Team

Alexandre Alvim

Founding Partner – Latin America

Alexandre Alvim is a Founding Partner of GEFCP and co-head of the Latin America investment practice. He is based out of Sao Paulo, Brazil where he focuses on middle-market growth equity opportunities in South America.

Mr. Alvim joined Global Environment Fund in 2015 as a Managing Director before founding GEFCP. Mr. Alvim has over 18 years of experience as an investor, board member, and executive with various private equity-backed portfolio companies primarily in the renewable energy, environmental services and technology sectors. Prior to GEF, Mr. Alvim was Executive Director of Energy and Business Development with Estre Ambiental (Nasdaq: ESTR), Brazil’s largest environmental services company, where he led its waste-to-energy business. Prior to Estre, he co-founded and served as Managing Partner of Greentech Capital, an investment and advisory firm in the clean tech and renewable energy sectors. Mr. Alvim has also served as the CEO of Inova International, a Darby Private Equity investment in the Internet sector and as Executive Vice President of Embratel, one of Brazil’s largest telecom operators. Mr. Alvim started his career as a consultant at Accenture.Mr. Alvim currently serves on the board of ENC Brasil, Luminae and Tecverde. Mr. Alvim received a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP) and an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. He has also completed the CEAG course at Fundação Getúlio Vargas (FGV-EAESP).

Stuart Barkoff

Founding Partner – United States

Stuart Barkoff is a Founding Partner of GEFCP and co-head of the U.S. investment practice. He is based out of Washington, D.C. where he focuses on lower middle-market growth equity opportunities in North America.

Mr. Barkoff joined Global Environment Fund as a Managing Director in 2008 before founding GEFCP. While at Global Environment Fund, Mr. Barkoff assumed increasing duties and responsibilities, including serving as the General Counsel of Global Environment Fund beginning In 2011 and serving as Chief Operating Officer beginning in 2017. During this period, Mr. Barkoff oversaw a number of the firm’s investments, including most recently the sale of Aurora Flight Sciences to Boeing. Prior to joining Global Environment Fund, Mr. Barkoff was an attorney with Arnold & Porter LLP, an international law firm based in Washington, D.C., where he worked principally with private equity and venture capital funds, and their portfolio companies, on a wide variety of acquisitions and investments. At Arnold & Porter, Mr. Barkoff advised Global Environment Fund as legal counsel on many of its U.S. investments. Mr. Barkoff currently serves on the board of directors of Gro-Well Brands, Inc. Mr. Barkoff received an A.B. in English from Vassar College as well as a J.D. and a M.B.A. from Emory University.

Sridhar Narayan

Founding Partner – South Asia

Sridhar Narayan is a Founding Partner of GEFCP and co-head of the South Asia investment practice. Mr. Narayan joined Global Environment Fund in 2012 and is based in Mumbai, India.

He brings over 23 years of experience investing in Indian public and private markets. Mr Narayan joined Global Environment Fund in 2012 before founding GEFCP. While at Global Environment Fund, Mr Narayan was involved in investments in renewable energy and energy efficiency related businesses. He was also responsible for providing overall guidance to the South Asia investment program of Global Environment Fund. He served on the Board of Renew Power Limited and Shakti
Pumps Limited and was actively engaged in managing and exiting the investment in Greenko. Prior to joining the Global Environment Fund, Mr. Narayan worked for JRE Partners in Mumbai, where he led minority, growth capital investments in a variety of rapidly advancing sectors within India. Prior to JRE Partners, he served as Vice President of Direct Investments (India) for American International Group (AIG) . While there, he invested both the proprietary capital of AIG and third-party private equity funds managed by AIG. He began his career with Zurich Asset Management India/ITC Threadneedle AMC India as the Head of Fixed Income, responsible for the portfolio management, trading, fixed income research, and the monthly communications to investors. Mr. Narayan currently serves on the board o Shakti Pumps Limited. Mr. Narayan holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Management from the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, and a Bachelor of Technology in Mechanical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology BHU (IIT–BHU).

Raj Pai

Founding Partner – South Asia

Raj Pai is a Founding Partner of GEFCP and co-head of the South Asia investment practice. Mr. Pai joined Global Environment Fund as a Managing Director in 2008 before founding GEFCP.

He has over 23 years of professional experience spanning entrepreneurial, operational and venture investing activities in India and in the US. While at Global Environment Fund, Mr. Pai worked across multiple portfolios and was involved in the set up of the South Asia Clean Energy Fund (Fund I), a dedicated fund for growth and expansion investing in South Asia. In addition to overseeing guidance and operations of the South Asia program, Mr. Pai served as the nominee representative for the fund’s following investments – Rishabh, IEX (exited via IPO in 2017), iClean (a M&A exit to Takasago Thermal,Tokyo), Concord Enviro and Kalkitech. He was also intimately involved in the exit phase of Reva Electric Car to Mahindra Electric. Prior to GEF, Mr. Pai was a Managing Director at CID Capital, a 30+ -year old growth equity investment firm investing growth and expansion stage capital in the US. During this eight years period, Mr. Pai oversaw and/or worked on a number of the firm’s investments,leading efforts in technology, life sciences and clean technology areas. He was instrumental in business development initiatives with several of his portfolio companies, particularly in the green software and clean lighting (LED) space, assisting them in navigating market opportunities along the U.S.–India corridor. Prior to CID, Mr. Pai worked in consulting and in operational capacities for various Fortune 1000 technology companies globally, including American Management Systems (AMS), British Telecom and AT&T. Mr. Pai currently serves on the board of Concord Enviro, Rishabh Instruments and ESDS, Inc. Mr. Pai received a B.S. in Computer Engineering from the University of Bombay, a Master of Computer Science from Arizona State University, and an MBA from the University of Chicago. He is a dual U.S.–India citizen and speaks three native Indian languages as well as English.

Daniel Prawda

Founding Partner – United States

Daniel Prawda is a Founding Partner of GEFCP and co-head of the U.S. investment practice. He is based out of Washington, D.C. where he focuses on lower middle-market growth equity opportunities in North America.

Mr. Prawda joined Global Environment Fund as a Managing Director in 2016 before founding GEFCP. Prior to joining Global Environment Fund, Mr. Prawda served as an investment professional with ACON Investments, where he spent 14 years sourcing and executing private equity investments in the United States and Latin America. Transactions included Fairway Outdoor and Magic Media in the U.S. media/advertising space, SAE Towers and IDX Corporation in the global manufacturing space, ProEnergy
Services and APR Energy in the global power services sector and Grupo Sala; one of the leading waste management companies in Colombia. Prior to joining ACON Investments in 2002, Mr. Prawda worked with the Latin America Corporate Finance Group at JP Morgan Chase, where he was responsible for various corporate debt offerings in Mexico and Brazil. Mr. Prawda currently serves on the board of directors of Gro-Well Brands, Inc. and Red Ambiental. Mr. Prawda received a B.A. in Economics and International Relations from Tufts University.

Anibal Wadih

Founding Partner – Latin America

Anibal Wadih is a Founding Partner of GEFCP and co-head of the Latin America investment practice. He is based out of Sao Paulo, Brazil where he focuses on middle-market growth equity opportunities in South America.

Anibal Wadih joined Global Environment Fund in 2014 based in São Paulo, Brazil. He joins GEF from Canepa Management where he was a partner responsible for direct investments and business development throughout Latin America. Previously, Mr. Wadih was a Managing Director with Macquarie Capital, where he led a private capital merchant banking team investing in Latin America with a focus on the infrastructure and agribusiness sectors. While at Macquarie, he participated in a wide range of private equity transactions as well as the development of private equity and mezzanine fund platforms for the region where he served as an investment committee member. Prior to Macquarie, he was a senior member of the M&A group with Deutsche Bank in Latin America focusing on financial sponsors. Mr. Wadih currently serves on the board of AGV Logistica, Tecverde Engenheria, Neogas and ENC Brasil Mr. Wadih received a B.S. in Electrical Engineering (BSEE) from Universidad Simon Bolivar(Venezuela), a Master’s in Finance from IESA (Venezuela), and an MBA from the Stern School of Business at New York University.

Aditya Arora

Principal – South Asia

Aditya Arora joined GEF in 2015 and is responsible for sourcing, executing, and managing investments in South Asia.

He offers extensive experience in Indian private equity transactions, including portfolio management. Prior to GEF, Mr. Arora was an Investment Manager with Navis Capital, a South/Southeast Asia-focused private and public equity firm with $5.0 billion in assets under management, where he was responsible for sourcing, structuring, managing, and exiting investments. Prior to Navis, Mr. Arora was a member of the investment banking team of JM Financial, one of India’s leading investment banks, executing transactions in the consumer, healthcare, and infrastructure sectors. He currently serves on the board of XXX Mr. Arora holds an MBA from Indian School of Business, Hyderabad and received his Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Calcutta. He is also a Chartered Accountant and is proficient in English, Hindi, and Bengali.

Derek Beaty

Principal – Latin America

Derek Beaty joined GEF in 2008. He has investment sourcing, deal execution and portfolio monitoring responsibilities across each of the target sector in emerging market countries for GEF Prior to joining GEF, Mr. Beaty evaluated investments and monitored portfolio companies for CIVC Partners, a Chicago-based private equity firm. Prior to CIVC, Mr. Beaty worked in M&A advisory for the investment banking divisions of both BMO capital and Arthur Andersen. Mr. Beaty currently serves on the board of directors of AGV Logistica and Neogas. Mr. Beaty has BS in Accounting from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and an MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. Mr. Beaty is a certified Public Accountant (inactive). He has working knowledge of Spanish and Portuguese.

Ricardo Cifu

Analyst – Latin America

Ricardo Cifu joined GEF in 2016. He is based in the São Paulo office, and is a member of the Latin America investment program

Mr. Cifu holds a BA in Business Administration, with honors, from Fundação Getulio Vargas (FGV-EAESP), majoring in Corporate Finance.

Mario Mafud

Associate – Latin America

Mario Mafud joined GEF in 2014. He is based in the São Paulo office, and is a member of the Latin America investment program.

Prior to joining GEF, Mr. Mafud was part of the corporate finance team at Voga, a mergers and acquisitions boutique acquired by Banco Indusval & Partners in 2013, and later joined the team responsible for structuring the Investment Banking franchise at BI&P, a portfolio company of Warburg Pincus. Mr. Mafud currently serves on the board of Luminae Mr. Mafud holds a bachelor’s degree in Production Engineering from Universidade de São Paulo (São Carlos – SP) and has credits in finance from Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (Spain).

Alipt Sharma

Principal – South Asia

Mr. Sharma joined GEF in 2010, bringing extensive experience in Indian private equity transactions. He is responsible for sourcing, structuring, and managing investments in South Asia.

Prior to joining GEF, Mr. Sharma was a member of the investment team at AMP Capital Investors (AMP) in India, where he was responsible for identifying, analyzing, and managing Indian infrastructure opportunities. Prior to joining AMP, Mr. Sharma was an Associate Vice President with Ambit Corporate Finance, a leading Indian investment bank, where he focused on acquisitions and private equity transactions while assisting in the expansion of its capital markets practice. Mr. Sharma also spent seven years with Arthur Andersen and Ernst & Young, leading teams on consulting assignments for companies in the power and telecommunications sectors. He is proficient in English and Hindi. He currently serves on the board of XXX Mr. Sharma has a BA in Economics from Shri Ram College of Commerce, Delhi University, and an MBA from the Indian School of Business. He is also a Chartered Accountant.

Paula Torre

Office Manager – Latin America

Paula Torre joined GEF in 2015 and is based in the São Paulo office. Prior to joining GEF, Ms. Torre was part of administrative team at Rioforte Investimentos, a non-financial holding of Espirito Santo Group, a Portuguese company with investments in Portugal and Europe, Americas, Africa and Asia.

Ms. Torre holds a BA in Business Administration from Universidade Ibero Americana in São Paulo and has a postgraduate degree in Business Management from FAAP – Fundação Armando Alvares Penteado in São Paulo.