The investment team of ten, including six principals, senior investment managers and analysts, is based in Cape Town and Johannesburg, South Africa and in London, U.K. The team offers over 60 years collective track record in private equity and venture capital investing, technology and sustainability. This experience includes numerous cleantech market segments such as solar, wind, fuel cells, biogas, biofuels, energy efficiency, waste and water investments.

The team in combination with its cornerstone partner and investor, the Consensus Business Group, has advised on over US$ 700 million worth of investments in cleantech, new energy and environmental projects worldwide.

Team members:

Mr Wade de Jager

Wade is the independent non-executive Chairman of the investment committee of Inspired Evolution Investment Management. Wade plays a crucial role in providing strategic investment advice and independently guiding the funds investment decisions as part of the Fund’s sound corporate governance strategy. Between 1998 and 2006 Wade was Director and Head of Private Equity at Standard Bank’s Private Equity unit. His unit was responsible for providing mezzanine and equity finance for acquisitions/buy-outs and expansion capital for businesses.

Mr Michael Brooks

Michael is Chief Executive Officer, Director and a Principal at Inspired Evolution Investment Management. Mike is actively involved in managing the investment process, responsible for deal sourcing, deal flow and evaluation, and integrates at an executive level with investment management. Mike’s broad and deep expertise in many aspects of the financial markets, structured risk management products and integrated financial abilities will be applied to the core investments made by the fund. Prior to Inspired Evolution Investment Management, Mike was an executive director, co-founder and shareholder of Coronation Capital Limited, whose core operations included structured finance, equity arbitrage, private equity, treasury and risk management and property finance and funding.

Mr Christopher Clarke

Christopher is a Director and a Principal at Inspired Evolution Investment Management. Christopher assumes primary oversight of the fund’s technology and sector strategy and analysis. As a professional engineer and environment sector expert, Christopher also assumes responsibility for the fund’s sustainability performance. Prior to founding Capital Evolution Christopher spent fifteen years specialising in business development and management, engineering technology innovations and environmental goods and services projects and markets. He focused on technology and environment transactions and the role that sustainability investing can play in generating positive environmental and societal impacts. His experience spans start up enterprise development and management, project development finance, environmental planning, sustainability strategy, policy development, and corporate governance.

Mr Guy Baxter

Guy is a Director and a Principal at Inspired Evolution Investment Management. Guy holds a Bachelor’s Degree from the University of Natal, Durban. He gained extensive development finance experience at the Small Business Development Corporation (SBDC) in South Africa before establishing a privately owned business consulting practice in 1991. In the period since then, Guy has successfully provided a broad range of advisory and consulting services to major public and private sector entities in South Africa, including business and project planning, PPP financing programmes and bid strategies in the areas of gaming, tourism and media. Guy has specialised in devising and facilitating public-sector funded projects in South Africa. He is currently the Managing Director of Consensus Business Group South Africa.

Mr Wayne Keast

Wayne Keast is the Managing Partner of the Evolution One Fund and an executive director of Inspired Evolution Investment Managers (the Manager). He is also the Chief Executive of Consensus Environment, the $500m New Energy and Environmental infrastructure private equity investment arm of the London based Consensus Business Group. Wayne is also a founding Partner & Investment Director of the $250m Abu Dhabi Masdar Cleantech Fund. Wayne is a Non-Executive Director of several Cleantech investee companies. Current and past NED positions including, Econergy International plc (a listed Americas based clean energy developer, carbon broker & consultancy), Renewable Energy Holdings plc (a listed European clean energy developer), Duratherm Inc (a Texas based hydrocarbon recycling and metal recovery business), HaloSource, Inc (a Seattle based water purification business), Dynamotive Energy Systems Inc (a listed Canadian / US bio oil & biomass), Bowman Power (UK based turbo electric technology) and Green Gas Int’l (Global Coal mine methane & Landfill Gas developer). Wayne led an investment team that has invested and committed more than $700m into Cleantech and Environmental infrastructure investments around the world. He is on the strategic committee and advisory board for Aloe Environment Fund II (the €100m European, India & China focused technology and infrastructure fund) and the advisory board of Chrysalix Energy II LP (the $70m early stage North American Cleantech fund). Past advisory board positions include, Expansion Capital Cleantech Fund II (the $100m US based expansion stage fund) and Environmental Technology Fund (UK based £100m Cleantech fund). Prior to joining Consensus in 2005, Wayne spent several years in corporate finance, strategy consulting, venture capital and private equity positions. He was VP Corporate Finance at Edengene Finance from 2003-2005 and Chief Financial Officer at ePartners, eVentures and Softbank UK Ventures (the $1.2 billion global private equity and business incubation group) from 2000 – 2003. From 1994-1999 Wayne was Group Financial Director & Head of Corporate Development for a large South African conglomerate of 22 diverse operating and investment companies (including retail, manufacture, construction, trade finance) Wayne holds a Bachelor’s and Honour’s degree in Accounting Science, Commerce & Finance [BCompt (Hons) CTA] from the University of South Africa and is a qualified Chartered Accountant [CA (SA)].

Ms Kate Rees

Kate is a Senior Deal Principal at Inspired Evolution Investment Management. Prior to joining Inspired Evolution she was a deal executive and director of Brait’s private equity business, where her main responsibilities included investments in manufacturing and construction. Kate, a chartered accountant, qualified at Deloitte, and is a graduate of the University of the Witwatersrand and the University of Cape Town where she completed degrees in commerce and accounting, respectively.

Ms Roanne Baker

Roanne is an Investment Associate and transaction analyst at Inspired Evolution Investment Management using her diverse experience to focus on equity investments in SADC countries and in the waste management sector.  Roanne joined the team as a consultant while completing her MBA at Rhodes Investec Business School.  Originating from the corporate sphere, she has held various senior financial management positions in London, Zimbabwe and South Africa across the retail, packaging and recycling sectors.  Prior to joining to joining IEIM, Roanne held a number of management positions at EnviroServ, including divisional director of EnviroServ Polymer Solutions, Project Manager in the Strategic Growth Division focusing on mergers and acquisition and in the Industry Solutions division building new growth opportunities through waste minimisation strategies.  Roanne holds a Diploma in Information Technology, a Bachelor of Business Administration (Strategic and Financial Management) and as part of her MBA studies was South Africa’s first scholarship student to be sent on the Aarhus Business School’s ESSAM program.

Ms Bulelwa Ntshingwa

Bulelwa is an Investment Associate and transaction analyst at Inspired Evolution Investment Management. Bulelwa is actively involved in deal sourcing, analysis of the equity investments, deal structuring and investment management. Prior to joining Inspired Evolution she was an equity analyst with Old Mutual Investment Group, Eskom Pension & Provident Fund and RMB Asset Management with primary responsibility for equity analysis. Equity analysis involved preparation of financial models for industrial companies, focusing on different sectors under Industrials, site visits, meeting management of those companies, doing research on different industries comparing various ratios and financial performance amongst competitors, and performing financial valuations and advising on company valuation. Bulelwa holds a Bachelor’s degree in Commerce (Financial Accounting) and is currently completing her Chartered Financial Analyst qualifications.

Mr Steven Faure

Steven is an Investment Associate and transaction analyst at Inspired Evolution Investment Management. Steven’s experience lies primarily within the investment banking arena where he spent 3 years working for a leading international financial institution, Deutsche Bank. The scope of his work spanned equity and credit derivative product support, structuring and execution, and involvement in mitigating operational risks within the Group. Steven holds a Bachelor of Economics, Honours in Financial Economics from the University of the Stellenbosch, and an MBA cum laude from Stellenbosch University’s Business School.

Mr John Rowland

John Rowland is a Cleantech transaction advisor to the Evolution One Fund. He is also an Investment Manager at Consensus Environment, the $500m New Energy and Environmental infrastructure private equity investment arm of the London based Consensus Business Group. He has spent more than 3 years working on Cleantech transactions for Consensus Environment and the $250m Abu Dhabi Masdar Cleantech Fund. John has Board responsibilities across the portfolio of investments and works on a daily basis building value within them. Before joining Consensus in 2006 he spent over 3 years in equity research and managing high net worth equity portfolios for Custom House Capital. John is also a qualified Electronic Engineer having worked for almost 4 years in industry. John’s responsibilities at Inspired Evolution responsibilities include working on a daily basis with the team providing additional expertise on transaction negotiation and due diligence, plus sector overviews and technology transfer opportunities. John has attained the CFA designation, a Post-Grad in Business (1st class – Smurfit Business School) and a Bachelor of Engineering (1st class).