Umer Ahmad

As an ex-banker with around 22 years' experience in Energy, Infrastructure, Project financing, M&A and PPP internationally, Umer is an executive business leader and investment professional who has led businesses/teams in various environments.

He has been integrally involved in or led more than 25 transactions to financial close/execution, with an aggregate deal value of over USD12bn.  He spent the first 12 years of his career in London as a project finance principal banker (debt and equity) lending to and investing in projects (including having been a Director at Barclays, where he spent 7 years), having started his career at Goldman Sachs IBD in M&A advisory.  Over the last decade or so, he has focused on emerging markets while being based in the Middle East, spending several years in advisory (including being Head of Deloitte’s P&IF advisory team across the region), and before returning to being an equity principal, at SNC-Lavalin Capital as VP of EMEA, and then at Equitix / Rakiza, before joining Capton.

Umer is an engaging public speaker and is regularly asked to speak at industry conferences.  As a leading industry figure, he has twice been invited to preside on the judging panel for IJ Global’s annual awards for the Middle East & Africa.   In addition, since 2017 Umer has been a Board Member of the International Project Finance Association's (IPFA) Middle East Branch Council.

Elen Cross

Having started her career at law firms Buddle Finlay in NZ and Hogan Lovells in the UK in the construction and project groups, Elen is a dual qualified practical commercial lawyer, with over two decades of experience. Having successfully completed major infrastructure and energy projects in the GCC and across the globe advising governments, developers and lenders, Elen brings a wealth of legal and commercial experience across a range of legal disciplines and sectors. Elen provides strong regional and commercial insight as result of depth of local and international knowledge. Prior to joining Capton Energy, Elen had 11 years within the ACWA Power group of companies, working her way to Senior Management and head of legal at NOMAC, with further experience in the investment arm of the stakeholders, and contributed to the hugely successful IPO of ACWA Power, as well as being involved in over USD 5 billion of transactions.

Hari Prasad

Hari has more than 18 years of strong technical and project management experience in solar energy project design, engineering, construction management and maintenance of large-scale solar utility projects. He has a vast experience handling multiple responsibilities within solar utility and rooftop projects as well as off-grid solutions in different entities.

Hari has supported different organisations to build large portfolios of solar projects across different geographies. He worked in key lead roles for over 3GW worth of Solar PV and 100MW Solar CSP projects in organizations like DEWA (Dubai Electricity and Water Authority), Reliance power, Saudi Oger and others.

He has international experience in handling projects in UAE, India, Egypt and Jordan.

Célènne Mamou

Célènne is a French professional with 7 years experience in investment and project management across Europe and the Middle East. Her background is mainly finance-related, with experiences in private equity, asset management, M&A and audit. She holds a Master's in International Management from ESCP Europe and speaks French, English and Spanish.

Prior to Capton, she worked at Société Générale and Natixis Asset Management and has also been part of the unlisted assets investment team at Caisse des dépôts, a French public sector financial institution, and worked on renewable energy and ESG projects for the logistics and real estate fund of Carrefour Group: installation of solar panels -carports and rooftops-, development of EV charging stations, recycling.

Ian Hoffbeck

Ian has been working in the solar energy industry since 2009 and in Asian and African markets since 2011. His background includes solar energy research, manufacturing, EPC and project development in the US, China, Afghanistan and Egypt. Prior to Capton Energy Ian held the position of Senior Business Development Manager at TBEA Sunoasis, taking greenfield projects from origination to financial closure across the Middle East and Africa. Ian is an American and holds a BS in Electrical Engineering from Calvin College. He speaks Mandarin Chinese and Arabic.

Gabriel Diaz

Gabriel has over 4 years of experience in finance and investment including almost a year involved in the set-up of Capton. During his time in Madrid, Gabriel worked for the Structured Finance team at Sacyr, covering the EMEA & APAC regions focusing on project finance debt and infrastructure investment in IWP, WTP and WTE projects, and he also spent time at Santander Group subsequently. Gabriel gained experience in corporate banking sector in Ireland, as a business consultant in Dublin working on a Non-Performing Loan portfolio sale aimed at restructuring a leading bank’s highly leveraged position.

Paola Saenz

Paola has over a decade of experience working directly with C-level executives whilst supporting their global operations and HR needs within the Oil & Gas, Renewable Energy, and IT industries. Throughout these years, she has worked with executives from companies such as Dubai Petroleum, Abu Dhabi Company for Onshore Petroleum Operation (ADCO), Petroleum Development Oman (PDO), Saudi Aramco and Siemens in the regions of Europe, Middle-East and South America.

Paola joined the Capton team in 2020 and has been assisting in the processes related to setting up the company.