The Management Team
Our Executive Management Team has a combined experience of over 50 years in Sub Saharan Africa, Europe and Asia.
Darren Stone
Co-Founder and Director
Darren was the first European to be trained by Goldman Sach's environmental risk management team based in Dallas.
He has worked in the ESG space across several continents in the world including but not limited to:
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India
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Japan
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Central Europe
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Saudi Arabia
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North America
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Central and West Africa
He is a global practice leader and professional in the ESG space with 28 years plus experience in both environmental risk and opportunity.
For the last 6 years, he led the Environmental and Social Risk Management Team for Access Bank Group where he achieved a lot of ground breaking innovations and accolades. Some of these include the issuance of the first climate certified corporate green bond in Africa, 3 time winner of the CBN's Sustainability Annual Award, 3 time winner of the Karlsruhe Sustainability Award, Core Member for TCFD Pilot project, Steering Group for PCAF, etc.
He was also a specialist advisor to Central Bank of Nigeria on ESG related matters.
Olumide Lala
Co-Founder and Director
Olumide has devoted his career to helping business leaders and governments find solutions to the global challenges of climate change, sustainable finance and capital markets infrastructure development gaps.
He has provided advisory services to a number of financial institutions, regulators, and governments in countries across Africa. His areas of focus include sustainable development in emerging economies, climate change mitigation/adaptation strategies and climate finance.
Olumide has over 20 years Capital Markets experience delivering technology-enabled strategic solutions and products that have created value and wealth to clients.
He holds an MBA from the Imperial College, London, UK, an MSc. in Business Systems Analysis & Design from London City University, London UK and a BSc in Accounting from the University of Hull, UK
Expertise:
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Climate Change / Blended Finance Tools
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Sustainable Development in Emerging Economies
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Capital Markets Development Strategies
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Portfolio Review and Green Tagging Solutions
Omawumi Kola-Lawal
Technical Director, Climate Transition Academy
Omawumi Kola-Lawal is a sustainability leader with over 23 years international experience. She has worked to improve environmental and social (E&S) risk management practices in over 200 companies across 30 countries in Africa, also providing strategic direction to company Boards and leading ESG roles in specialist consulting, international development finance and private equity. Omawumi consults with the International Finance Corporation (IFC) to implement its E&S policies with IFC clients in Africa.
She has a PhD. in Environmental Management from the University of Salford, Manchester and an MSc. in Environmental Technology from Imperial College London.
Damilola Oyelowo
Head of Programme
Damilola is an accomplished and highly motivated Programme Manager, Business Analyst & Implementation Consultant with over eleven (11) years hands-on industry experience in the Global Capital Markets, Financial Services, Climate Finance and Renewable Energy & Power industry.
An astute and realistic strategist with strong business acumen and commercial awareness. Damilola has helped to deliver innovative market solutions at some of the world’s leading Financial Institutions (Energy Trading and Derivatives Exchanges, Investment Banks and Asset Management Firms.) He has provided numerous project delivery services, across various programmes and rendered post-go-live implementation support across leading Commercial Banks in Africa. Client projects worked on in the past and present include Lead Capital; CSL Stockbrokers; Cordros Capital; Meristem Stockbrokers; Exotix Capital; SME Funds; Greenwich Capital; First Bank Capital; Asiko Energy; Verteville Energy; Daystar Power; and Climate Finance Advisory Limited.
Specialties: Programme and Project Management, Business Analysis, Implementation Consultancy, Financial Technology, Information Technology, Financial Information Exchange (FIX) Connectivity (Order Routing & Market Data Onboarding), Green Bonds, Climate Finance, Project Finance, Sustainable Energy Finance, Climate Change, Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s), Financial Analysis & Financial modelling, Agile & Waterfall Project Methods, SQL stored procedures, Blockchain Technology, Software Development Life Cycle, Software Testing, Business Process Improvement, IT Service Delivery Management, Pre-sales/Post sales, Sales Support, Continuous Development, Project Delivery Services, IT Consultancy, and IT Quality Assurance: DEV/SIT/UAT.
Edward Bouët
Climate Change / Flood Risk Consultant
Edward is an expert Flood Risk / Climate Change Consultant and has worked for in this area for over 12 years. Edward’s work focuses on comprehensive Flood Risk Assessments that incorporate the National Planning Policy Framework, to inform Business Continuity Management, for codes such as BREEAM assessments and for Insurance risk management purposes. This work involves multi-source flood risk assessment and flood modelling (fluvial, tidal, surface water and breach) over a variety of scales. Edward’s principal areas of technical expertise are Flood Risk Assessments and related legislation and standards.
TCFD aligned scenarios with a particular focus upon coastal and river flooding and the impact that has through the transition stage of portfolio risk appraisal. He has considerable project management experience; coordinating other consultants/analysts and external contractors; liaising with clients and regulatory bodies and completing reports on time and within budget. The development of climate risk scenarios around coastal erosion using GIS / satellite data sets are also part of his experience and expertise.
Funmi Adesanya
Legal Counsel
Funmi obtained her LLB from the University of Ibadan and was called to the Nigerian Bar in 2003. She subsequently obtained an LL.M in International Corporate Finance from the University of Reading.
Funmi began her legal career in one of the top law firms in Nigeria and has over the years gained considerable experience in Acquisitions, Infrastructure Finance, Banking and Finance, Project Finance, Corporate Finance and Energy law. Funmi has also shown a keen interest in International Loan Documentation and as a result attended and facilitated sessions on Loan Documentation, Syndications and Secondary Loan Markets.
Some of Funmi’s notable transactions include the: N2.457 Billion Acquisition of the issued shares of Oceanwinds Hospitality Limited (owners of Four Points by Sheraton) (“OHL”); N1.25 Billion Acquisition Equity Assurance Plc by Sunu Assurances Vie Cote D’Ivorie; and advising CBN on the sale process of the intervened banks; the establishment of the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (“AMCON”) and the Acquisition of the non‐performing margin loan portfolios from Nigerian Banks by AMCON
Dr. Mike Hunter
HSE Manager
Mike is an experienced Corporate Responsibility (CR)/Environmental and Social Governance (ESG) professional with 35 years of experience in industry, consulting and academic roles. He has a blend of expertise from managerial and technical perspectives. He is a qualified science and engineering graduate with a wide variety of experience in management including: team/personnel; corporate/ESG governance; operational; crisis/emergency; stakeholder engagement and social matters.
Mike has a BSc (Hons) in Applied Biology from Lanchester Polytechnic, Coventry, (now Coventry University) and a PhD in Public Health Engineering from Imperial College, University of London. Mike has experiences working in the Centre for Sustainable&Environmental Management (CSEM): formerly Chair of National Advisory Committee where he performed a variety of presentations, seminars and lectures on behalf various institutions.
Countries Worked in Europe: UK, Ireland, France, Germany, Italy, Russia,
Netherlands, Belgium, Greece, Spain,
Sweden, Denmark, Greenland, Austria, Norway. Americas: Cuba, Chile, Ecuador, Mexico, Venezuela, USA.
Middle East & Asia: Pakistan, Qatar,
Turkey, Indonesia, HongKong, Singapore, Japan, Australia. Africa: Libya, Nigeria, Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, Senegal, Egypt
