Energy Peace Partners is delighted to introduce our new board of directors. Abdi Aynte, Christina Borsum, Olivia Coldrey, Comfort Ero, and Rebekah Shirley have joined current board member Lisa Jordan as well as EPP President Dave Mozersky and EPP Managing Director Sherwin Das on the board. The new board reflects EPP’s recent transition to a fully independent U.S. registered 501c3 non-profit organization positioned for the next stage of development and governed by an experienced and diverse team of respected professionals. Our new board members have long-standing connections to EPP and we are honored that they will be supporting us to fulfill our mission.
Our board members include:
Abdi Aynte is the Managing Director of Laasfort Consulting Group, a regional advisory firm focused on turbocharging transformations on governance and development. Abdi is a former Minister of Planning and International Cooperation of Federal Republic of Somalia, was the co-founding Executive Director of the Heritage Institute for Policy Studies (HIPS), the leading think tank in Somalia, and has served as a senior United Nations official. Abdi has previously been involved in EPP’s Powering Peace initiative with the Stimson Center, having co-authored Powering Ahead: The United Nations and Somalia’s Renewable Energy Opportunity (March 2022).
Christina Borsum is the Chief Financial Officer of New Energy Nexus/CalCEF Innovations (EPP’s previous fiscal sponsor). Christina oversees the organization’s finance and accounting functions as well as providing financial risk management insights to the organization's financing strategies for scaling clean energy. Christina also leads the Financial Innovation program at New Energy Nexus. Christina has been a close adviser to EPP since its founding, particularly on areas of finance, governance and recent the transition to a US 501(c)3 organization. Christina currently serves as Board Chair.
Olivia Coldrey has 25 years’ experience in international energy markets, gained in legal, finance and strategy roles. She has held senior executive positions with Sustainable Energy for All (SEforALL), Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Partnership (REEEP) and the Australian Solar Institute, Australia’s lead solar energy agency. She is Australia’s Representative on the Executive Committee of the IEA’s Photovoltaic Power Systems Programme. She is currently completing her PhD on financing SDG 7 at the University of Queensland, Australia. While at SEforALL, Olivia supported EPP in developing and highlighting the opportunities offered by the P-REC Aggregation Facility when the instrument was part of the Climate Finance Lab’s 2021 cohort.
Sherwin Das is co-founder and Managing Director of Energy Peace Partners, where he integrates his experience in international conflict resolution and peacebuilding with a profound belief in the transformative potential of renewable energy for communities in fragile states. Prior to EPP, Sherwin spent more than a decade with the United Nations facilitating peace processes and supporting conflict prevention and resolution initiatives in the Central Africa region, Eastern Europe and the Balkans. He has been deployed in UN peacekeeping operations and political missions worldwide and has supported mediation efforts from UN Headquarters.
Dr. Comfort Ero is the President & CEO of International Crisis Group. Comfort has been with Crisis Group, a leading think tank on global peace and security issues, for more than 20 years, serving previously as West Africa Project Director, Africa Program Director, and Interim Vice President. Dr Ero has spent her entire career working on or in conflict-affected countries. She has also served as Deputy Africa Program Director for the International Centre for Transitional Justice (2008-2010) and Political Affairs Officer and Policy Advisor to the Special Representative of the Secretary-General, UN Mission in Liberia (2004-2007). Dr Ero is the Chair of the Board of the Rift Valley Institute and sits on the editorial board of various journals, including International Peacekeeping.
Lisa Jordan is a Managing Director for the Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation and the founder of Aim for Social Change, a consultancy firm that focuses on social impact. Lisa is a senior philanthropic executive with a twenty-year career focused on impact and systemic change. She has served as CEO of the Bernard van Leer Foundation, CSO at Porticus Foundation and in leadership positions at the Ford Foundation. Lisa has been a long-standing and passionate champion for EPP and a valued advisor who has helped us navigate our current transition to an independent non-profit organization.
David Mozersky is the President and Co-Founder of Energy Peace Partners. Dave has been involved in international conflict prevention and resolution efforts since 2001, with a focus on the Horn of Africa. Dave spent six years with the International Crisis Group, before moving to Humanity United to launch and run a track-2 initiative focused on South Sudan’s looming independence referendum. He served as an advisor to African Union High-Level Panel on the Sudans (AUHIP) during the negotiations around state separation.
Dr. Rebekah Shirley is the Deputy Director for Africa, at the World Resources Institute, where she works to create widespread public access to high-quality data and insights for mobilizing sustainable development solutions. Rebekah was previously Chief of Research at Power for All, a global non-profit organization advancing universal energy access. Rebekah and EPP’s co-founders first connected at the University of California at Berkeley, when she was completing her PhD at the same time that EPP’s foundational ideas were incubated at the university’s Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory (RAEL). We have been on parallel trajectories ever since.
We would like to extend a warm welcome to our new board members. In addition to fiduciary responsibility, the board will help position EPP for our next chapter of organizational development and positive impact.