Markus Bohni joined GCPF’s Investment Committee in June 2020. He is a private equity investment advisor with change- and transformation management experience with 20 years in the financial sector. He provides strategic and financial advisory to family office owned or private equity financed companies. He has broad industry expertise through numerous buyouts and due diligence / advisory projects in various industries. Markus holds a degree in Economics from University of St. Gallen and an MBA from University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

Paula Alayo is an experienced investment professional with over 20 years of buy-side experience in emerging markets with a focus on financial institutions and impact investing. Paula has been with the IFC for more than 18 years as a Principal Investment Officer and country manager, and has effectively managed senior level relationships with clients, investors and government officials in Europe throughout the course of her career. Paula holds a BS in Finance and International Business from Georgetown University and an MBA from Columbia Business School.

Ritva Laukkanen joined GCPF’s Investment Committee in April 2020. She has over 30 years of experience in development finance and international financial markets. She held various technical and executive positions at the IFC, overseeing origination and portfolio management in the Eastern/Southern Europe and Central Asia financial sector, with focus on Micro/SME finance, as well as in other sectors globally including sustainable forestry. Before moving to the investment side, Ritva spent nearly 10 years at the IFC Treasury developing new emerging capital markets. Prior to IFC, Ritva worked 8 years in New York at a Scandinavian consortium bank, American Scandinavian Banking Corporation. Since 2012 she has been acting as a non-executive director in various development finance institutions including Magma Fincorp. Ltd. (an Indian SME lender), Acleda Bank PLC in Cambodia and AccessHolding Microfinance AG, as well as chairing the Board of the Finnish development finance institution – Finnfund.

Carolin Gassner is First Vice President and Head of Department South Asia within KfW,  where she has worked over 24 years. Within KfW, she has held different senior and management positions in the areas of development finance, asset securitization, and credit risk. Before taking over the current position, Carolin headed the Department Credit Risk Management, Financial Institutions and Country Risk. Ms. Gassner holds a Master Degree in Economics from the Eberhard Karls University in Tübingen, Germany, a Postgraduate Certificate of the German Development Institute, Bonn,  and a Senior Executive Programme Certificate from the London Business School.

Claudia Arce has chaired GCPF’s Board of Directors since May 2015. She is Director for South Asia at KfW Group, which she joined in 1993. She has held various positions at KfW with a focus on direct investments in water and waste water management, renewable energy and financial sector development in the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia.

In 2011, Claudia was seconded to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change to help design the Green Climate Fund. Prior to that, she headed the international business of the Berlin Energy Agency and developed energy efficiency models financed via public-private partnerships. Claudia studied Political Science at the University of St.Gallen.

Constanze Kreiss has been a member of GCPF’s Board since 2015. She is a qualified banker with over 11 years of experience in development finance. Constanze joined KfW in 2008 and specializes in financial sector development. As part of her role, she implemented several micro, SME and energy efficiency/renewable energy credit lines in banks worldwide.

Constanze has broad experience in managing structured funds and holds Board and IC seats on several funds initiated by KfW. She is currently a Director of the Regional Education Finance Fund for Africa and the Fairtrade Access Fund. She studied Economics at the University of Cologne and holds a Masters in International Management.

Cornelis van Aerssen has been a member of GCPF’s Board since 2016. In his role as Senior Investment Officer at FMO, he arranges syndicated loans for financial institutions in Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin America and manages FMO’s relations with private and public investment partners. He spent five years funding financial institutions in Eastern Europe and Central Asia and originating and executing FMO’s debt, equity and fund investments with a focus on energy efficiency and renewables.

Before joining FMO, Cornelis spent several years as a strategic advisor to the Board of the EBRD in London. He holds a degree in Economics from the University of Groningen.

James McEwen has been a member of GCPF’s Board since 2016. James is currently Finance Director of the Legal Aid Agency, which is part of the UK’s Justice Department. He has worked for the UK Civil Service for 13 years.

During that time, he has held posts in a number of departments, including those responsible for energy and climate change, justice, and work and pensions. While at the Department of Energy & Climate Change, James served as Head of Financial Strategy and as a Director for Energy Efficiency and Fuel Poverty.

Ritu Kumar has been a member of the Technical Assistance Committee since 2015. She is Director of Environmental and Social Responsibility at the UK development finance institution CDC Group. Ritu has over 25 years of experience in managing environment and social issues – including energy efficiency and climate change – in emerging markets. She previously served as Director and Senior Advisor on ESG issues at Actis and advised on environmental and social policy at UNIDO in Vienna.

Ritu is founder and trustee of the non-profit organisation TERI-Europe. She holds a BA and MA in Economics from Delhi School of Economics, an MSC in Economics from LSE, and a Diploma in Environmental Economics from Harvard.

Claudia Loy has been a member of the GCPF Investment Committee since 28 April 2010. She started to work at KfW Development Bank as project manager and later as principal economist for Africa and gained experience in commercial project and export financing with the predecessor of KfW IPEX-Bank. Since 1990 she has been heading various divisions in Eastern Europe, the Caucasus region and Asia with sectoral focus on infrastructure, in particular energy, and financial sector development.

She now heads the centre of competence for environmental and social sustainability as the sustainability officer of KfW Development Bank.

Judith Brandsma has been a member of GCPF’s Investment Committee since 2015. She has over 20 years of experience in financial sector development around the globe, including at the World Bank and as an independent advisor to international development finance institutions. Judith has served on the Board of Directors of several MSME banks.

In the area of impact investing, Judith serves as a Board member at two independent media development funds and one microfinance fund. She holds a degree in Economics from Erasmus University Rotterdam and an MBA from INSEAD.

Sharmila Hardi is a member of GCPFs Board since 2017. She is the Global Head of IFC’s Banking, Small and Medium Enterprise Business line, SME Finance Forum and Banking on Women. She leads a team of over 50 professionals in an area that is business critical to the corporation and delivering impact by providing access to finance for SMEs in emerging markets. Ms. Hardi has been with the IFC since 1992 and was most recently the Global Head of Syndications where she was responsible for raising $3-$4 billion annually in additional senior long term debt from commercial banks and development finance institutions to complement IFC’s own financing. She has also advised and represented the Vice-President on all IFC’s business and stakeholder relationship issues related to Western Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean and Africa. Prior to her appointment as a special advisor, Ms. Hardi was the Principal Investment Officer and sector head of Sustainable Forestry (including pulp and paper). Ms. Hardi has structured IFC’s investments in several complex projects in manufacturing including pre-IPO equities. Ms. Hardi has led teams in developing business and investing in firms in varied sectors including but not limited to agribusiness, retail, tourism, health, manufacturing and banks globally, but with a specific focus on Latin America.

Juan Alario has been a member of GCPF’s Investment Committee since April 2017. He is an independent Project Advisor in energy matters. He advises several international and national entities. Juan has close to 30 years experience in the evaluation and finance of projects. This experience has been gained especially through his long term employment with the EIB (from 1987 to 2015), where he rose to a Director-grade position, as one of its most senior and experienced energy advisors.

Juan holds a MA in Industrial Engineering from the Polytechnic University of Barcelona, a Doctorate in Economic Sciences, option Energy Economics from Grenoble University and a post-graduate in Business Management & Planning from the Polytechnic University of Madrid.

Lydia Schot has over 20 years of experience in a project-development & financing environment, mainly in the energy sector in the emerging markets of Africa, Eastern Europe and Asia where she has both lived and worked. She has led the development of large scale energy projects in the range of US$ 100 million to US$ 800 million from initiation up to financial closing. In the earlier of her career, the projects ranged from district-heating facilities to gas-fuelled power stations. During the past 10 years, however, she has specialized in renewable energy projects, mainly wind power.

At present Lydia is a commercial manager at Eneco and is involved in the development of offshore wind projects in Western Europe. Prior to that, she was a senior project development manager at IFC InfraVentures, an Infrastructure fund under IFC which provides capital and expertise to projects in their early stages of development. During her tenure at IFC InfraVentures, Lydia was based in Nairobi Kenya and co-developed a number of infrastructure projects in Eastern Africa, amongst which were two large-scale wind power projects.

Prior to joining IFC InfraVentures, Lydia worked as a Director of Business Development for Globeleq, a London-based operating power company, actively developing and operating energy projects in Africa. In addition, she has held various financially driven positions with Fieldstone in Johannesburg, the African Merchant Bank in Paris, and FMO, the Dutch development bank.

Lydia holds a Masters Degree in Business Administration & Law. She speaks Dutch, English and French fluently and has a working knowledge of German.

Jürgen Welschof joined GCPF’s Investment Committee in April 2018. Jürgen has over 22 years of experience in development finance. He started to work at KfW Group in 1995. He has held various positions at KfW with a focus on direct investments in water and waste water management in the Middle East & North Africa region and has been heading KfW’s sector policy division for 6 years. In 2010, Jürgen became KfW’s country director in Serbia and Macedonia, where more than half of KfW’s portfolio consists of energy projects, including direct investments in thermal, hydro, wind and biomass power plants, as well as a large number of credit lines for energy efficiency and renewable energy. He currently heads the Energy South Asia Division of KfW Development Bank, a post he has held since early 2015.

Ulrike Lassmann chairs GCPF's Board of Director since May 2020. She is the Regional Manager of East and South East Asia of KfW Development Bank. Since 2002, she has held various positions at KfW as senior expert in financial sector in the departments East Asia, Middle East/North Africa. She has extensive experience across geographies, specializing in structured microfinance funds, guarantee funds as well as green financing via the banking sector. Ulrike worked at the central institute for cooperative banks in Germany, DZ Bank AG, where she gained extensive knowledge in commercial financing mechanism for small and medium enterprises (SME) in Germany.

Adalisa Vladacenco is a senior investment professional based in the Luxembourg  office of the European Investment Bank (EIB). She has a long-standing track record in infrastructure fund investments across multiple geographies and sectors. Since she joined the EIB Infrastructure Funds and Climate Action team in 2011, Adalisa has designed, structured and implemented a number of innovative financial products aiming at mobilising capital to invest in EU policy objectives related to infrastructure and climate action. She has significantly contributed to the roll out of EIB’s infrastructure equity investments under the European Fund for Strategic Investments (or Juncker Plan), an infrastructure investment programme launched by the European Commission aimed at unlocking public and private sector investments in Europe. Adalisa currently sits on the advisory board and investor committees of a number of regional infrastructure funds.

Andreas Arvanitakis joined the Technical Assistance Committee in 2019. He is a Climate Finance Investment Manager at the UK department for business, energy and industrial strategy. Andreas has 20 years of experience working at the interaction of climate change policy, climate finance investments and strategy, and carbon markets. He has a Masters in International Politics and is a member of the UK Charter of Financial Analysts.