Conference Renewables for Self-consumption in Mozambique
Antonio Sánchez-Benedito Gaspar has been the European Union Ambassador to the Republic of Mozambique since September 2018 and was previously the European Union Ambassador to Madagascar since 2014. He began his diplomatic career in 1995 at the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and has since represented Spain in several African countries, such as Libya, Angola, Mozambique, Ethiopia and the Sahel region. He was also director for Africa and an advisor in the Office of the Secretary of State for Cooperation and Latin America. He has academic training in Law, Economics and Business Environment, and speaks 5 languages (Spanish, English, French, German and Portuguese).
Bernardo Aparício has been, since May 2016, the member of the Executive Committee responsible for Corporate and Investment Banking at Absa Bank Moçambique, where he is part of Corporate Banking, Commercial Banking, Investment Banking and Sala Mercados. He is also Executive Director of Absa Bank Mozambique.
Bernardo was previously the Director of Investment Banking for the Southern and East African regions. He was appointed to the position in June 2013 with a particular focus on Mergers & Acquisitions, Capital Markets and Project Financing.
After joining Barclays in 2009, he did not work in Project Finance with a focus on Portugal, having been subsequently appointed Co-Responsible of the International Debt Team at Barclays in London, responsible for managing all debt for corporate clients in the Europe, Middle region East and Africa.
Prior to Barclays, he was Director of Infrastructure Finance at Banesto (Grupo Santander) in Madrid and Vice President of the Project Finance team at CaixaBI (Caixa Geral de Depósitos) in Lisbon, with a focus on Europe, USA and Latin America. Bernardo has a degree in Economics from Universidade Nova de Lisboa.
Corentin is an Impact Investor for ElectriFI, the Electrification Financing Initiative funded by the European Union, committed to increase access to clean energy in developing countries.
Corentin has been active in the impact investment space for many years and is also a Venture Partner at SAGANA, an advisory firm working with family offices, foundations and companies on Impact Investing topics, from building Impact Investment strategies across asset classes, to identifying venture capital and private equity opportunities. The firm leverages its decades of combined Impact Investing experience and robust global network to help clients align their capital with their values. The team believes that all investments should be made with the intention to have a positive impact as well as a solid financial return.
After obtaining his Master in Business Engineering from the Solvay Business School, Corentin joined the Brussels-based Deminor. As their Financial Analyst in the Corporate Finance division, he worked on numerous corporate governance issues concerning family shareholdership with a particular focus on valuation, M&A and exit strategies for family owned businesses.
Taking his passion about the family businesses to the next level, he joined Trusted Family in Singapore to lead the business development for Asia Pacific. Founded as a family business itself, Trusted Family works with enterprising families who wish to identify and leverage their - non-financial - value through increased communication, education and societal impact strategies.
Since 2008 Corentin has been an active volunteer and fundraiser for the N.G.O “Face for Children in Need”
Corentin is also a 5th generation member of a Belgian business family active in the distribution. He takes an active part in the management of the family and its dynamics, amongst others in his role as Secretary to the Board of Directors.
Agronomist engineer, leading Grupo JFS since 2005. Experience in several business sectors.
Chairman of Mozambique Cotton Ginners Association (AAM).
Member of the Board of the Mozambique Automotive Distributors Association (AIDAM).
Member of the Board of the Mozambique Industrial Association (AIMO).
Vice-President for Industry of the Mozambique Private Sector Federation (CTA) until 2016.
Guilherme Daniel graduated in Law from the Faculty of Law at the Eduardo Mondlane University (UEM) with a postgraduate degree in Business Law.
Later, he founded GDA Advogados (which integrates VdA Legal Partners) in 2016, where he works actively in matters of Corporate, Energy and Natural Resources (in particular, Oil&Gas) and Infrastructure. Before founding the firm, he was Director of the Legal Department, Secretary of the Board of Directors and Executive Committee of Petromoc – Petróleos de Moçambique, SA (where he worked for 13 years). In this capacity, he supported the Ministry of Energy and participated in the preparation of the main legal instruments for regulating the fuel sector from 2006 to 2015 and regularly collaborated with IGEPE in the preparation of corporate governance instruments and in the training of holders of bodies of state-owned companies.
He took on various positions in companies in which Petromoc participated between 2005 and 2015 and holds several national and international training certificates in the areas of oil and gas, law and management.
He is a member of the National Council of the Mozambican Bar Association as well as a founding member and of the Board of Directors of AMER.
Isabel Cancela de Abreu is an Environmental Engineer with an Executive Master on Sustainable Energy Systems.Her experience in renewable energies started at APREN, the Portuguese Renewable Energy Association, where she was Director of the Technical Department.
Isabel was afterwards invited to work as Policy Adviser at EREC, the European Renewable Energy Council.
Later on, she decided to take advantage of her national and international experience to found ALER, the Lusophone Renewable Energy Association, where she now works as Executive Director.
In addition, Isabel was also a social volunteer in Niassa - Mozambique, and did an internship at Grameen Shakti in Bangladesh to learn about their microcredit and Solar Home Systems programs.
José is currently based in Maputo as Coordinator of the GET.invest Mozambique. Its tasks include implementing private sector mobilization activities, developing a pipeline of projects and training public and private actors in the renewable energy sector. Over the past 15 years, his field of work has included policy and regulatory reforms and financing to facilitate public and private investment in renewable energy and energy efficiency, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa.
Experienced Sales Executive with a demonstrated history of working in the electrical and electronic manufacturing industry. Skilled in Negotiation, Business Planning, Management, Transportation, and Marketing. Strong sales professional with a Bachelor of Commerce (BCom) focused in Business Administration and Management, General from UNISA.
Marcelina works for the Ministry of Mineral Resources and Energy in Mozambique for over 20 years. She has extensive knowledge in the renewable energy sector. With an engineering background coupled with policy experience, her daily work involves the creation of a favourable environment for energy projects to be developed in a sustainable way, in order to contribute to the achievement of access to energy for all.
Marcus Rother is an international expert on renewable energy with 20 years of experience in developing project as well as raising project-funding and leading investor relationships. Being part of EU GET.invest´s Finance Catalyst network, he has successfully connected local entrepreneurial initiatives to funding institutions and implemented training programmes on financial structuring of RE projects within local partner institutions in Mozambique and South Africa.
Previously a senior Investment Officer at EU impact fund ElectriFI, he focuses on catalytic private sector investments in renewable energy companies in the IPP, Minigrid and Solar Home System sector.
Holding a PhD in Technology Policy Marcus collaborates in academia on sustainable energy policies with University of Madrid and University of Stellenbosch as a guest lecturer and sits on the advisory board of Edulink Participia, an EU programme for academic knowledge transfer.
Mark Crossley is Head of Commercial Finance at Solarcentury Africa. He is responsible for structuring the commercial arrangements with end users, arranging the funding and realising value for renewable power projects. Mark has a long history with Solarcentury having worked on some of its largest solar projects in Europe, securing funding at lowest cost and driving projects to financial close. He has been involved with the Solarcentury Africa team from the early days of ground-breaking C&I projects and through the transition into the large industrial user and utility scale sectors.
Mark has over 25 years of corporate finance experience. Prior to joining Solarcentury Africa he had a long and successful career as a global investment banker and independent consultant. During this time he advised on billions of dollars of transactions and led some of the highest profile and transformational transactions in their respective sectors. He worked with leading energy companies, utilities and infrastructure investors for many years, and experienced first hand the development of the renewables sector from being an early stage technology play to becoming the major infrastructure asset class that it represents today.
Mayra Pereira is the founder of Gaia Consulting. She has specialized over the years in renewable energy, environment and sustainability fields. Mayra is an integrated professional with an MSc in Environmental and Geographical Sciences and BSc (Hons) in Environmental Management from the University of Cape Town. She has over 14 years of work experience in the energy and environment sectors, particularly in the fields of research and design (policy, feasibility studies), management of large-scale projects and business development services.
Notable Projects in the energy sector:
- Project for Promotion of Auctions for Renewable Energies (PROLER);
- BRILHO – Energy Africa Mozambique;
- Mozambique Offgrid Market Assessment; and
- Global survey of scalable business models for alternative biomass cooking fuels and their potential in Sub-Saharan Africa (Rwanda, Kenya, Uganda and Madagascar)
Notable Projects in the environment sector:
- Environmental Impact Assessment for the reinforcement of the line between Metoro and Palma;
- General Management Plan for the Niassa National Reserve;
- Environmental Impact Assessment for the Floating Liquified Gas Plant in the Northern Cabo Delgado;
- Ecosystem Services Assessment of the Coastal Road between Muepane and Mocimboa da Praia; and
- Strategic Environmental Assessment of the Coast of Mozambique
Mayra has been involved in actively bringing together the research and the policy worlds together. At the same time, Mayra is also operating at the intersection of business and sustainability, through impact investment, private sector investment, venture philanthropy and other innovative models.
Olga Utchavo Madeira, obtained a degree in Electrical Engineering in 2010 from Instituto Superior José António Echevarria, Havana, Cuba and a postgraduate degree in Management in 2020 from the University of Liverpool, England. With 10 years of experience in the energy sector, specifically in the areas of planning of electrical systems and renewable energies, Olga has contributed to the preparation of strategic documents such as the Integrated Master Plan for Energy Infrastructure, EDM's 10-Year Strategy and the PROLER program (Renewable energy auction in Mozambique). Currently, Olga has been the Director of Renewable Energy at EDM since September 2017.
Pedro has over 10y experience in the African Renewable Energy space, led the feasibility of just over 2,500 MW of Renewable Energy in South Africa (REPP), Mozambique and Angola. In 2015 Pedro incorporated SOURCE CAPITAL, headquartered in Maputo, a focused private equity and investment advisory boutique sourcing and managing investable assets in Lusophone Africa. The Energy sector quickly become a major focus and lead to the creation of SOURCE ENERGIA, a subsidiary that is the diversified renewable energy platform focused on the development, management, operations and maintenance of large & small scale on- & off-grid projects in Lusophone Africa, now with offices in Maputo and Luanda. SOURCE ENERGIA current portfolio is made of 350+ MW of Renewable Energy Projects (both IPP and C&I) in different stages, and the investment in one of the leading Solar Home Systems Company in Mozambique.
Ricardo Costa Pereira is a founding member and current President of the Board of the Mozambican Renewable Energy Association (AMER).
Ricardo has been working for over a decade in the renewable energy sector in Southern Africa, specifically in Mozambique where he has worked for the public sector through the National Directorate of New and Renewable Energies (Ministry of Energy), contributing to a series of regulations and legislative documents on the development of renewable energy. For the private sector through a large multinational consultancy company where he led multidisciplinary projects and managed teams in a variety of different countries. For donor funded programs, he was part of the core technical assistance team appointed by the EU and AFD to structure the first competitive tender for large scale renewable energy projects (PROLER). Presently, Ricardo is the Portfolio Manager for AECF’s program REACT-SAA in Mozambique providing end-to-end support to companies that AECF has invested in.
Senior Economist
CEO of Leonardo Group
Chairman of CTA's Mining, Hydrocarbon and Energy Department
President of the Chamber of Commerce Mozambique Italy - CCMI
President of EUROCAM - Association of European Entrepreneurs in Mozambique
Thierry is now Head of cooperation at the German Embassy in Maputo, Mozambique. Thierry has worked as Senior policy officer at the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) in Germany, in charge for the cooperation with Indonesia as well as for the sector strategy development in the fields of reproductive health and population dynamics; desk officer at the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) in Germany; logistician with Doctor Without Borders (MSF) in the Democratic Republic of Congo; project assistant/intern with Deutsche Welthungerhilfe (German Agro Action) in Ethiopia.
Torben has worked as a management consultant and business developer in the energy sector for 14 years now, engaging to strengthen the international energy transition and finding efficient leverages to it. He has been responsible for sustainable energy projects in Germany and diverse African countries , developed new solar PV business models for self-supply (prosuming), and was formerly engaged as Senior Consultant for a German strategy consultancy focused on energy utilities.
Torben is currently engaged with solar leasing models, and the water-energy-food Nexus.
