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Board Members

Chairman Of The Board

Phylip
Leferink

Phylip Leferink has over 25 years of international experience developing and executing large-scale infrastructure projects across five continents. He has held senior management positions in a wide functional range, gaining the capacity to develop a holistic view of complex issues and finding balanced solutions which serve any random group of stakeholders.

In 2008, Mr. Leferink moved to the renewable energy sector and became the Vice President of Sales for Vestas Wind Systems (Vestas) in Europe and Sub-Saharan Africa. He joined Lake Turkana Wind Power in 2015 to become the General Manager, tasked with overseeing the challenging construction phase of the project.

Before returning to Lake Turkana Wind Power, and assuming the Chief Executive Officer position, in September 2021, Mr. Leferink was the Country Director for JCM Power in Malawi between 2018 and 2021. He holds an MBA degree from the Erasmus University in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.

 

Executive Director

Anton-Louis
Olivier

Anton-Louis Olivier joined Serengeti Energy in 2023 as Chief Executive Officer.

Anton-Louis started working in the Sub Saharan Africa renewable energy sector in 1993 and has built up extensive experience in power project development, construction and operations. He founded and managed a number of businesses in the power sector with a focus on independent power producers (IPPs) and hydropower projects.

He serves as Chairman of Board of the International Hydropower Association (IHA) and holds a number of non-executive directorships of companies in the power sector.

Anton-Louis is based in Cape Town, South Africa.

Board Member

Tore
Horvei

Board Member since September 2017, including Executive Director from July 2020 to June 2022 with specific responsibility for strategic business development and Board Chairman during period July 2022 to June 2024. Chairperson of Investment Committee since July 2024. M.Sc. (Business Management) from the Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration.

Energy expert with more than 30 years’ experience from sub-saharan Africa. Seasoned transaction advisor with proven track-record from structuring, commercial negotiating, finance mobilisation and closing of both renewable and gas-fired IPP power projects in sub-saharan Africa, as well as major transmission project investments. Founder and managing director of Thunder Energy (Mauritius), a boutique transaction advisory business.

Board Member

Henrik
Dagel

Henrik Dagel is acting as senior advisor to Swedfund, including board assignments in portfolio companies and appointment as member of the Investment Committee. Henrik previously served as Director of Special Operations at Swedfund responsible for reconstructions and divestments of portfolio companies in Eastern Europe, Africa, Latin America and Asia.

Prior to joining Swedfund Henrik was working over 25 years in the investment banking industry, including the positions as senior vice president at Handelsbanken Markets and partner at D. Carnegie & Co.

External board assignments for the Government of Sweden includes Carnegie Investment Bank and the pension fund Sjätte AP-fonden.

Henrik has an MBA from Stockholm School of Economics.

Board Member

Poonam
Sultanti

Poonam is a Senior Manager, with over 18 years of experience in the Global business sector having assisted a large number of clients – global business companies, trusts, funds, partnerships, amongst others, to maintain sound accounting records, meet statutory tax and accounting deadlines and ensure business objectives are met.

Her vast exposure to various structures has helped her developed her technical acumen and understand key pain business areas. Furthermore, she has acted as alternate director/director on the board of several client companies.

She is a qualified and seasoned accountant with in depth knowledge of business operations.

Professional Memberships/ Qualifications

  • Fellow member of the Associate of Chartered Certified Accountant
  • Member of Mauritius Institute of Directors

Areas of expertise

  • Financial analysis
  • Company secretarial and governance
  • Mauritian company laws/rules & regulations

Board Member

Jyrki
Koskelo

Since leaving IFC in late 2011, Jyrki Koskelo has served as a professional Senior Advisor and a member of several Supervisory Boards and Investment Committees in Africa, Middle East and Central Europe. He focuses on situations which include financial inclusion, challenges in agri value chains and renewable energy; promoting scalable models and high impact situations. In addition to Serengeti Energy he is currently acting as a Board member in Gulf Marine Services, a London listed off shore service company supporting renewable energy in the North Sea and off shore gas in the Gulf and in FIBank, the largest Bulgarian owned universal bank with focus on digital platforms. He is also acting as senior advisor for Sofala Partners, a risk advisory firm enabling investments to Africa, in KDBank, a digital consolidator in micro finance industry in Africa and supporting several agri/digital/renewable start-ups in East Africa.

Jyrki Koskelo had a long career at IFC, starting as investment officer, managing IFC’s work out unit during Asia crisis and IFC Financial markets. Jyrki was part of IFC’s top management for close to a decade serving among others as IFC Vice President (VP) for Africa and IFC VP for Global industries. His main achievements at IFC include decentralization of IFC operations from Washington DC to regions, initialization of short-term finance / large trade initiatives and the crisis initiative to support Central European banking after the Lehman collapse. Prior to joining IFC, Jyrki worked in private sector in the Middle East and participated in the early development of GPS positioning systems. He holds a Master’s Degree in Civil Engineering from University of Helsinki and a Master of Science in International Management from MIT – Sloan School / Boston.

Board Member

André
Mounif

André Mounif serves as Africa Regional Director, where he leads the origination and structuring of investment opportunities in energy and infrastructure across Africa.

In this role, he manages regional investment teams and collaborates with local stakeholders to advance bankable projects. André also has held board positions as a Non-Executive Director at different STOA investee companies . Before joining STOA, André worked as a Senior Investment Officer at PROPARCO (AFD Group), where he managed syndicated loan groups and structured transactions in the energy and infrastructure sectors. Earlier in his career, he was with the French Ministry of Transport, overseeing financial matters for public-private partnership (PPP) projects and playing a key role in tendering and concession negotiations.

André is a Civil Works Engineer, having graduated from the École Nationale des Travaux Publics de l’État, and he is fluent in both French and English.

Board Member

Peter Van
den Dool

Peter Van den Dool has over 22 years of experience in project finance, private equity and corporate law. He has served in various roles in the U.S. government, including with DFC/OPIC and with USAID/Power Africa.

Peter earned an MBA and a JD degree from Northwestern University.

Board Member

Tibor
Asboth

Tibor Asboth heads PROPARCO’s private equity division covering Africa and the Middle East. He oversees the fund and direct growth equity activity in Infrastructure & Energy, Manufacturing, Agribusiness and Services for the region. Since joining PROPARCO in 2012, Tibor was first active in business development based out of the regional West African hub in Abidjan before joining the private equity department based out of Paris.

Prior to joining PROPARCO, Tibor was active in impact investment in France.

Senior Leadership

Chief Executive Officer

Anton-Louis
Olivier

Anton-Louis Olivier joined Serengeti Energy in 2023 as Chief Executive Officer.

Anton-Louis started working in the Sub Saharan Africa renewable energy sector in 1993 and has built up extensive experience in power project development, construction and operations. He founded and managed a number of businesses in the power sector with a focus on independent power producers (IPPs) and hydropower projects.

He serves as Chairman of Board of the International Hydropower Association (IHA) and holds a number of non-executive directorships of companies in the power sector.

Anton-Louis is based in Cape Town, South Africa.

Chief Investment Officer

Wilfred van
den Bos

Mr. Van den Bos is the Chief Investment Officer at Serengeti Energy. He and his team are responsible for investment structuring and all other aspects required to bring the renewable energy projects to the stage of start construction.

Mr. Van den Bos has 18yrs of investment, development and structured finance experience in Africa, Asia and the Middle-East. Before joining Serengeti Energy in 2017 he has been working for 10yrs at the Dutch Development Bank FMO where he has been responsible for mobilizing over USD 1 billion of structured finance funding for over more than 32 (renewable) energy projects in Africa, Asia and the Middle East.

He is driven by a passion for sustainable energy development. He is recognized for his professional and pragmatic ‘can do’ mentality. He has a strong track record in managing teams, improving business performance and closing transactions.

Chief Technical Officer

Brian
Brooks

A distinguished career based on a Bachelors degree in Physics and Mathematics complemented by a Masters in Business Leadership spanning more than 30 years started in the multi national manufacturing industry before joining the renewables industry family in 2012.

Having made an indelible contribution towards operational excellence in the manufacturing industry, an opportunity to construct large scale solar projects across the length and breadth of Africa was too exciting to turn down.

Having spent the last ten years in Africa, joining the Serengeti Energy team as the Director Construction and Engineering is an opportunity to continue making a significant contribution to the decarbonization narrative whilst playing my part in growing our team and the business.

Self mastery is the central tenant of my life’s journey based on a principle centered outlook that derives satisfaction from achievement and growing other people.

Chief ESG Officer

Karen
Low

Karen Low is the Chief ESG Officer at Serengeti Energy. Karen leads the Serengeti Energy’s commitment to IFC compliance, minimising environmental impact, and social responsibility. With over 20 years’ experience in environmental and social management, Karen is passionate about renewable energy project development that balances economic success with social and environmental stewardship.

Karen holds a Master of Laws (LLM) in Environmental Law from the University of Cape Town and a Master’s degree in Water Resource Management from the University of Pretoria. Karen lives in Cape Town and is an avid endurance road and trail runner.

General Counsel

Belinda
Odera

Belinda is the General Counsel at Serengeti Energy. She has over 10 years of legal and business leadership, and experience in providing legal and strategic advice to senior management, boards and regulators in heavily regulated sectors including financial services, telecommunications, and power sectors across Africa.

Belinda previously served as a Senior Legal Counsel at Industrial Promotion Services (Kenya) Limited (IPS), where she spent four years providing legal and business advice to companies in the infrastructure and manufacturing sectors in the region.

Immediately prior to IPS, Belinda was the Head of Legal and Compliance at the Nairobi Securities Exchange where she was responsible for legal and strategic advice to the Board, Senior Management and industry stakeholders particularly in respect of commercial, regulatory and policy initiatives.

Belinda is a graduate of the University of Sheffield. She is admitted to the Kenyan bar and is a Member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators.

Chief Finance Officer

Solomon
Njonjo

Solomon is a Certified Public Accountant of Kenya (CPA-K) with over 18 years’ experience in the energy sector working on utility scale infrastructure projects. Solomon has working experience in different countries in sub-Sahara Africa having worked on projects in Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania, Sierra Leone, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Guinea Conakry, Senegal, Mozambique, Malawi, Zambia and South Africa.

Before joining Serengeti Energy, acting as Chief Financial Officer, he was a core member of the team tasked with construction & operation of the 61MW wind project in Kenya, Kinangop Windpark. He later joined Serengeti Energy in 2015 as Head of Finance, East Africa. Solomon is currently the Chief Finance Officer in charge of Finance function across the group and a member of the Executive Management Team.

Chief Operating Officer

Strafford
Harris

Strafford Harris is the Chief Operating Officer and lead for the South African investments. He is an experienced finance professional who before his appointment as COO, he held the position of Serengeti Energy South Africa’s Country Director and prior to that, he served as the Head of Finance for Renewable Energy Holdings and its related subsidiaries. Strafford has over 15 years of professional experience, of which the last 9 years have been spent in the Southern African renewables’ environment with exposure to development, operational and financial close processes. Strafford holds board positions in the capacity as managing director on all South African operating assets and is the commercial lead on new in-country business.

After completing his articles at a medium sized firm of Chartered Accountants he held the positions of Audit Manager and Financial Accountant working with a wide range of clients varying from renewable energy developers to the commercial property sector where he gained valuable experience in restructuring, consolidations, and corporate finance.

He enjoys leading multidisciplinary teams of professionals in new and operational business initiatives. Strafford is a keen trail runner and golfer who spends most of his free time outdoors with his family.

Development Manager (West Africa)

Lamine
Ndour

Lamine NDOUR is the Senior Business Development Manager for West and Francophone Africa, based in Dakar, Senegal. In addition to planning and managing the business development function to generate projects to establish the firm footprint in the region, he is also responsible managing the structuring and execution of equity investments and (project) financings required for bringing the projects to financial close along.

Lamine has over 20 year’s practical experience in investment management, technology development, project design, implementation and management across numerous sectors.

Lamine has worked for 8 years for a USDFI where he participated in the development and implementation of large infrastructure projects worth more than US 2 billion, in energy, roads and agriculture. He has held numerous roles in the private sector across numerous sectors. Lamine has worked in the US, Africa and Europe in banking, renewable energy and infrastructure investments. He started his career as an assistant portfolio manager and venture partner at Unus Capital in Birmigham, a venture capital investment boutique where he helped structure the company $400,000 angel investment into Bio-Nanomatrix, a DARPA funded and Princeton, which had developed a rapid nanotechnology genetic analysis. After numerous series financing and partnership, the company is now called BionanoGenomics Inc and listed in the NASDAQ(BNGO).

Lamine holds a Master in Energy Management with a concentration in regional electricity trading and renewable energy investment, in Europe along with a BS. with Honors in Economics and an MBA from the US.

Originally from Senegal, Lamine has studied, lived and worked in the US, Europe and Africa. He currently lives in Dakar with his family and enjoy playing basketball with his daughters.

Head of strategic projects

Marian
Grabowski

Marian Grabowski is Head of Strategic Projects at Serengeti Energy, funding and overseeing early-stage project development, managing the Technical Assistance Trust, carbon and environmental attributes portfolios, and leading strategic initiatives and communications.

With over 10 years in impact investing and renewable energy, Marian joined Serengeti in 2022 from responsAbility Investments AG, where he advanced off-grid and commercial and industrial energy companies and financial institutions toward bankability. His passion is driving economic growth through reliable clean energy in Africa.

He holds a Master’s in Finance and International Affairs from HSG, Switzerland and Sciences Po Paris and a BA in Business Economics from Witten/Herdecke University.

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