April 25 Speakers

• 
  Aimee Witteman
  Executive Director, Invest in our Future

  Aimee is a mission-driven strategist with over 20 years of experience leading teams, seeing around corners, and designing and advancing philanthropic, policy, and grassroots campaigns. Expert at place-based grantmaking strategies, Aimee has designed and led philanthropic programs at the McKnight Foundation, Climate Imperative Foundation, and Energy Foundation aimed at equitably decarbonizing local and state economies and advancing democratic participation.

  Aimee served in the Biden administration as deputy assistant secretary for Intergovernmental Affairs at the Department of Energy, where she built and led a team of regional specialists charged with increasing the department’s collaboration with local communities, state governments, Tribal nations, and external stakeholders. She got her start working in sustainable agriculture and rural development, including as executive director for the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition.

• 
  Mimi Alemayehou
  Senior Advisor, Three Cairns Group

  Mimi is a development finance leader with expertise in clean infrastructure investment in the public and private sectors. She co-leads Three Cairns Group’s engagement with development finance institutions and philanthropies across emerging markets, as well as the selection process for Allied Climate Partners’ investment partner in Africa.

  As senior vice president for public-private partnerships at MasterCard, Mimi’s portfolio included initiatives to catalyze social impact and financial inclusion in emerging markets. She advanced major energy and infrastructure projects across Africa as managing director of the Black Rhino Group and chair of Blackstone Africa Infrastructure LP. Mimi’s government service includes roles as the U.S. representativeon the African Development Bank’s board and executive vice president of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), the U.S. government’s development finance agency. During her tenure, OPIC tripled the size of its Africa portfolio, growing investments in renewable resources tenfold in three years to $1.5 billion.

  Mimi is currently on the board of the ONE Campaign to end extreme poverty. She also has served on the boards of Climate Change Crisis Real Impact, Energy for Growth Hub, FinDev Canada, the U.S. African Development Foundation, and Twitter, Inc.

• 
  Faustine Delasalle
  Co-Executive Director, Mission Possible Partnership

  Faustine is an experienced coalition builder and recognized thought leader in the field of energy and industry transitions. In 2019, she initiated the creation of the Mission Possible Partnership (MPP), an alliance focused on supercharging the decarbonization of some of the world’s highest-emitting industries in heavy industry and transport. She has steered the build-up and growth of the organization in different roles since then.

  Faustine was the first director of the Energy Transitions Commission (ETC), a founding partner of the Mission Possible Partnership, from 2016 to 2022. She spearheaded the ETC’s analysis on how to achieve net-zero energy systems globally by mid-century, and developed an extensive network of global leaders across energy, industry, finance, and civil society. She is also a partner at Systemiq, a system change firm, supporting the ETC, where she led the energy transition practice.

  Prior to that, Faustine worked in the public sector (Parliament, local government), private sector (a tech start-up), and civil society (with think tanks and NGOs). She is also an OnPurpose Fellow.