Our Team

Lucie has 24 years of experience in communications, with 16 years at the World Bank Group, including assignments with IFC in Nairobi and Dakar.  She has worked on environmental and social policies, transport and climate change, and trade and investment climate issues. 

As ESMAP’s communications lead, she is responsible for advising ESMAP teams on messaging and communication of ESMAP global knowledge products and program results; raising ESMAP’s profile in international forums and enhancing ESMAP’s digital presence; and supporting regional teams on energy subsidy reform communications.

Marie-Gisele provides integral support to the Energy Access and the World Bank Power System Planning teams. She has acted as the Sr. Executive Assistant in the Office of the Director and Sr. Director of the World Bank Energy & Extractives Global Practice.  Marie-Gisele's experience expands numerous World Bank operation systems, monitoring and evaluation, trust fund administration, and human resources related matters. Marie-Gisele is fluent in both French and English.

Marj implements front- and back-end development and oversees the overall design of the ESMAP website, subsidiary sites, and activity databases. She designs and produces the quarterly electronic newsletter; writes news for the web; and maintains ESMAP’s external contacts database.  Marj leads the coordination of all ESMAP’s Donors’ Consultative Group Meetings and all International knowledge exchange and global outreach events, such as: ESMAP Knowledge Exchange Forums in Austria, Netherlands, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom; Mini Grids Learning Events in Ghana, Kenya, Myanmar, and Nigeria; and the ESMAP Geothermal International Conferences.

Michelle is passionate about knowledge and data-driven products for strategic decisions, with over 17 years of experience in the energy sector. Enthusiastic about innovation and policy adaptation for Just Energy Transition, working toward a zero net emissions industry that can deliver universal access to energy services. She has experience in promoting, designing, and evaluating clean cooking programs.

Michelle was a senior Economist and the Knowledge Coordinator at the Energy Division of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). Responsible for leading the knowledge agenda, analytical products, databases, and dissemination, and developing the area, the funding, and the team from the beginning. Recently, she led the Energy HUB for Latin America and the Caribbean, a collaborative tool for data gathering and knowledge-sharing for Latin America and the Caribbean Energy Transition. And she led the development of a unified agenda for clean hydrogen at the IDB. 

Michelle was also an advisor on energy industries related matters for governments, regulatory authorities, utilities, and industrial associations in Europe, Latin America, and Asia. She has worked as an independent consultant and as part of consulting companies, think tanks, and ONGs. She has been actively involved in educating senior professionals and young researchers; she also serves as an Energy Policy Advisor at the Florence School of Regulation, and editor and peer reviewer of academic journals. She is a regular speaker in workshops, seminars, and conferences. As a result of her research interest, she has co-authored twenty-nine articles in peer-reviewed journals and eight book chapters.

Michelle has PhD in Economics from the University of Paris Sud XI and she was a Jean Monnet Fellow at the European University Institute.

In her new role in ESMAP, Michelle will be leading the Clean Cooking Fund.

Wali is primarily responsible for trust fund administration and financial management/reporting in the ESMAP and Energy Climate Finance programs.  He comes to us from the Afghanistan Country office where he was working on the Bank’s largest single country multi-donor trust fund, the Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund (ARTF). Wali has extensive experience in financial management, Bank’s operational policies and procedures, disbursements and trust fund management. Over the last one year, Wali was with the South Asia Regional Integration Unit and the FCV Group on Development Assignment managing regional and global trust funds.

Nathyeli is leading the ESMAP Gender and Energy Program. Her work focuses on the inclusion of the gender perspective within Energy Sector interventions to foster women's participation in the sector, promote the use of productive uses of energy among women-owned businesses, and include more women as users of energy. Within the World Bank, she has been leading the implementation of the new Gender and Energy program globally while also providing gender technical support to the Africa region of the World Bank.  Before joining ESMAP, Nathyeli worked as a gender expert for the Inter-American Development Bank. She was also a consultant for gender and urban mobility in climate change adaptation and mitigation projects. Nathyeli holds an Economics degree from the Costa Rica University and a Master´s in Urban Economics from the Torcuato Di Tella University (Argentina).

Senior Program Assistant

Rafael has been with the Bank since 2012 and had the chance to work first time with ESMAP as STC, contributing to the publication of “Bringing Variable Renewable Energy Up to Scale - Options for Grid Integration Using Natural Gas and Energy Storage”. In 2015 he became part of the CIF team, where he worked mostly on the SREP program and, in partnership with ESMAP, co-led three knowledge-exchange events on minigrids in 2016 and 2017. In 2019 he joined the LAC Energy operational unit, focusing on the decarbonization agenda in Central America, being the green hydrogen focal point for the region and playing the role of ESMAP RC. 

Prior to the Bank, Rafa had worked already a decade on renewable energies (mostly wind and solar PV), green hydrogen and fuel cells, both at the Spanish Institute of Aerospace Technology and at international private companies. He studied chemical engineering and holds a master’s degree on Renewable Energy and Energy Markets from the EOI, Madrid.

In his current position, Rafa will be supporting the ESP, Green Hydrogen y Climate Finance teams.

Raihan joined ESMAP as Lead Energy Specialist from the Africa Energy Practice.  Raihan brings 25 years of Bank operational experience from two regions – Africa and South Asia. He has worked extensively in electricity sector policy, regulation, utility reforms, regional integration, energy finance, guarantees, renewable energy, and energy access. He has supported client governments introduce new policies, implement public private partnerships and design innovative projects to push the boundaries of energy sector development.

Raihan is a thought leader in promoting innovative technologies and disruptive business models to help countries achieve their development targets in a faster and sustainable manner. Before moving to ESMAP, Raihan was managing the Energy Access Flagship and the Lighting Africa Program.  He helped the Lighting Africa Program evolve to support electrification of productive uses, and public institutions to contribute to broader Bank objectives of human capital development.  These lessons were effectively used in the Uganda Electricity Access Scale Up Project (EASP - P166685) and Regional Off-Grid Electricity Access Project (ROGEAP – P160708) to provide electricity access to more than 10 million people. In South Asia, Raihan played a significant role in the design and development of the Bangladesh solar market which electrified about 18 million people.

In addition, Raihan has extensively worked on energy practice areas such as hydropower, geothermal energy, grid connected solar PV, regional transmission interconnections, utility performance improvement, and power sector reforms. He has authored numerous livewires and policy research working papers.

Rutu is part of the energy access team, leading the work on providing energy access to displaced persons, marginalized and host communities as well as linking this work humanitarian settings. She works with task teams to operationalize this work as well as coordinate with internal Bank colleagues in the Fragile Conflict and Violence Team as well as with external stakeholders at the UN and NGO actors active in this space. Her focus is on implementing ESMAP products in the field.

She also leads several World Bank projects and operations in East Asia Pacific and Africa and has worked previously on projects in the MENA region, ECA region as well. Her work focuses on energy access, energy efficiency, climate change and clean cooking. Prior to joining the World Bank, she worked at the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), focusing on mitigation, adaptation, and sustainable development. She also at the European Commission at the Directorate General Trade’s Sustainable Development Unit and at the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency. She has studied at the University of East Anglia UK; Wageningen University, the Netherlands and Yale University and Harvard University, USA.

Sabine Cornieti, Senior Energy Specialist

Renewable Energy | Solar | Wind | Climate Change

Sabine is part of the Renewable Energy team and co-founder of the Sustainable Renewables Risk Mitigation Initiative (SRMI), leading global solar and wind deployment operations in Burkina Faso, Indonesia and Vietnam as well as providing strategic advice to over 25 SRMI countries. Previously, Sabine worked with the World Bank’s Climate Change Group engaged in renewable energy policies.

Before joining the World Bank, Sabine was an Associate Business Developer for EREN Renewable Energy in Jakarta, a large wind and solar independent power producer. She focused on market analysis, project acquisition due diligence, financial modeling, and technical development of solar and wind projects developed under feed-in-tariff and auctions schemes in Indonesia, Myanmar, Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam. She also worked with GIZ in Indonesia on renewable energy policies, and with UNDP in New York on evaluating post-conflict programs. She holds a BSc in Economics from the University of Nottingham, UK, a MSc in Economics from Sorbonne Paris 1, and specialized in Renewable Energy Policies at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, USA.