New Year Brings Transitions in Alliance Enterprise Development Team
Over the last few years, the Alliance has developed and implemented a suite of funds and capacity-building programs designed to help partners get investment ready. Dozens of enterprises have now benefited from programs such as the Pilot Innovation Fund, the Catalytic Small Grants program, and Spark, the Alliance’s largest enterprise support fund. The Alliance has also worked with many partners to mobilize capital for enterprises moving beyond grant funding, which has included putting in place a working capital fund, and designing a growth fund.
This was all supported in a large part with the strategic thinking and effective management of Jen Twedell, who completed her three-year secondment from Shell at the end of November. Jen went far beyond her original brief to support the growth of all of the Alliance’s enterprise development and investment efforts during her secondment. She has been a creative problem solver and a tireless advocate for a market-based approach to sustainably meeting the needs of the hundreds of millions of households still cooking on open fires and traditional stoves. The Alliance will miss her. We wish her all the best in her next endeavors (and hope to see her back soon in the clean cooking sector).
The Alliance is pleased to announce that Peter George will replace Jen. Peter joins the Alliance team from GVEP, where he is the Director of Advisory Services supporting African off-grid energy enterprises. Peter is experienced on the investment side as well having developed an impact investment fund for energy access in East Africa. Peter has also worked for a private equity firm investing in the energy sector. Peter knows the challenges and opportunities in our sector very well, and will hit the ground running when he joins the team in mid-January.