Our Team
Pagination
- Energy Climate Finance
Sandeep is a Senior Energy Specialist with 3 decades of experience in energy infrastructure, extractives, and finance, in both the public and private sector contexts. He has served on the ground in Africa and South Asia and handled significant assignments in East Asia and Latin America. Most recently he covered energy and green growth issues in the Eastern Europe and Central Asia (ECA) region, with focus on Kazakhstan, Moldova, and Ukraine (before the war). His extensive experience includes designing, negotiating, financing, and operating complex energy projects, nurturing multi-sectorial and institutional dialogue around decarbonization (as co-lead Country Climate and Development Report (CCDR) for Kazakhstan), scale-up of energy-efficiency, supporting energy storage infrastructure for renewables integration, assessing financial viability of a national Transmission System Operator, and engagement in industrial modernization through deep dive assessments and deployment of innovative clean technologies under public-private partnerships.
He holds degrees from the Indian Institute of Technology in Delhi, Cornell University in Ithaca, University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, and the French Petroleum Institute (IFP) in Paris. He is also a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) with practical understanding of project finance and power purchase agreements (PPAs).
- Energizing Renewables
- Sustainable Renewables Risk Mitigation Initiative (SRMI)
Talal supports the ESMAP Energizing Renewables program and the Sustainable Renewables Risk Mitigation Initiative (SRMI) team. His work focuses on the integrated approach for scaling up effective deployment of renewable energy globally.
Prior to joining the World Bank, Talal’s work focused on designing and building grid-connected solar PV plants for commercial and industrial applications in Canada. Later, he worked on advancing off-grid and hybrid solar PV systems in the Middle East and North Africa region, and advised various organizations including UNICEF, WHO, and GIZ in the context of the deployment of renewable energy for critical services in humanitarian and stabilization. Talal has field experience in development and implementation of renewable energy strategies in the Gaza strip, Sudan, and Syria.
Talal holds a Masters of Engineering from the University of Toronto focusing on energy systems, and a Bachelor of Engineering from the University of Nottingham.
- Accelerating Decarbonization
Tamara Babayan is a seasoned expert in sustainable energy policy, planning, technology, and finance. She is experienced in design and implementation of renewable energy and energy efficiency projects, development of financing mechanisms for renewable energy investments and for energy efficiency in public and residential buildings. During the last three years, Tamara Babayan has been a Senior Energy Specialist in the Europe and Central Asia region of the World Bank, leading projects in Central Asia and Western Balkan Countries, Moldova, Ukraine, Belarus, Croatia, Bulgaria, and Romania, covering overall energy dialogue, energy efficiency, renewable energy, and carbon pricing.
Tamara is a skilled project manager with nearly twenty years of experience in managing a portfolio of projects in the areas of heating, energy efficiency, small hydro, geothermal, solar PV area while working with governments, communities, private sector, local and international financial institutions, academia, and civil society. Before joining the World Bank, Tamara led the R2E2 Fund (Armenia Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Fund) for 12 years (2006-2017); she was a consultant working with various countries and international organizations (ADB, AFD, EBRD, EIB, EU, WBG, UNDP/GCF); and served as Technical Advisory Group expert of ESMAP and CIFs Strategic Climate Fund Committee and SREP Sub-Committee member for several rounds.
Tamara graduated from Yerevan State University (Physicist). She has a master’s degree in public administration.
- Accelerating Decarbonization
Tarek is part of the Accelerating Decarbonization, Energy Storage, Innovative Solar, and Utilities for the Energy Transition teams. He serves as ESMAP’s technical backbone for electric mobility, coordinates the knowledge work on battery sustainability, and contributes to the efforts on distributed photovoltaic systems. Tarek supports the World Bank operations on transport electrification and decarbonization in Europe, Southeast Asia, and in the MENA region. Prior to joining the World Bank, he worked for the German development agency GIZ on various sustainable energy projects in Africa and the MENA region. Tarek holds a Master’s degree in Electric Engineering and Information Technology from the Technical University of Munich.
- Electricity Access
- Global Mini Grids Facility
Tatia is part of the Energy Access team, with a focus on integrating mini grids and off-grid solar into electrification programs. Previously, Tatia spent nearly six years in the World Bank’s Africa region, working on mainstreaming grid-based, mini grid, and off-grid energy access solutions into lending projects in Sub-Saharan Africa, promoting regional power integration in West Africa, and supporting the energy efficiency agenda in Energy and Extractives Global Practice. Before joining the World Bank, Tatia worked with Sidar Global Advisors, where she oversaw research and business intelligence in the energy and infrastructure sectors for Eurasian public and private sector clients. She holds an MA International Economics, International Affairs and Energy Policy from the Johns Hopkins University Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, and an MSc in European Political Studies from the London School of Economics and Political Science.