Peter George 2024 Speaker

Partner and Investment Director

Spark+ Africa Fund / Enabling Qapital

Biography

Peter George structured, fundraised, and co-manages Spark+ Africa Fund, a $64 million impact fund investing across the value chains of clean and modern cooking energy solutions in Africa. The fund is advised by Swiss investment advisory firm Enabling Qapital, and its general partner is a 50/50 joint venture between Enabling Qapital and Stichting Modern Cooking, a Dutch foundation for which Mr. George serves as Chairman. Prior to launching Spark+, Mr. George was Senior Director of Private Sector and Investment at the United Nations Foundation’s Clean Cooking Alliance where he led the organization’s strategy to mobilize capital for clean cooking solutions globally, from which Spark+ was developed. Mr. George’s 18-year career in the renewable and traditional energy industries spans advisory and principal investing roles in bulge-bracket investment banking, private equity and development finance/impact investing. He began his career in the Global Energy and Power Group at Merrill Lynch, based in Houston. He later joined ArcLight Capital Partners, one of the world’s largest energy-focused private equity firms headquartered in Boston, where he supported a range of project finance and private equity transactions in oil and gas, conventional power generation, and renewables, including the largest wind power project in the United States at the time. He then transitioned into leadership roles in impact investment, development finance, and private sector development focused on frontier markets in Africa and Asia. Before the United Nations Foundation, he joined London-based Global Village Energy Partnership (GVEP) International as a Director responsible for establishing an advisory services practice which provided financial and strategic consulting services to energy project developers across Africa and selected markets in Asia and Latin America. Mr. George holds dual citizenship in the United States and the United Kingdom, and is resident in the Netherlands.