Fund setup

Carolin Gassner is First Vice President and Head of Department South Asia within KfW,  where she has worked over 24 years. Within KfW, she has held different senior and management positions in the areas of development finance, asset securitization, and credit risk. Before taking over the current position, Carolin headed the Department Credit Risk Management, Financial Institutions and Country Risk. Ms. Gassner holds a Master Degree in Economics from the Eberhard Karls University in Tübingen, Germany, a Postgraduate Certificate of the German Development Institute, Bonn,  and a Senior Executive Programme Certificate from the London Business School.

Paula Alayo is an experienced investment professional with over 20 years of buy-side experience in emerging markets with a focus on financial institutions and impact investing. Paula has been with the IFC for more than 18 years as a Principal Investment Officer and country manager, and has effectively managed senior level relationships with clients, investors and government officials in Europe throughout the course of her career. Paula holds a BS in Finance and International Business from Georgetown University and an MBA from Columbia Business School.

James McEwen has been a member of GCPF’s Board since 2016. James is currently Finance Director of the Legal Aid Agency, which is part of the UK’s Justice Department. He has worked for the UK Civil Service for 13 years.

During that time, he has held posts in a number of departments, including those responsible for energy and climate change, justice, and work and pensions. While at the Department of Energy & Climate Change, James served as Head of Financial Strategy and as a Director for Energy Efficiency and Fuel Poverty.

Cornelis van Aerssen has been a member of GCPF’s Board since 2016. In his role as Senior Investment Officer at FMO, he arranges syndicated loans for financial institutions in Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin America and manages FMO’s relations with private and public investment partners. He spent five years funding financial institutions in Eastern Europe and Central Asia and originating and executing FMO’s debt, equity and fund investments with a focus on energy efficiency and renewables.

Before joining FMO, Cornelis spent several years as a strategic advisor to the Board of the EBRD in London. He holds a degree in Economics from the University of Groningen.

Jürgen Welschof joined GCPF’s Investment Committee in April 2018. Jürgen has over 22 years of experience in development finance. He started to work at KfW Group in 1995. He has held various positions at KfW with a focus on direct investments in water and waste water management in the Middle East & North Africa region and has been heading KfW’s sector policy division for 6 years. In 2010, Jürgen became KfW’s country director in Serbia and Macedonia, where more than half of KfW’s portfolio consists of energy projects, including direct investments in thermal, hydro, wind and biomass power plants, as well as a large number of credit lines for energy efficiency and renewable energy. He currently heads the Energy South Asia Division of KfW Development Bank, a post he has held since early 2015.

Juan Alario has been a member of GCPF’s Investment Committee since April 2017. He is an independent Project Advisor in energy matters. He advises several international and national entities. Juan has close to 30 years experience in the evaluation and finance of projects. This experience has been gained especially through his long term employment with the EIB (from 1987 to 2015), where he rose to a Director-grade position, as one of its most senior and experienced energy advisors.

Juan holds a MA in Industrial Engineering from the Polytechnic University of Barcelona, a Doctorate in Economic Sciences, option Energy Economics from Grenoble University and a post-graduate in Business Management & Planning from the Polytechnic University of Madrid.

Judith Brandsma has been a member of GCPF’s Investment Committee since 2015. She has over 20 years of experience in financial sector development around the globe, including at the World Bank and as an independent advisor to international development finance institutions. Judith has served on the Board of Directors of several MSME banks.

In the area of impact investing, Judith serves as a Board member at two independent media development funds and one microfinance fund. She holds a degree in Economics from Erasmus University Rotterdam and an MBA from INSEAD.

Ritva Laukkanen joined GCPF’s Investment Committee in April 2020. She has over 30 years of experience in development finance and international financial markets. She held various technical and executive positions at the IFC, overseeing origination and portfolio management in the Eastern/Southern Europe and Central Asia financial sector, with focus on Micro/SME finance, as well as in other sectors globally including sustainable forestry. Before moving to the investment side, Ritva spent nearly 10 years at the IFC Treasury developing new emerging capital markets. Prior to IFC, Ritva worked 8 years in New York at a Scandinavian consortium bank, American Scandinavian Banking Corporation. Since 2012 she has been acting as a non-executive director in various development finance institutions including Magma Fincorp. Ltd. (an Indian SME lender), Acleda Bank PLC in Cambodia and AccessHolding Microfinance AG, as well as chairing the Board of the Finnish development finance institution – Finnfund.

Markus Bohni joined GCPF’s Investment Committee in June 2020. He is a private equity investment advisor with change- and transformation management experience with 20 years in the financial sector. He provides strategic and financial advisory to family office owned or private equity financed companies. He has broad industry expertise through numerous buyouts and due diligence / advisory projects in various industries. Markus holds a degree in Economics from University of St. Gallen and an MBA from University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

Andreas Arvanitakis joined the Technical Assistance Committee in 2019. He is a Climate Finance Investment Manager at the UK department for business, energy and industrial strategy. Andreas has 20 years of experience working at the interaction of climate change policy, climate finance investments and strategy, and carbon markets. He has a Masters in International Politics and is a member of the UK Charter of Financial Analysts.