Bhaskar Deol
ISEP Expert
“Addressing financing challenges for distributed clean energy assets can be the single greatest driver of solving the global energy access problem. Renewable energy and efficiency technologies are mature and affordable, but need business model and financial innovation to reach their full potential.”
Present Employment/Project: Mynergy Renewables
Expertise: Off grid energy access; solar rooftop; utility scale energy projects; mini grids; energy policy; finance & fundraising; energy efficiency
Background: Policy & advocacy; fundraising & finance
Bhaskar started Mynergy in 2016, with the aim of bringing affordable clean energy finance solutions to customers. Prior to founding Mynergy, he worked with leading international environmental organization Natural Resources Defense Council, to support development of clean energy policies in India. Bhaskar is an expert on national and state level solar policy, and has co-authored several clean energy reports, including the first independent assessment of India’s national solar mission and the first assessment of the job creation potential of India’s renewable energy sector. He has worked extensively with Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), Ministry of Power (MOP), as well as several state agencies. He holds Bachelor and Master of Technology degrees in Chemical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Madras and an MBA from INSEAD.
Fiza Farhan
ISEP Expert
“I personally feel that access to energy & energy policy efforts need to be expedited globally especially in the developing countries, within both realms of advocacy and action, to achieve progressive and sustainable economic growth for all.”
Present Employment/Project: Global development advisory member / member at UN High Level Panel on Women Economic Empowerment / Chairperson, Chief Minister Punjab Task Force on Women Economic Empowerment.
Expertise: Off grid energy access; solar rooftop; utility scale energy projects; mini grids; energy policy; finance & fundraising; energy efficiency
Background: Policy & advocacy; fundraising & finance; government/regulations/legal; project management
Fiza Farhan, is a Pakistan based women entrepreneur and development expert, featured in the US Magazine Forbes “Under 30 List of Social Entrepreneurs” for 2015 and again in Forbes Asia List of “30 Under 30 Social Entrepreneurs” in 2016. She represents Pakistan on the United Nation’s Secretary General’s first ever High Level Panel on Women Economic Empowerment along with global leadership in addition to being the Chairperson of Chief Minister Punjab’s Task Force on Women Empowerment and member of the National Steering Committee on Climate Change for Pakistan. Previously, Fiza co-founded and was the CEO of Buksh Foundation and Director of Buksh Energy Private Limited, both companies pioneering unique and demand based multi-stakeholder solutions in the domains of gender equality, inclusive growth, digital finance, renewable energy and impact investment. In July 2016, Fiza evolved her professional journey as an Independent Adviser / Consultant on a national and international scale in sectors that align with her interest and expertise, broadening her horizon of impact towards multiple sustainable development goals (SDGs) and creating value added partnerships between the public, private and development sectors. Apart from her important roles of advocacy, Fiza continues to wear multiple hats to instigate action through her diverse consultancy engagements with government bodies, private sector companies, the UN agencies and other development institutions in Pakistan and internationally. Fiza is a graduate of Lahore University of Management Sciences and has an MBA from Warwick Business School, UK.
Douglas Faulkner
ISEP Expert
“My goal is to help lay the foundation for the long-term, global growth of sustainable energy, water, food & feed production & use, ending the world’s ‘addiction’ to petroleum and creating new sources of wealth, especially in rural communities.”
Present Employment/Project: Clean Tech Consultant/Leatherstocking LLC
Expertise: Biomass & biofuels; energy policy; energy efficiency; bio-based products & bio-power; marine renewable energy; hydrogen fuel cells; nexus of agriculture, energy & water
Background: Policy & advocacy; government/regulations/legal
Douglas L. Faulkner brings over two decades of leadership in both the private and public sectors promoting sustainability technologies. He is the President of Leatherstocking LLC, a clean-tech consulting firm, and the co-founder of Jacob’s Ladder Energy Group, which helps houses of worship cut their utility bills. He served President George W. Bush as a senior political appointee leading multi-billion dollar agencies at both the Departments of Energy and Agriculture. SAIS awarded him a MA in 1979, after he studied at the University of Singapore as a Rotary International Scholar.
Vinay Jaju
ISEP Expert
“I am passionate about sustainability and equity, and devoted myself to find answers and solutions to the most pressing problems of today’s times.”
Present Employment/Project: Switch ON - ONergy Solar
Expertise: Off grid energy access; solar rooftop; mini grids; energy policy; finance & fundraising
Background: Project management
Vinay Jaju is Co-founder of ONergy Solar and Switch ON, where he has led renewable energy projects in partnership with agencies and organisations like MNRE, US Embassy, GIZ, UNDP, GE, WWF etc. Vinay is member of the Low Voltage DC Panel at Bureau of India Standards. Vinay is a Guest Faculty at leading institutes and judge and mentor to multiple B-Plan Contests. Vinay has been featured in Al Jazeera, NDTV, CNN-IBN , Outlook Business amongst others. Vinay has a management degree from SP Jain, Mumbai and has previously worked with GE Australia and Grameen Shakti Bangaldesh.
Manik Jolly
ISEP Expert
“I believe that the way forward is through community led more stable and bigger Micro grids for entire Africa, Latin America, South and SE Asia which can power houses, provide water and run commercial loads, thus replicating the national grid models at microscopic levels.”
Present Employment/Project: CEO, GRID Pvt Ltd
Expertise: Off grid energy access; mini grids; energy policy; business modeling for rural businesses running on solar micro grids
Background: Policy & advocacy; government/regulations/legal; project management
Manik is founder and CEO of G.R.I.D. Pvt Ltd, based in India. He has been working in various capacities with World Bank, SunEdison, Deloitte, UNDP, UNW, MoP, etc. A Micro / Mini grid specialist, he started the ‘Eradication of Darkness’ campaign with SunEdison, IFC and Ministry of Power in India. His focus remains on creating innovative energy solutions in villages to cater for domestic and commercial electricity. He has extensive work experience in India, Nepal and Cambodia. An Echoing Green Fellow for 2016, he was also regional co author for Global Status report by REN 21 in 2015. His current focus and projects work on creating Micro grids that provide electricity and clean drinking water to rural areas in India.
Lydia LaFerla
ISEP Expert
“I believe in fostering public-private partnerships in cross-cutting domains to integrate sustainability, resiliency, and diversity & inclusion in the work they do as well as within their own organizations to drive and accelerate innovations bringing water, energy, and food equally to all for future generations.”
Present Employment/Project: Principal, La Ferla Associates, LLC
Expertise: Off grid energy access; mini grids; energy policy; finance & fundraising; energy efficiency; renewables
Background: Policy & advocacy; fundraising & finance; project management; business advisory & strategic planning
Lydia La Ferla leads a consulting practice focused on mentoring renewable energy and energy efficiency start-ups on business, sustainability, and stakeholder engagement strategies; business and market expansion; access to funding; and project design, development and management. She has worked with ESCOs, energy efficiency/IoT platform companies, renewable energy trade association, environmental NGOs, UN, USAID, USDepartment of Energy, and its laboratories, and Nordic companies. She serves as Board Member of the Swedish-American Chambers of Commerce-USA, and as Director for Cleantech/Sustainability assisting its network of 19 chambers across the US. As a thought leader, she conceived, designed and organized a multi-stakeholder Executive Forum on the Water-Energy Nexus at the Embassy of Sweden and is looking to develop a water-energy platform (WE-Platform) to catalyze tech innovations, start-ups and public-private partnerships.
Ankit Malhotra
ISEP Expert
“I feel that implementing new technology and making it commercially viable will definitely help and interest end user which ultimately weigh on climate change.”
Present Employment/Project: Development of solar power plants
Expertise: Off grid energy access; solar rooftop; utility scale energy projects; biomass & biofuels; energy policy; finance & fundraising; energy storage; electric transportation
Background: Technology, engineering & design; fundraising & finance; government/regulations/legal; project management
Ankit Malhotra is a solar energy expert, working specifically in Solar industry from a decade. Having plush experience in Cell Manufacturing , Panel Manufacturing, Implementing Solar power plants from kW to MW level both ground mount and Rooftop. Understanding government policy and implementing is capex as well opex modeling.
Neil McCulloch
ISEP Expert
“Solving the world’s energy challenges is not just a technical problem - it is a political problem too. We need to find solutions that are both technically sound but also politically feasible.”
Present Employment/Project: Energy access and power subsidies
Expertise: Off grid energy access; energy policy; nuclear energy; political economy of power sector reform
Background: Policy & advocacy; government/regulations/legal
Dr. Neil McCulloch is a development economist with focus on the political economy of energy in developing countries. He has done work on the political economy of fuel subsidies, both in Indonesia and Nigeria, and the political economy of aid for power sector reform in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. Previously, Dr. McCulloch was the Director of the Economic Policy Program at Oxford Policy Management and, before that, the Lead Economist of the Australian Aid program in Indonesia. He also led the Globalisation Research Team in the Institute of Development Studies in the UK and was a Senior Economist for the World Bank in Indonesia.
Uma Rajarathnam
ISEP Expert
“The energy policy should promote sustainability, considering the social, environmental and economic benefits.”
Present Employment/Project: Head, Applied Research and Collaboration, Enzen Global Solution
Expertise: Off grid energy access; biomass & biofuels; cookstoves; energy policy; energy efficiency
Background: Policy & advocacy
Dr. Uma Rajarathnam heads the Applied Research and Collaboration center at Enzen. She has done her Masters in Environment Science and Doctorate from Center for Energy Studies, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi. She is alumni of Stanford Graduate Business, USA. She worked with Research Institute, Energy Think tank and Energy and Utility business. She has over 25 years of rich experience in research, providing expert solutions and advisory services in the areas of renewable energy, energy efficiency, climate change, Household energy and environmental health. She is responsible for the technical direction and delivery of complex multi-disciplinary projects.
She has been worked on various assignments with international bodies namely Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), United Nation Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), World Health Organization (WHO) The World Bank and United States Environmental Protection Agency (US-EPA). Her contribution for climate Change activity was recognized as a contributing activity towards the UN International Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) winning the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007. She has been awarded with Fulbright Indo American Environment leadership Program (Fulbright-IAELP) fellowship, British Commonwealth and Rolls-Royce funded Chevening Rolls-Royce Science and Innovation Leadership fellowship (CRISP). She has published more than 30 research papers in peer reviewed journals and books.
Tripta Singh
ISEP Expert
“I think it is important for energy policy to understand and evaluate the role that energy access plays in sectors such as health, education, gender and climate change and am really interested in finding ways to integrate it more fully into the development priorities for those areas.”
Present Employment/Project: Independent Consultant
Expertise: Off grid energy access; mini grids; energy policy; finance & fundraising
Background: Policy & advocacy; fundraising & finance; project management
Tripta Singh is a consultant working on renewables and energy access with experience authoring technical knowledge products for agencies such as the World Bank and advising start-up organizations on strategy. For the last several years, Tripta was Director, Energy Access at the United Nations Foundation (UNF). In that role, she helped build and develop the Energy Access Practitioner Network, managed its activities in Asia and led UNF’s engagement in the multi-stakeholder partnership to promote deployment of clean energy minigrids under Sustainable Energy for All. Tripta has an MPhil from the Delhi School of Economics and an MA from Ohio University.
Arianna Tozzi
ISEP Expert
“The rapid surge of Decentralized Renewable Energies systems offers opportunities to create positive social change globally. I want to understand if and how this phenomenon can create more inclusive and equal societies, driving communities around the world to more sustainable futures.”
Present Employment/Project: Independent Researcher and Consultant
Expertise: Off grid energy access; solar rooftop; mini grids; energy policy; energy efficiency; community energy models
Background: Technology, engineering & design
Arianna Tozzi (MSc. Sustainable Energy Technologies, Solar PV specialization from Delft University of Technology) is an independent Researcher and Consultant specializing in energy access for rural communities. Her research focuses on Decentralized Renewable Energy systems through Community models with a key focus on India and South Asia. She has experience in the NGO sector, having worked for international organizations driving programs to accelerate adoption of energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies globally.