Off-Grid Energy Access Forum 2019

Head of the Emerging Markets Platform at Total Ventures, Ademidun focuses on investments in energy access, enabling technology and sustainable mobility in emerging markets.

With a 19 year track record, African Infrastructure Investment Managers (AIIM) is the most experienced private equity investment manager focused exclusively on African infrastructure on the continent. AIIM is committed to Africa’s long term development through its infrastructure focus and currently manages USD2.1 billion across 7 funds having concluded investments into more than 55 assets across the power, telecommunications and transport sectors in East, West and Southern Africa.
Ashwin is responsible for originating potential deals, analysing, assessing, structuring and negotiating investment opportunities, as well as the execution, performance monitoring and realisation of investments at AIIM. He has most recently led the successful execution of an in investment into BBOXX Next Generation Utility companies in Kenya, Rwanda and the DRC.  He has also been involved in power projects in Mali, Benin, Ghana, South Africa and Namibia. Ashwin is a non-executive director on the boards of BBOXX Rwanda, BBOXX DRC, Beyond Energy Investments, Mercury Power, AIIF3 Clean Energy and Albatros Energy Mali.

Kevin currently serves as Director of Airband International within Microsoft’s Airband Initiative – an organization that partners with start-ups and commercial organizations to help make Internet connectivity and off-grid energy access more accessible. Areas of technology collaboration typically include cloud, Internet of Things, data reporting and analytics, machine learning, and artificial intelligence.
Prior to joining the Airband team, Kevin was accountable for the Windows commercial and public sector businesses across worldwide emerging markets; managed the Windows and Devices businesses across Sub-Saharan Africa while based in Nairobi, Kenya; led business development initiatives focused on education and public health scenarios across Middle East & Africa region while based in Johannesburg, South Africa; and spent two years in Paris, France in Microsoft’s Europe, Middle East, & Africa Headquarters. Before his overseas roles, Kevin served as a Group Product Manager in Redmond, Washington at Microsoft's corporate headquarters in the USA. He completed his Masters degree and PhD coursework in Political Science at the University of Wisconsin.
Kevin currently lives in Seattle, WA with his wife and children.

Avi is a Senior Investment Officer at SunFunder. He is responsible for managing relationships with SunFunder's clients and optimizing their debt structure so that they can grow together. Prior to joining SunFunder, Avi was the Director of Market Analysis at Lumos Global, a solar home system provider that launched initially in Nigeria. He began his career as a Special Operations Weather Team Leader in the US Air Force. Avi is a graduate of the Case Western Reserve University School of Law and, as a graduate of the University of Michigan, a proud Wolverine.

Emily is CEO and co-founder of Odyssey Energy Solutions, a software platform that is facilitating half a billion dollars of funding into rural electrification projects around the world. In her current role, Emily works closely with key financiers, project developers, and other industry leaders to simplify, streamline, and reduce the costs of developing and financing mini-grids and other distributed energy resources. With more than a decade of experience in the rural electrification sector, Emily is an expert in off-grid renewable energy business models and financing.
Prior to Odyssey, Emily was Chief Revenue Officer of Frontier Power, a subsidiary of SunEdison, launched to rapidly scale the deployment of mini-grids in India and East Africa. Emily was also a Fulbright Scholar focused on off-grid solar systems in India and worked in advanced energy management at EnerNOC and Yahoo. Emily holds a BA from Brown University, an MPA from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Peter is an expert in power, renewables and energy access, with 20 years of experience as an investor, lender and strategic advisor. He has executed and advised on $9 billion of energy investments in 24 countries, covering Europe, Africa, South Asia, Middle East and Latin America.

Peter is a Director of Energy 4 Impact (formerly GVEP International), an organisation which supports entrepreneurs developing distributed off-grid energy solutions in Sub-Saharan Africa. He is a Board Member of Thrive Renewables (formerly Triodos Renewables), a community-based renewables investor, and Renewable World, a global renewables charity. He is also a visiting lecturer at ESCP, a European business school.

Peter has previously held management roles with GE Energy Financial Services, Siemens Wind Power, MAN Diesel & Turbo, Westdeutsche Landesbank, Aquila Energy and Osaka Gas.

Alakesh Chetia has 25 years of experience in solar energy, semiconductor, software and computer systems. Immediately prior to co-founding Yoma Micro Power he was President of Social Innovations and Managing Director of Rural Electrification at
SunEdison Inc. Prior to SunEdison, Alakesh held positions of Vice President and General Manager at Cypress Semiconductor, Chief Operating Officer at TransEDA and Chief Executive Officer at iMODL, while based in Silicon Valley, California. Alakesh holds a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering degree from Michigan Technological University, and a Bachelor of Engineering degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from National Institute of Technology, Karnataka.