CDM Africa Capacity and Experience

Johan van den Berg
B Com LLB LLM
CEO and legal compliance expert

Johan practiced at the Cape Bar as an advocate, specialising in Environmental Law and Environmental Dispute Resolution, until 2002. He founded CDM Africa in 2003.

Johan is an Associate Fellow of the Society of Advanced Legal Studies in London, legal advisor to the Darling National Demonstration Windfarm and the African Wind Energy Association and an internationally accredited mediator. He is a registered trader of the South African Futures Exchange. Johan is a founder member of BioTherm Energy (Pty) an investment company that targets CDM and other energy-related projects primarily in Southern Africa.

Johan authored the UNEP Legal Background Paper on CDM in Developing Countries. He has hosted a number of training courses on CDM in South Africa, training over 100 people from industry and government on CDM. He has addressed several conferences on CDM and has lectured on CDM at four South African Universities.

Charles Liebenberg
B Com. (Hons), H.Dip Tax Law, MBA
Project finance / Financial modelling

Charles's early financial background was with Price Waterhouse in corporate finance and tax consulting. Since 1997 he has worked in the field of project finance, spending 8 years with Standard Bank Group (heading up the Energy Project Finance Division in London in 1998) and 3 years with Investec UK. He started the Energy Project Finance Division of Investec UK, which he headed until mid 2004 when he returned to South Africa and founded BioTherm Energy (Pty).

Charles has been involved in range of projects in several countries. Examples of projects undertaken by Charles include:

Co-development and mezzanine debt provision for a 400MW CCGT project and a 73MW wind farm in Ireland,
Acquisition by Investec of the UK-based ICECAP (a UK-based CDM credit aggregating business),
Financial advisor and debt arranger to Nampower for the 400kV Namibia/South Africa interconnector,
Adviser to Volta River Authority on the development and financing of the West African Gas Pipeline being developed by a Shell/Chevron consortiumDevelopment and financing of the West African Gas Pipeline,
Adviser to Cinergy Global Power on the successful US$ 20 million acquisition of Egoli gas,
Adviser and finance arranger for a diesel-fired CHP project integrated with a sugar refinery in Mauritius.

Martin Kruse
Technical Specialist
B Eng, Pr Eng, M Com, registered professional engineer with the Engineering Council of SA

Martin is technical director of WSP Energy. He has extensive experience in energy and alternative energy and is presently involved in the development of several CDM projects. In addition to performing energy audits in several industries, his strengths are identifying and conceptualising projects in energy efficiency, CDM and emission reductions.

As a project engineer, Martin has managed multi-disciplinary teams in arriving at cost effective energy generation and efficiency initiatives. He has designed, built and commissioned many energy related projects including large scale thermal solar plants, demand control initiatives, energy efficiency projects ranging from electricity, steam and waste heat utilization, biomass and waste to energy projects

Martin commenced his career as an engineer in infrastructure management and proceeded into commercial property development. In the late 1990's he worked in the banking sector developing new products and managing subsidiary companies. He then entered the energy market with distribution and marketing of liquid fuels and associated products. In the past six years, he has developed several projects in the energy sector as investor and principle developer.

Alan Yates
BSC (QS) BA (English)
Project management expert

Alan is a quantity surveyor and project management expert with thorough expertise in the preparation of tender documentation and contracts incidental to major civil engineering and building construction projects. He has accumulated experience in his capacity as a partner in a firm of consulting engineers, architects, and quantity surveyors for 20 years. Previous projects include pulp and paper mills, saw mills, offices and parking complexes, hotels, apartments, and sports stadia. Alan is a shareholder of Darlipp, the developer of the Darling Windfarm and is the incumbent project manager for the project.

Elzette Gaigher
B Com Law, B.Com (Hons) Economics, H.Dip Tax Law
Sustainable Development and Social Responsibility

Following a career in tax at KPMG, Elzette worked for Investec Bank (UK) in London for 10 years, the past 4 as head of legal and documentary risk. She was responsible for the legal and commercial evaluation of the bank's participation in private bank lending and equity investments and assured ongoing compliance with the regulatory requirements of the bank's business. During a year as a lecturer at the University of Pretoria, Elzette undertook her thesis in poverty alleviation and sustainable economic development.

Energy Research Centre (ERC)
University of Cape Town

The ERC is arguably the foremost academic institution in the energy field in Africa. Resident in the mechanical engineering faculty at UCT and formed out of the former Energy Research Institute (ERI) and Energy and Development Research Centre (EDRC), the ERC has expertise in all aspects of energy, including the CDM. The Centre has published two CDM manuals, one funded by the European Union. ERC personnel are prominent in CDM locally and internationally, with one member until recently serving on the Methodology Panel.