CORE TEAM UNDER SIDA FRAMEWORK AGREEMENT IN DEVELOPMENT FINANCE

Devfin Advisers has a framework agreement with Sida for Services and Advice within Development Finance (the first agreement 2013-2018 and an ongoing second agreement 2018-2022). Under these agreements Devfin Advisers have so far undertaken some fifty assignments (see further Our work). Devfin’s core team under the current agreement is presented below.

Åke Fors holds a Master of Laws University of Lund and Special Degree in Marine Law at Oslo Law Faculty. Since 1987 he is a partner of Setterwalls Law firm and from 2005 he has been head of Setterwalls' Financial Markets Group - Banking, Finance and Insurance. Åke has more than 25 years of experience of financial law, insurance and reinsurance law and also as arbitration counsel and arbitration in Sweden and in the USA as well as miscellaneous international proceedings and transactions, inter alia, project financings. On a number of occasions, he has been named one of the leading lawyers in Sweden in banking, finance, company law and particular aircraft finance. He teaches at the Faculty of law at the University of Stockholm and has written numerous articles on various legal topics. He has undertaken a series of assignments under the Sida Financial Framework agreement.

Stefan Jansson holds a BA from Stockholm University and a MA (equivalent) from the Diplomatic Academy of Vienna. Stefan has held a number of executive, independent financial advisory, board representative, investment committee, and other appointments in the area of development finance. He was Director of Swedfund’s Regional Office in Nairobi (2009 – 2012) and headed up GuarantCo during its start-up phase (2004 – 2005). Stefan has a robust skills base in investment and funding facility appraisal, design of innovative models for blended finance and management of investment operations. Stefan has a balanced experience from both the public and private sectors, and has worked in many different countries and regions for institutions such as Sida, Swedfund, GuarantCo, IFC, World Bank, Swedish Board for Investment & Technical Support, World Food Programme, and Ericsson. Stefan Jansson is part of the core team from July 2016.

Kaushik Ray received his LLB (Hons) from the University of London (Kings College) with a Diploma in European Legal Studies from the University of Strasbourg. Kaushik qualified as a solicitor in England and Wales in 2003 and was admitted to the State Bar of New York in 2007. Kaushik has experience in project finance across a range of sectors in both infrastructure transactions and energy markets and from 2001-2008 was at Allen & Overy, based in London, Paris and Singapore. Kaushik has wide experience advising commercial banks and development finance institutions on infrastructure and energy projects in developing markets, with a particular focus on sub-Saharan Africa. Kaushik’s experience extends to South East Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, Central Europe, Western Europe and Latin America, as well as both Anglophone, Lusophone and Francophone Africa. Kaushik is British and speaks fluent English, business French, conversational Italian and Bengali and basic Swedish and German. Kaushik is based in London.

David L. Ross has a MBA in Finance from New York University. He has over 20 years emerging markets and Sub-Saharan Africa private, public, and academic sector experience in investment fund and credit enhancement design, evaluation, and implementation; transaction advisory services; design and implementation of innovation and entrepreneurship programs; investment banking, private equity, venture capital, and impact investment. David has served multilateral clients including World Bank, African Development Bank, and development agencies from the US, UK, France, Sweden, Germany; financial institution clients including HSBC, AIG, JP Morgan Chase, Credit-Suisse, and Morgan Stanley; as well as startups, business owners, SMEs, and project developers in Sub-Saharan Africa. David served Carnegie Mellon University for 10 years across multiple campuses departing as a Distinguished Professor of Practice. He is a former Board Member of the American Chamber of Commerce in Tanzania and current Board Member of Access to Finance Rwanda, a member of the Financial Sector Deepening Network. David works in English and Swahili throughout East and Southern Africa and resides in Kigali, Rwanda.

Dianne Rudo holds a MBA in Finance from New York University. She has 30 years of international infrastructure finance transactional and advisory experience, having held senior positions in both the public and private sectors. With an investment banking background as a partner at a Wall Street firm (Corporate and Project Finance), she has mixed developmental and commercial work for the last 20 years. She has global experience in project finance, the use of guarantee products, PPPs, commercial and political risk analysis for projects in developed and developing countries, having closed transactions representing over USD 30 billion. Dianne has excellent knowledge of transactional, credit and capital markets issues worldwide; including in Anglophone and Francophone Africa, South and Southeast Asia, Eastern Europe, Latin America and the Middle East. She created and managed, as Vice President, the Project Finance Division of the Export-Import Bank of the United States. Dianne is based in Washington DC.

Henric Thörnberg has a BA in economics, Stockholm University. He has since 2003 been a working as an independent consultant for various organizations and his previous employer Standard Bank, one of the largest global banking groups with a focus on emerging markets. His assignments involves ECA credits, limited recourse finance, trade finance, corporate finance, public finance, all with a focus on emerging markets. He has worked in most of the Sub-Saharan African nations, interacting with a number of development finance institutions including NDF, NIB, FMO, Proparco, DEG, Swedfund, Finnfund and Norfund. His advisory work has also involved tasks for various private companies and organizations such as Norsad, AfDB, Sida and GuarantCo. He had advised Norfund on setting up a guarantee facility. Besides English, Henric works in Portuguese.

Tim Yapp joined MDY Legal in 1990 from the international law firm CMS Cameron McKenna. Tim is corporate/commercial solicitor specialising in the legal and governance aspects of of innovative development financing initiatives including the Private Infrastructure Development Group (PIDG), the Global innovation Fund, the International Finance Facility for Immunisation and the Advance Market Commitment for pneumococcus. Tim has developed a particular specialist knowledge of the structuring and management of social impact investment initiatives which blend public and private funds. Tim’s clients include governments, multilateral organisations, IFIs and DFIs, private sector companies and foundations. Tim speaks French, German and Spanish.

Claes Lindahl has a fil lic in business administration from University of Lund. He was a staff member of the World Bank for six years in Washington DC and on secondment to a regional development project in Malaysia for UNDP. He has 40 years of experience as manager of a consultancy firm in development and undertaken assignments for various multinational organisations such as the World Bank, the International Trade Centre, UNIDO and UNCTAD, bilateral organisations such as the Austrian Development Cooperation, Danida, DfID, Norad, SECO and Sida; the ministries for foreign affairs in Sweden and Norway, development finance institutions such as Swedfund and Norfund, and various non-governmental organisations. In most cases he has been team-leader. Under Sida’s framework agreement on finance he is Coordinator and Manager. He is CEO of Devfin Advisers.