Our Team

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.

Samantha leads the gender program within the access workstream.  Her experience expands the Poverty & Equity Global Department and Energy & Extractives in the Middle East and North Africa region, as well as Social Protection and Jobs in the Africa Western and Central region.  Samantha has worked with task teams on strengthening gender equality across the clean energy value chain, ensuring equity in efforts around decarbonization and promoting productive uses of energy among women and marginalized groups. 

Samantha has also supported strategic and operational policy dialogue, client engagement, and partnerships for Investment Project Financing, Program for Results operations, and Analytical products. She has delivered capacity-building programs, covering cross-cutting gender topics such as childcare, digital inclusion and women’s leadership.  Select publications include Women’s Entrepreneurship in Climate Tech: Insights from Egypt, Morocco, and Tunisia (2024), Toward More and Better Jobs in Energy for Women in MENA (2022), and Gender in Energy Interventions in Fragile and Conflict States (2020). Prior to her work in the MENA and Africa region, Samantha served as Associate Director at the Wolfensohn Center for Development at the Brookings institution. Samantha received her MA in International Affairs: Middle East and North Africa Comparative and Regional Studies from American University, Washington DC. 

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).

Satyaki joins the ESMAP team to lead the technical and analytical work on Energy Storage systems under the Transitions Workstream.  He previously consulted with the South Asia Region and Africa Energy teams where he provided technical guidance on large grid-connected solar and battery energy storage systems. 

Prior to joining the World Bank, Satyaki worked both in heavy engineering Industry as an International Bid Manager and Project Controller for a global wind energy OEM handling the life cycle of setting up large grid-connected wind power projects from concept to commissioning (c2C) and Revenue management of $600 million annually. Post- industry, Satyaki worked as Strategy Manager for a niche business consulting firm providing business diversification advice to large corporates and state-owned enterprises on their decarbonization strategy and financing, focusing on acquisitions of large wind and solar generation assets and diversification of their energy mix using a pool of corporate PPAs and group captive assets. 

Satyaki holds a Bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering and a Master’s in Business Administration focusing on Finance and Business Economics from Asian Institute of Management, Manila.

Snorri leads the Geothermal Program under the Energy Transition workstream. Prior to joining ESMAP, Snorri held the position of senior geologist/geochemist at Reykjavik Geothermal working on geothermal development projects in various locations worldwide, in low to high income countries. This includes surface exploration in green field projects, resource assessment, drilling strategy, project revisions and due diligence. 

Snorri holds a joint PhD degree from University of Iceland and Paul Sabatier III, in Toulouse France in geochemistry, researching water rock interaction with relation to CO₂ mineralization.

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.

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. 

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.

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.

Xiaoping joins the ESMAP Energy Transition workstream where she will focus on energy transition and climate finance. Xiaoping has worked extensively in the energy sector, including sector reforms and policy dialogue, renewable energy, energy efficiency, transmission and distribution, utility performance, energy access and regional integration. 

Most recently, she was Program Leader for infrastructure and oversaw infrastructure engagement in Ethiopia, Sudan, South Sudan and Eritrea. Xiaoping has also worked in South Asia, East Asia, Latin America, Eastern Europe, and taken field assignments in Bangkok, Kathmandu and Addis Ababa. During her first stint with ESMAP in 2012-17, she led the setup of the SE4ALL facility and its implementation as well as led the power sector resilience agenda. 

Yaejun is part of the Energy Transition team focusing on the Hydropower Development Facility with extensive experience in renewable energy and energy efficiency projects to support energy transition. Before joining ESMAP, he spent seven years at the World Bank’s Europe and Central Asia Region (ECA) Energy Group where he engaged in energy transition dialogues with governments and implementation of energy operations for Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania, Serbia, Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Türkiye, and Kyrgyz Republic. 

Prior to joining the World Bank, Yaejun also worked in the private sector as an IPP developer where he facilitated private sector investments, focusing on market analysis, project acquisition feasibility studies, due diligence, financial modeling, and the technical development of renewable energy including solar, biomass, hydro, and waste-to-energy projects through non-recourse Project Financing.  Yaejun also served as a CDM project manager overseeing GHG abatement facilities and securing carbon emission reduction credits under UNFCCC. He holds MSc in Sustainable Forest Management from the Oregon State University, and BS in Environmental Material Science from the Seoul National University.