Jerome was a Member of the Africa Climate Summit (ACS) Secretariat and was responsible for originating private sector climate finance commitments and managing the deal rooms. He originated USD 23 billion in private sector commitments across multiple sectors, far exceeding expectations. He managed to attract some 50 companies to the deal rooms seeking USD billions in climate finance (debt, equity, and concessionary finance). Prior to that, I worked with Jerome at Serengeti (then called rAREH) for 5 years. Under his leadership, rAREH built a large renewable portfolio (solar, hydro and wind) across SSA. Jerome was an excellent and inspiring leader. He is very experienced, well connected, and we all learned a lot from him, whether related to project development, project finance or fund raising.
I have been working with Jerome since the 1990s, when renewable energy was still called “alternative energy”. First at the IFC and then much later when he was developing renewable projects in Africa. I have always known Jerome as a strategic thinker, thinking out of the box and tenacious; something sorely needed in Africa. He is very well connected and respected in the industry and financial community.
Jerome acts as Senior Adviser to the Global Wind Energy Council ("GWEC") on the establishment of its new initiative - Africa Wind Power (“AWP”). AWP was created to promote wind energy in Africa. Jerome has been invaluable, particularly in engaging with utilities, ministries of energy and regulators about the advantages of wind energy in the energy mix, with a keen sense of local sensitivities and politics involved. Besides being very well connected in Africa, having been a developer as well as a financier, Jerome knows what it takes to create a bankable project
