Catherine Diam-Valla

Dominique has over forty years of experience in international development, mostly with the World Bank, where she worked in a number of project and program staff and in managerial and advisory positions, spanning agriculture, urban, transport, telecommunications, water and sanitation and energy operations, and gender. Trained as an economist at the Woodrow Wilson School, Princeton University, she is now engaged as an international development consultant, focusing on gender equality in energy and infrastructure investments and services, trade and labor market. Her experience spans from policy design and strategy, to project design and management, international finance, financing mobilization, and portfolio management. She  has worked extensively in mostly Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America, and countries in the Middle East and North Africa, and in South and East Asia.  She is fluent in English, French, Spanish and Portuguese.  Dominique is a keen observer and consensus-builder with the ability to solve complex problems with creativity and empathy.

Dominique Lallement

We are an experienced team with a solid track record working in more than 30 countries in sub-Saharan Africa,  Asia , and Latin America  on challenging and complex projects on a range of topics including energy enterprise development; gender and energy; microfinance; clean energy policy analysis and advocacy; financial modelling; carbon finance; and project evaluation and impact monitoring.  Our team works with multilateral development agencies, governments, private sector, universities, and NGOs around the world.  

Cathy is an expert on energy access with a particular focus on enterprise development, GHG emissions reduction from household appliances, monitoring and evaluation. She has worked in the environmental and renewable energy sector for more than 12 years. Until October 2014, she was the Carbon Finance Director at E+Carbon, a US-based company that develops carbon finance projects.  There she designed, implemented and managed a portfolio of GHG emission reduction projects for improved cook stoves in Ghana, Mali and Togo. Prior to that position, she was a Monitoring and Evaluation Officer at E+CO where she was responsible for assessing the financial, environmental and social performance of  clean energy enterprises throughout West Africa. Catherine holds a Master of Sciences degree from Johns Hopkins University in Washington, DC and a Bachelor degree in Applied Foreign Languages from the Gaston Berger University in Saint-Louis, Senegal.  Catherine is a native Senegalese and is fluent in French, English and Wolof.  Cathy excels at working with local business owners to improve their distribution system and guide their expansion while maintaining a close link with the communities they serve. 

Gail is an environmental lawyer specializing in issues relating to international environmental law, energy policy, and sustainable development. Since 1997 she has worked on a number of projects for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and other organizations on topics relating to energy, sustainable development and the global environment. Her work for UNDP has included design and teaching of an online course on Environment and Sustainable Development for UNDP’s Virtual Development Academy, and production of books and materials on incorporating women’s perspectives into sustainable energy strategies. She is also a representative of the U.S. Citizens Network for Sustainable Development and has been involved with promotion of green buildings and sustainable energy in New York and the Virgin Islands. Gail began her legal career in 1980 with the United States Environmental Protection Agency in the area of hazardous waste enforcement. She later practiced environmental and corporate law with the New York firm of Lord Day Lord, Barrett Smith.  Gail is a gifted writer with a talent for research and digging into the details to capture and present information in an accessible and engaging style.

Gail Karlsson

Jennye is an expert on energy enterprise development, with a particular focus on enabling policies, business models, gender equity and training.  Jennye is a Founding Partner of Embark Energy, where she spearheaded the launch of a unique energy business development tool and service model for local entrepreneurs in Africa. Previously, Jennye was an Innovations Specialist at E+Co, a pioneering company in energy enterprise investing, where she worked on an array of projects involving knowledge management, service delivery, cross sectoral collaboration, gender, and payment innovations.  She has been engaged in numerous consulting assignments with UNDP, U.S. Agency for International Development and the World Bank in projects touching on different aspects of energy access, each including a serious treatment of pertinent gender issues, and has highly relevant field experience in 10 countries.  Jennye has a Master of Arts degree in Climate and Society from Columbia University and a Bachelor of Arts from Brown University and is fluent in French. Jennye brings exceptional creativity, intellectual rigor, and a strong work ethic to every assignment.

Ellen Morris, Ph.D.

Ellen is a world-recognized expert on energy and international development with over 20 years of experience working with international public and private organizations throughout Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Ellen has been teaching graduate level courses at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs since 2007, and continues to provide hands-on learning opportunities and mentoring for her students in energy and development. She has led applied research and analysis of energy issues as they relate to economic and social development and has solid expertise in the area of energy and microfinance, which led to her founding of Arc Finance in 2007. She was also a  Founding Partner of Embark Energy, a social enterprise that trains and mentors energy entrepreneurs.  Ellen serves as an advisor and Board Member for social enterprises around the world focused on clean energy.  She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in geophysical engineering from the Colorado School of Mines and a doctoral degree in marine geophysics from the University of Rhode Island.  Ellen is known for her leadership in working across cultures as a listener and consensus builder to come up with locally-driven solutions that have high potential for success.

Jennye Greene