He worked at the IMF and since 2008 played an important role in building-up TCX, a global initiative to hedge currency risk and make development finance and low-income borrowers more risk resilient. Harald is a recognized thought leader and innovator in development finance, emphasizing that environmental, social- and financial sustainability and fairness are critical to achieve long term development objectives.
OFC’s contributions to sovereign debt financing based on innovation in financial risk sharing, and the effective application of modern impact monitoring technologies will allow global investors to engage in the protection of ocean environments, biodiversity, and create sustainable income opportunities for local communities.
Georges Beukering is the Head of Capital Raising & Business Development at Climate Fund Managers (CFM), a leading climate-centric blended finance fund manager.
CFM designs and deploys cutting-edge climate finance funds at scale and at pace, working in partnership to develop climate-resilient solutions.
Prior to CFM, Georges worked as senior Banker at the Dutch Development Bank, FMO. Before joining FMO, Georges worked at ABN AMRO Financial Markets department and the Dutch Ministry of Finance. Georges holds a MSc degree of Applied Mathematics from Twente University and an MSc degree of International Economics & Business Studies from Erasmus University in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
Climate Investor Two (CI2) is an innovative blended finance facility focused on water, oceans and sanitation, managed by Climate Fund Managers (CFM) – the leading climate-centric investment firm. CI2 reached its second close at USD 855 million in December 2022 and has a target size of USD 1 billion. CFM designs and deploys cutting-edge blended finance funds at scale and at pace, working in partnership to co-develop, construct and own sustainable infrastructure solutions. Through its innovative model, CFM has created a blueprint for a new generation of climate financiers, whose collective impact can end the climate crisis. CFM currently manages two emerging market infrastructure funds: Climate Investor One (CI1), an $850m fund focused on renewable energy and Climate Investor Two (CI2). With offices in The Hague, Cape Town and Singapore, CFM is established as a joint venture between the Dutch development bank, FMO, and Sanlam InfraWorks – part of the Sanlam Group of South Africa.
The water, sanitation and oceans sectors are fundamental to human life and economic development and the medium through which the effects of climate change will be most felt on earth. CI2 provides expertise, technology, and financing to infrastructure projects in CFM’s focus markets of Latin America, Asia and Africa by mobilizing private sector financing at scale, supported by catalytic public sector donor funding.Formed in partnership with Dutch Fund for Climate and Development (DFCD) and the European Commission (EC), CI2 uses the same blended finance structure as the firm’s inaugural blended finance fund Climate Investor One (CI1). This structure simplifies the manner in which capital is deployed and reduces complexity by delivering an innovative “whole-of-life” solution that provides a single financing source for each of the respective development, construction, and operational phases of a project’s lifecycle. Through its CI2 Development Fund, CI2 provides early-stage project development services and financing. Through its CI2 Construction Equity Fund, CI2 provides equity finance that accelerates project construction. With this approach, CI2 is designed to implement more projects faster, delivering positive environmental and social impact sooner.
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