Norman Villarina – Board Member
Norman serves as Industry Capital’s Managing Partner. IC invests in private equity infrastructure assets globally focused primarily on solar energy, power generation and distribution, internet infrastructure and real estate. IC’s asset under management are $2 billion. Firm is based in San Francisco with offices in Houston, London and Lagos, Nigeria. In 1999, Norman co-founded Industry Ventures, a $3+ billion venture capital firm specializing in the secondary market, and served as a general partner from 1999 to 2003. Prior to that, Norman was a private and public equity portfolio manager at Eos Partners and Cassandra-Chase Partners in New York, New York from 1995 to 1999. Norman has also held various positions in the commercial lending group at Wells Fargo Bank and in the derivatives group at Lehman Brothers. Norman holds a BA from the University of California at Berkeley and MBA from Columbia University.

Weldon Turner – Board Member
Weldon Turner is the Chief Operating Officer and Chief Compliance Officer of Gigawatt Global, a Dutch based solar developer that manages and develops utility size solar plants in Emerging Markets and the U.S. He is on the board of Directors of Gigawatt Global and its largest investor Gigawatt Global Luxembourg N.A.  From 2009 until 2011 Mr. Turner was the Product Manager for RCS Solar, a leading supplier of solar power plants in Europe, Africa and the Middle East.  From 2005 until 2008 he was the C.E.O. of a boutique investment firm with offices in the U.S., South Africa and the Middle East. The firm oversaw private placements for real estate, commodities and farming projects. He was the co-manager of long-short equity hedge fund that focused on market neutral investing. In addition, he was Chief Operating Officer and General Counsel at Goldnames, an internet domain name company. From 1994 to 1999 he was the Director of International Equity Sales/Trading at Credit Suisse in New York, and from 1985 to 1992 he was a V.P. of Equity Sales/Trading at Salomon Brother in New York.  Mr. Turner has been on the Board of Advisors of Thorium Power Company and Portofino Equity Advisors. He has a B.A. in History, a B.A. in Political Science, a J.D., an L.L.M (Masters of Law) and is a candidate for a PhD in Environmental Law with a concentration Geo-Engineering.

Joel Abrams – Managing Director
Joel serves as the Managing Director of Nigeria Solar Capital Partners and has been working to spearhead the introduction of large-scale solar facilities in Nigeria. During his time in Nigeria, Joel has worked closely with all of the country’s key constituents, including the NBET, NERC, TCN, and Ministry of Environment. Joel has established links to development banks and financing institutions and specializes in development finance. Joel is a founding partner of Ibex Capital Partners and has had significant experience working and living in West and Central Africa. Prior to founding Ibex Capital Partners, Joel headed the fixed income research team for Sub Saharan Africa at Bloomberg and went on to work at Western Asset Management, as a portfolio analyst on the global fixed income desk that managed $60 billion in sovereign debt. Joel holds a BA (with honors) in History from University College London.

Bolutife Odusanya – Company Director

Bolu is an Associate at Industry Capital (IC). Bolu has been actively engaged in the development of NSCP’s business in Nigeria, including the liaising and negotiating with all relevant stakeholders as it relates to the development of the Project. At IC, Bolu covers portfolio companies in each of the firm’s funds as well as potential investment opportunities across all sectors. Previously, Bolu worked within the Leveraged Finance Group at SunTrust Robinson Humphrey where he worked on transactions representing over $9.6 billion in volume. Prior to his work with SunTrust Robinson Humphrey, Bolu also worked for Credit Suisse Securities USA in the Global Energy Group and the Technology, Media and Telecommunications Group. Bolu holds a B.B.A in Finance from Howard University and hails from Ogun State Nigeria.

Hassana Bello Aliyu – Project Development

As the NSCP liaison officer for the affected communities in Bauchi State, Hasana is responsible for maintaining positive and constructive relationships with the project-affected people as well as the local government officials. Additionally, Hasana has had several years of engineering experience working on various infrastructure projects and assists in the day-to-day engagement with the Transmission Company of Nigeria. Hasana graduated in Civil Engineering from University College London.

Chana Abrams – General Counsel

Purusant to the terms of the Joint Development Agreement with Globeleq Advisors Limited and the ARM-Harith Infrastructure Fund, Chana has been seconded to NSCP. Chana is a project finance lawyer specializing in the renewable energy sector in Africa, with experience in Zambia, Tanzania, Rwanda, Benin, Burundi, Togo, Ghana, Egypt, Jordan, South Sudan and Nigeria. Previously employed at Slaughter and May, London and Herzog Fox, Tel Aviv. Visiting lawyer at leading Nigerian law firm Aluwko & Oyedobe, Lagos. Chana has published in the Renewable Energy Law & Policy journal and received her degree from King’s College London.

Julian Sinclair – Environmental & Social 

Julian manages the Environmental & Social department at NSCP. Prior to this role he served as Vice President at Gigawatt Global. Previously, he worked on the founding team of Alma Eco-cities Ltd, an Eco-city development company founded by clean tech industry leaders. He has also consulted to leading solar energy companies including BrightSource Energy and Arava Power Company. Julian began his career as an economist advising the UK government. He holds a Masters in Public Administration specializing in Environmental and Development Economics from the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, and a BA (First Class Honors) in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from Oxford University.

Akiva Turner – Project Development

Akiva is on the Project Development team at NSCP. Prior to this role, he served as an Analyst for Gigawatt Global where he worked on several PV solar projects in countries such as Rwanda, Turkey, Burundi and South Sudan. Akiva also worked as a Financial Analyst Intern at a boutique consulting firm in Los Angeles that provides financial and strategic advisory services to large independent film and TV companies in Hollywood. Akiva has a BA in Business Administration and Finance from IDC Herzliya.

Jaroslav Dautov – Engineering 

Jaroslav holds a Bs.c degree in Electrical Engineering and has been engaged on nearly 60 projects including PV fields, high voltage substations, industrial factories, hospitals, office buildings, malls, gas stations and military installations. His work scope has included design works, supervision of installation, O&M management and control over electric power systems for the generation and distribution of utility-scale energy systems with a focus on solar PV.

Emeka Okeke – Engineering

Engr. Okeke obtained a B.Eng (Hons) Degree in Electrical Engineering in Nigeria and a Post Graduate in University of Manitoba in Canada. Okeke retired as General Manager (Transmission) with technical competencies in Extra High Voltage & High Voltage AC Transmission Projects spanning 33 years in the Engineering, Generation & Transmission Sectors in the main Power Utility Company in Nigeria-National Electric Power Authority (NEPA). He also worked for four years as the Chief Operating Officer of an EPC company, which in JV partnership with KEC India designed and constructed a 310 KM 330 KV single circuit AC Transmission Line (Gombe – Damaturu -Maidugiri TL). DI- FAV is in partnership with NSCP in the development of PV power Generation Projects in Nigeria.