Management

The Secretariat is headed by the Executive Director, who is appointed by and accountable to the Board. The Secretariat’s senior management team leads the various Offices and Departments of the Secretariat, providing the management capabilities to execute the day-to-day operations of the Fund.

GCF launched a new organisational structure on 9 September 2024, which is part of a larger effort to make the Fund more fit for purpose to deliver impact at scale as efficiently as possible.

Executive leadership team

Mafalda Duarte, Executive Director

Named by TIME Magazine as one of the world’s most influential climate leaders, Mafalda has been leading reforms at GCF since her 2023 appointment to ensure GCF invests USD 50 billion by 2030 with greater efficiency and impact. Previously, as CEO of the Climate Investment Funds (CIF), she increased CIF's capitalisation by nearly 40%, doubled programming, and launched key initiatives in just transitions, industrial decarbonisation, and nature-based solutions. Mafalda also pioneered efforts to raise finance from international capital markets. Starting her career in Mozambique, Duarte later held senior roles at the African Development Bank and the World Bank, working in over 50 countries. She is a mother of three and holds degrees in International Relations, International Development, and Economic Policy. Mafalda is passionate about human evolution and development as well as leadership.

Henry Gonzalez, Chief Investment Officer

Henry has over 25 years of professional experience across sustainable and impact investing, emerging markets, and political and economic development. Prior to GCF, he was an Associate Fellow at Oxford University’s Saïd Business School and a Senior Management member and Global Head of Research & Advisory at Investments AG, where he led thought leadership, technical assistance, and ESG/impact integration strategies across finance, climate and agriculture. He also served as Vice President for Emerging Markets Debt investing at Morgan Stanley and held positions at the World Bank, the United Nations Development Programme, and the Government of Costa Rica. Henry has an MBA from Oxford University (Skoll Scholar), MPA from Harvard University (Fulbright Scholar) and BA in political science from the University of Costa Rica.

Charles Ehrhart, Chief Strategy and Impact Officer

Charles has over 30 years of professional experience working across multiple continents in the public, private, and for-purpose sectors. For the past 20 years, his primary focus has been leading innovative solutions to the complex social and environmental challenges posed by climate change. Before joining GCF, he served as KPMG’s Global Solutions Lead for Climate Change, Decarbonisation, and Nature and as KPMG's Global Head of Climate Risk & Strategic Response, where he enabled and coordinated the efforts of multi-disciplinary teams to accelerate action on climate change and nature in more than 70 countries. His previous roles include Global Coordinator of CARE International’s Poverty, Environment, and Climate Change Centre of Expertise and Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Climate CoLab. Charles is a member of the Climate Governance Initiative’s Governing Board and the New Zealand Institute of Directors. Charles has a PhD and MPhil in Social Anthropology from the University of Cambridge and a BA in Political Science and Development Economics.

PK Medappa, Chief Operating Officer

PK spent his early career in managerial roles in Tata Tea, Otis, and Nestle, and was the Group Head of Human Resources at Standard Chartered Bank where he served for 25 years in a range of human resources functions, covering different geographies, business verticals and shared services. He also worked at Siam Commercial Bank, First Abu Dhabi Bank and Air Asia and provided start-up support in various industries in India. Before GCF, he managed a family business in coffee cultivation. He helped promote a farmer producer company of 120 coffee farmers and is working with a group to start an educational institution to train grass root community leaders focused on sustainability. PK completed his graduate studies in economics and has a master’s in human resource management.

Darren Tan, Chief Finance and Risk Officer

Darren was the Chief Investment Officer of Raffles Medical Group from 2023 to 2024 and Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of OCBC Bank from 2011 to 2022. Before joining OCBC Bank as Global Treasury’s Head of Asset Liability Management, Darren worked as a portfolio manager for 13 years in the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation with his last position as its Head of Money Markets. As a portfolio manager, Darren navigated many financial crises from the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis to the 2007 Global Financial Crisis. As a CFO, he established OCBC Bank’s Corporate Treasury to better manage the liquidity, interest rate and credit risks residing on the bank’s balance sheet. With his experiences in financial matters, Darren is committed to combating the climate crisis. Darren is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and Fellow Chartered Accountant of Singapore. He graduated with honours in accountancy from Nanyang Technological University and is an alumni member of the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Gülen Newton, General Counsel

Gülen is a senior legal executive with over 20 years’ experience in international development finance organisations, including more than a decade at the Asian Development Bank and The Global Fund. With a breadth of experience and grasp of issues across diverse legal frameworks, she provides legal and strategic guidance to senior management, government officials and boards in helping countries reduce poverty, forge sustainable growth, and improve global health. She is a recognised expert in international development finance and government negotiations, compliance, governance, policy analysis and development, risk mitigation, cross-border transactions, and multi-jurisdictional issues. Gülen has led negotiations with countries for multilateral treaty on immunities, protecting organisational interests across different legal regimes. She holds a Juris Doctor from Dokuz Eylül University (Türkiye) and an LLM from Southern Methodist University (USA).

Artur Cardoso de Lacerda, Director, Office of Governance Affairs and Secretary to the Board

Before GCF, Artur was the Director-General for the Office of the President of the New Development Bank (NDB). He served as Senior Counselor for Brazil at the Inter-American Development Bank, and as Senior Advisor for Brazil at the World Bank. He was also Undersecretary for International Affairs at the Brazilian Ministry of Finance. Artur served as the Brazilian alternate negotiator for the establishment of NDB by the BRICS. He was a member of the National Executive Secretariat for Rio+20 in 2012, and a member of the Secretariat of Brazil's G20 Presidency in 2008. He holds a bachelor’s degree in international relations and an MBA in projects.

Stephanie Kwan, Chief of Staff

Prior to assuming the role of Chief of Staff, Stephanie was the Head of Accreditation and Entity Relations at GCF. Stephanie has nearly 20 years of professional experience in corporate sustainability advisory and partnerships, institutional capacity building and the development of carbon market projects. Before GCF, she was with ecolutions and Sindicatum Sustainable Resources working on business development and project design in renewable energy. She also held chair and vice chair positions for working groups on carbon markets at the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China. She previously worked at Trinity Consultants providing environmental, greenhouse gas and climate change advisory services to companies in the energy, manufacturing, food production and aerospace industries. Stephanie holds an MS in environmental engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology and a BS in environmental science and political science from Emory University.

Directors

Alain Beauvillard, Director, Department of Strategy, Policy, and Innovation

Alain has over 20 years' professional experience in the public and private sectors. He held several senior positions under the Government of France, working at the Treasury as Head of the Department for Multilateral Development and Climate Finance, and at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as Deputy Chief of Staff for Development and International Cooperation. He served as a board member at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and worked at Siemens and the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) on strategy and operational improvement projects in the transportation and energy sectors. Alain holds an MBA from INSEAD and an engineering degree from the Ecole Centrale and is an alumnus of the Ecole Nationale d'Administration.

Oyun Sanjaasuren, Director, Department of Partnerships and Resource Mobilisation

Oyun is a former Minister from Mongolia, with extensive experience in representing international organisations. She served as the first President of the United Nations Environment Assembly, the governing body of UN Environment. After leaving the Government of Mongolia in 2016, she was appointed Chair of the Global Water Partnership, an intergovernmental organisation to advance water security by working with over 3,000 institutional partners in more than 180 countries. Oyun's five consecutive terms in Mongolia's Parliament included stints as Minister of Environment and Green Development (2012 - 2014) and Minister of Foreign Affairs (2007 - 2008). With a PhD in earth sciences from the University of Cambridge, Oyun has long been a prominent advocate of civil and social rights.

Sudhanshu Sarronwala, Director, Department of Communications

Sudhanshu (‘Suds’) comes to GCF with over 30 years of senior leadership experience in communications, sustainability and operations. Prior to GCF, Suds was the Director of Communications at Better Cotton, the world’s largest sustainable cotton standard. He was the Executive Director of Communications & Marketing for WWF International where he managed strategic communications, brand management, digital and media channels, as well as the climate-focused Earth Hour grassroots campaign. As the Chief Impact Officer for Infarm, he led the effort to embed and drive an understanding of the environmental and health benefits of the vertical farming industry. Suds was also at the forefront of two industries in the Asia-Pacific region – cable and satellite TV (STAR TV, MTV) and digital music (Soundbuzz). Suds holds a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Delhi University and an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow.

Oscar Garcia, Director, Department of Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning

Before GCF, Oscar served as the Chief Impact Officer at the Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet, responsible for Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning. He has more than 25 years of experience in leading strategic planning, evaluation, learning and results-based management initiatives, including authoring two books and numerous reports and articles on development and evaluation. He has served across three UN agencies in senior management roles, including Director of the Independent Evaluation Office at UNDP, led Green Economy Advisory services at UNEP, Director of the Independent Office of Evaluation at IFAD and Chair of the United Nations Evaluation Group, and the Evaluation Cooperation Group of international financial institutions. He holds a master’s degree in organisational change management from New School University and an MBA from the Bolivian Catholic University in association with the Harvard Institute for International Development.

Catherine Koffman, Director, Department of the Africa Region

Catherine brings more than 20 years’ experience in legal, commercial, and financial sectors, spanning infrastructure investment banking and landmark project finance deals. As the first female Head of Infrastructure Project Finance in a South African commercial bank, she shaped and executed the Group's infrastructure growth strategy. As Group Executive of the Project Preparation Division at the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA), she guided the development of investable projects, execution of regional/ national country platforms, capital raising and structuring of blended finance products to innovate for new markets and asset classes. Catherine also led several strategic objectives at DBSA to develop bankable infrastructure pipelines to ensure sustainable economic growth and resilience to climate change impacts in South Africa and sub-Saharan Africa.

Hemant Mandal, Director, Department of the Asia and the Pacific Region

Hemant brings over 27 years of experience creating markets across energy, climate and sustainability. This has involved running P&Ls, developing, structuring, and investing in projects and companies, and providing strategic advice on regulations, bankable commercial contracts, and PPP transactions to governments. His specialties span energy generation, transition, transmission, and distribution sectors, having successfully created portfolios of more than USD 10 billion globally. He has worked in the private sector, for multilaterals, including the International Finance Corporation (World Bank Group), the Asian Development Bank, Shell Wind, GE Wind, one of the ten most prominent single-family offices worldwide, and an independent power producer. He has run his own companies at operational and C-suite levels. Hemant has worked in over 30 countries and has lived in India, the United States, China, Vietnam, and Singapore. He is an engineer by training and has an MBA from the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business.

Thomas Eriksson, Director, Department of the Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and the Middle East Region

Thomas joins GCF from the Council of Europe Development Bank (CEB), where he was the Head of both the Technical and Climate Divisions. He previously led operational policy functions at the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), blended finance functions at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and held many roles at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), including as the Deputy Resident Representative in Mongolia. He has extensive operational experience in countries in Eastern Europe, Central Asia and the Middle East. He has an MBA from the University of Gothenburg.

Kristin Lang, Director, Department of the Latin America and the Caribbean Region

Prior to joining GCF, Kristin was head of the division covering the public sector in Latin America and the Caribbean within the International Partners Department at the European Investment Bank (EIB), where she had worked since 2000. She covered a wide array of matters, including capital markets, securitisation, climate action and the evaluation of operations. She represented EIB as Deputy Head of the Secretariat of the Multilateral Carbon Credit Fund, a fund co-managed with EBRD which included both EU countries and private sector companies as participants. Prior to joining the EIB, Kristin started her career working in Latin America equity research at Morgan Stanley in New York and in global custody at Bank of New York where she covered African, European, and Middle East financial markets. She is a graduate of School of International and Public Affairs of Columbia University (MIA) and Georgetown University School of Foreign Service (BS).

Kavita Sinha, Director, Department of the Private Sector Facility

Kavita was the programme director for energy transition in Asia with the European Climate Foundation (ECF). While there, she helped set up the Southeast Asia Clean Energy Facility and was the interim director for Southeast Asia Energy Transition Partnership. Prior to ECF, she spent more than 15 years in leadership roles in the corporate world from start-ups to multinational corporations across multiple sectors. She co-founded and successfully exited start-ups in clean energy and infrastructure services. Kavita also worked for nearly a decade with the US Agency for International Development where she held several programme management roles, including in climate impact. She has an MBA from Rutgers Business School, an honours degree in chemical engineering and completed her graduate studies in energy systems from leading engineering schools in India.

Achala Abeysinghe, Director, Department of Investment Services

Achala, a lawyer by training, brings over 20 years of experience in climate change and sustainable development. Prior to GCF, Achala led the largest regional green growth program at the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI) as Director and Head of Programs of Asia and was a member of GGGI’s senior management team. Previously, she was the GGGI Country Director of Papua New Guinea. Before GGGI, she was legal and strategic advisor to the LDC Group in the UNFCCC negotiations while heading the Global Climate Diplomacy program at the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED). She was also lead author of the 5th Assessment Report of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). In 2015, Achala was recognised as one of the global female climate champions for her work in negotiating the Paris Agreement. Achala is a qualified ESG sustainability professional and has an LLB (Hons) degree from the University of Colombo, Sri Lanka and holds a Master's degree and a PhD in international law on climate change from the University of Kent, UK.

Amer Baig, Director, Department of Strategic Investment Partnerships and Co-Investments

Amer brings to GCF 30 years of experience in investment banking, including with Standard Chartered and Lazard, where he worked on strategic and M&A transactions, capital markets, restructuring revenue and cost models, and synergy analysis. He was also partner and co-founder of a private investment firm, developing innovative financial products at the World Bank Group and working across sectors to bridge financing gaps and mobilising capital from the private and public sectors. Amer served as an external expert on the working group for connectivity for the UN’s Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development, was a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Infrastructure, and currently sits on the board of directors of the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data. He holds an economics degree from Durham University.

Hyun Jung Kim, Director, Department of People and Culture

Hyun brings over 20 years of experience in strategy and planning, as well as people and culture functions across local and global industries and organisations. Her career spans roles from with the LG Corporation to Mercer to HR leadership roles at Johnson & Johnson, the start-up unicorn Woowa Delivery Hero, and most recently, GrandeClip. Hyun holds degrees in business administration from Seoul National University, an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, and a Master of Education from the Stanford Graduate School of Education.

Donald Lum, Director, Department of Information Technology

Donald has over 25 years of experience managing IT and driving digital transformation in various sectors across public and private organisations. Prior to GCF, he served as the APAC Chief Information Officer for SATS Limited, the world’s largest airfreight cargo handler and as the Group Chief Information Officer for its Food Solutions Group where he steered various large-scale digital transformation initiatives and technology innovation in cargo, logistics, ground handling, sustainability, food production and global corporate functions. He has held IT management roles with public organisations of homeland security, foreign affairs and personal data protection within the Singapore government, and with multinational corporations such as IBM and Neptune Orient Lines (now CMA CGM). Donald holds degrees in information technology from the Queensland University of Technology, Australia and LLB (Hons) from the University of London, UK.

Sean Ko, Director, Department of Treasury

Sean has over 27 years of experience in the finance industry. Prior to joining GCF, Sean led the Global Markets business at ANZ (Australia New Zealand) Banking Group in Korea, where his responsibilities included Balance Sheet Management, Rates and FX Trading, and Financial and Corporate Sales. Before ANZ, he was Country Head of Barclays Bank plc, Korea and he held a various leadership position at J.P. Morgan, Samsung and Barclays in Hong Kong and Korea. In these roles, he managed a broad range of financial products, balance sheet management, and the overall global markets business, including alternative investments and complex structured products. He graduated honors from University of Rochester, NY with BS in Applied Mathematics and MS in Mathematics. He also served as Chairman of the board for Teach For Korea (TFK), a non-profit organization supporting an underprivileged high school students in their pursuit of educational equity.