Jason De Carteret

CEO

Jason leads the Solarcentury Africa team. He has over 30 years of African experience. Before joining Solarcentury Africa, Jason spent five years working for a leading emergency power provider on major projects in EMEA. He recognised the growing importance of renewables to the sector, and in 2018 he joined the Solarcentury Africa business. The appeal was a technology agnostic company that had been delivering multiple photovoltaic (PV) and storage projects in challenging regions such as the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Eritrea and Nigeria. Jason brings a strong understanding of both thermal and renewable technologies together with a deep knowledge of the mining industry. His insight and strategic viewpoint is invaluable in helping deliver innovative technical designs that bring significant advancements in reliability and cost savings to the end clients.

Mark Crossley

CFO

Mark has over 25 years of corporate finance experience in investment banking and in the renewable energy industry where he has worked with companies ranging from start-ups to global market leaders. He has advised on over £50 billion of transactions, including for some of the leading players in energy and infrastructure. In 2015 Mark began working with Solarcentury on some of its largest European and African projects, before joining the Solarcentury Africa team as Head of Commercial Finance.

Fadi Kabalan

Director

Fadi Kabalan has 20 years of hands on experience in energy investments, mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and corporate finance. He joined BB Energy Group 12 years’ ago and is Head of Corporate Finance and M&A.

He setup BB Energy Group’s Investment Policy and is a member of the Investment Committee. Fadi led the acquisition of Solarcentury Africa by the BB Energy Group. He is a Director of BB Energy Trading Ltd, Solarcentury Africa, and various portfolio companies.

Prior to that, Fadi was with Goldman Sachs in its Infrastructure Private Equity Division in London. He started his career with PWC as a financial advisor in London, New York, and Dubai. He holds an MBA from INSEAD.

Chahid Jarmouni

Director

Chahid joined BB Energy in 2020 to oversee the Renewables and New Ventures division and to lead the energy transition of the Group and of Solarcentury Africa. Chahid started his career almost 20 years ago in investment banking. He covered the mining and metals industry at Société Générale and before moving to the energy sector while at BNP Paribas. At Glencore he spent a decade originating and structuring deals globally. For BB Energy and Solarcentury Africa Chahid utilises his experience in emerging markets and expertise in energy and mining sectors to make the energy transition journey a success for each of our stakeholders.

Drew Cormack

Head of Operations

Drew has extensive experience in the development and delivery of utility-scale photovoltaic (PV) and hybrid projects. This has been gained over more than 12 years working in leading large-scale PV companies. Drew’s previous roles include Head of Operations for Argentum Energy and Lead Project Manager for Lightsource Renewable Energy, the largest solar developer in the UK. Drew joined Solarcentury in 2019 to lead the operations department and take on responsibility for the delivery of its Africa portfolio.

Mark Sims

Head of Power Trading

Mark is an energy industry veteran. He spent 35 years with Eskom, the South African national power utility, and four years as an independent consultant. His career with Eskom included various engineering roles in construction, protection, grid planning and project management, as well as commercial roles in customer services and key account management. He was a Senior Manager with responsibility for all cross-border electricity trading and was also a member of the Southern African Power Pool’s (SAPP) operating sub-committee and other SAPP sub-committees and working groups. Consultancy projects have including developing guidelines for prospective new members of the SAPP and providing training for the Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (ESCOM). He has undertaken market studies for independent power producers (IPPs), consulted with mining houses on carbon neutrality strategies and developed tenders for hybrid thermal, solar and battery energy storage power projects. He has also developed various financial models for an IPP company.

Mark joined our team in 2022 with specific focus on the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region and with the mandate of obtaining SAPP membership.

Mark holds a NHD Electrical Engineering, BCom Accounting, BSc Hons Energy Studies and various management development qualifications.

Karthik Gudi

Contracts & Procurement Manager

Karthik joined Solarcentury Africa in 2022. He has more than a decade of experience in supply chain, procurement, and contract management roles. Karthik has worked on project development, bid management, procurement, contract management and the delivery of solar projects in India for an independent power producer (IPP) and a start-up. Previously he worked as an Assistant Contracts Manager at Solarcentury for African projects.

Ion Gherga

Senior Design Engineer

Ion is a Design Engineer with more than 10 years’ experience in the renewable energy industry. He has been involved in the photovoltaic (PV) design of residential, commercial and utility scale projects developed in Africa, Australia, the UK, the Netherlands and Romania. He graduated with a BSc in Power Engineering at the Polytechnic University of Bucharest.

Luca Santoni

Head of Engineering

Luca has more than 12 years of engineering experience in renewable energy power plants (solar PV, wind farm and storage) working across the African continent. These range from smaller domestic scale to 100MW+ grid connected systems. His skills include: initial plant design, Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) tendering, support to financial close, site engineer, project management, and owner’s engineer.

Mouna Zizi

Corporate Finance Manager

Mouna is a Corporate Finance Manager at Solarcentury Africa. She has seven years of experience executing or managing project finance, debt and equity transactions. She has been involved in deals across Europe, North Africa, and Sub-Saharan Africa. Mouna joined Solarcentury Africa in 2024.

César Muchanga

Assistant Project Manager

César is a Renewable Energy Engineer with experience in the renewable energy sector.
After graduating he worked as a trainee in Mozambique public entities such as Electricidade de Mocambique (EDM) and Fundo de Energia (FUNAE). He gained intensive experience in project management and development of small scale off-grid power plant projects.
As a Development Engineer in developing Commercial and Industrial (C&I) self-consumption power projects, he was involved in the construction and commissioning of small scale power plants. As an Assistant Project Manager for Solarcentury Africa he has worked on off-grid power projects and developed skills in dimensioning off-grid plants, and in economic financial modelling of on-grid solar power plants.

Ligia Gomes

Business Development Executive

Ligia is an engineer with extensive experience in the energy sector. She worked as a Project Engineer in Brazil after graduation, before moving to the UK. In the UK she used her knowledge and background in industries such as shipping and logistics, where she deepened her project management and process improvement skills.

Chris Kanani

Head of Business Development

Chris has over 11 years of experience working on decentralised renewable projects in Africa. Before joining Solarcentury Africa, Chris headed the business development team at Winch Energy. At Winch, Chris developed a large pipeline of solar and battery mini-grid projects across the continent, including closing one of the largest limited recourse mini-grid projects in Africa to date. His strength lies in developing projects from inception to financial close. Chris holds a BSc in Civil Engineering BSc as well as a Master’s degree in Sustainable Development.

Douglas Feely

Business Development Executive

Douglas is a civil engineer and holds an MBA from BSN. He has extensive project and construction management experience across Southern Africa gained over 30 years; he has worked in Namibian infrastructure and construction sector for 18 years. He has worked for companies such as AVENG-Grinaker/LTA and Namibia Construction on large-scale infrastructure and commercial projects as Senior Project Manager and in commercial business development in the private sector. Douglas has been involved in the strategic and operational implementation of key business turnaround projects at company level, with a keen eye for contract law and risk mitigation.

Ruan Hough

Business Development Executive

Ruan is dedicated to business and strategic collaborations across the continent. He has more than six years of expertise in business-project development, and client onboarding across South African Development Community (SADC) sectors. He has a focus on marketing management, e-marketing, and economic science. Ruan created and facilitated all business implementation and development inside SADC for Paratus Africa and APS Group before he joined Solarcentury Africa.

Naa Okailey Ayitey

Business Development Executive

Naa Okailey is a project and business development specialist with more than three years of experience in the energy sector, both thermal and renewable. She has worked on various energy projects for mining clients in Africa, involving financial modelling, proposal writing, plant design, and energy resource assessments. She holds a master’s degree in sustainable energy development and a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering.

Eve Farnsworth

Legal Counsel Renewables

Eve worked as a legal advisor in an international law firm for more than three years. She qualified into the energy and infrastructure team at Simmons & Simmons, where she specialised in energy in both developed and emerging markets. More recently she has focused on emerging markets energy projects for Solarcentury Africa and has experience in PPA, EPC and O&M, concession and financing contracts.

Laura Jo

Senior Accountant

Laura is an accountant with over 20 years’ experience in energy trading, shipping and bank accountancy. She is a fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants.

Brian Nyangaresi

Solar PV Engineer

Brian is an electrical engineer with more than eight years of experience in electrical engineering and largely in renewable energy. He has experience in the development, construction and commissioning of utility scale Solar PV plants and BESS In Africa. His roles have included owner’s engineer, site engineer, design, project management, energy audit, Commissioning and Energization management. Brian holds a BSc in Electrical and Electronic Engineering with a major in Heavy Power.

Yohann Espi

Design Engineer

Yohann is a design engineer with experience on project due diligence, feasibility study, design and monitoring of solar and BESS assets. Holding a master’s degree in Physics Engineering and in Renewable Energy Systems, Yohann contributes to bolstering the company’s engineering know-how. His primary responsibilities include the development of energy models for optimising design and economics for specific client’s need, and the company’s trading strategy. He also works on ensuring quality design is delivered throughout plants construction.

Diana Barbu

Deputy Contracts & Logistics Manager

Diana has more than two years of experience in procurement, contracts and supply chain management within African, Asian and the European markets. Before joining Solarcentury Africa she managed the procurement, logistics and export documentation for various ceramic, mining and salt projects based in Nigeria and the Ivory Coast.

Gondai Moyana

Senior Project Manager

Gondai has more than 25 years of project management experience in the electrical/energy sector. He has worked in complex hybrid projects including utility-scale solar power plants, BESS, substations, T&D lines, and rural/urban electrification, where he has delivered over 1.5GW of renewable projects to date across Africa, Asia, the Middle East and South America, with total budgets exceeding $3 billion. Before joining Solarcentury Africa, Gondai worked with companies such as Eskom, City Power, Electricidade de Moçambique (EDM), Tanesco, Symbion Power, Scatec Solar, Globeleq. He holds a master’s degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering, a diploma in Solar Energy Engineering, and a higher diploma in Project Management. He is also certified as Project Management Professional, Solar Energy Professional and Electrical Quality Assurance Professional. Gondai is currently studying for an MBA in Energy and Sustainability.

Marcos Fernandes

Team Support Officer

Marcos Fernandes is a Team Support Officer responsible for providing professional and confidential administrative support to the business development, engineering, legal, finance and operations department. Marcos has a decade of managerial experience in different industries including customer service and operations. Marcos’ academic background is in language, translation and data analysis.

Henny Nelson

Team Support Officer

Henny Nelson is a part-time Team Support Officer providing administrative assistance and support to various departments within Solarcentury Africa. Henny has over a decade of experience in different industry sectors including sales, operations and customer service.