Team

Alexandre Alvim

Founding Partner – Latin America

Alexandre Alvim is a Founding Partner of GEF Capital Partners and co-head of the Latin America investment practice. He is based in São 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 GEF Capital Partners in 2018.  While at Global Environment Fund, Mr. Alvim led investments in Tecverde, Luminae and ENC Brasil.

Mr. Alvim has over 20 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 joining Global Environment Fund, 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 and recycling businesses.  Prior to Estre, he co-founded and served as Managing Partner of Greentech Capital, a venture capital 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 Getulio Vargas (FGV-EAESP).

Stuart Barkoff

Founding Partner – United States

Stuart Barkoff is a Founding Partner of GEF Capital Partners and co-head of the U.S. investment practice.  He is based in 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 GEF Capital Partners in 2018.  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. and Bluesource, LLC. He also serves as the Chief Compliance Officer for GEF Capital Partners.

Mr. Barkoff received an A.B. in English from Vassar College as well as a JD and an MBA from Emory University.

Sridhar Narayan

Founding Partner – South Asia

Sridhar Narayan is a Founding Partner of GEF Capital Partners and co-head of the South Asia investment practice.  He is based in Mumbai, India where he focuses on middle market growth equity opportunities in South Asia.

Mr. Narayan joined Global Environment Fund as a Managing Director in 2012 before founding GEF Capital Partners in 2018.  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 an investment in Greenko.

Mr. Narayan has over 23 years of experience investing in Indian public and private markets.  Prior to joining 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 of directors of Shakti Pumps Limited, a portfolio company of Global Environment Fund.

Mr. Narayan holds a Bachelor of Technology in Mechanical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology BHU (IIT-BHU) and a Post Graduate Diploma in Management from the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore.

Raj Pai

Founding Partner – South Asia

Raj Pai is a Founding Partner of GEF Capital Partners and co-head of the South Asia investment practice. He is based in Mumbai, India where he focuses on middle market growth equity opportunities in South Asia.

Mr. Pai joined Global Environment Fund as a Managing Director in 2008 before founding GEF Capital Partners in 2018.   While at Global Environment Fund, Mr. Pai worked across multiple portfolios and was involved in the establishment of the South Asia investment program.   In addition to overseeing guidance and operations of the South Asia program, including as ESG coordinator, Mr. Pai served as the nominee representative for several portfolio companies, including IEX (exited via IPO in 2017), iClean (sold to Takasago Thermal, Tokyo) and others.  He participated in the exit of Reva Electric Car to Mahindra Electric.

Mr. Pai has over 23 years of professional experience spanning entrepreneurial, operational and venture investing activities in India and in the US.  Prior to joining Global Environment Fund, 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 period, Mr. Pai oversaw and/or worked on a number of the firm’s investments, leading efforts in technology, life sciences and clean technology.  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 directors of ESDS, Inc. and is also the nominee representative for Global Environment Fund for Concord Enviro and Rishabh Instruments.

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 US–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 GEF Capital Partners and co-head of the U.S. investment practice. He is based in 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 GEF Capital Partners.  While at Global Environment Fund, Mr. Prawda led an investment in Gro-Well Brands.

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 US 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, 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 Bluesource, LLC.

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 GEF Capital Partners and co-head of the Latin America investment practice. He is based in São Paulo, Brazil, where he focuses on middle-market growth equity opportunities in South America.

Mr. Wadih joined Global Environment Fund in 2014 as a Managing Director.  While at Global Environment Fund, Mr. Wadih led an investment in AGV.

Prior to joining Global Environment Fund, Mr. Wadih worked at Canepa Management, where he was responsible for direct investments and business development throughout Latin America.  Before joining Canepa Management, 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. Prior to joining Macquarie, Mr. Wadih served as 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 directors of AGV, Tecverde and Unicoba, and also serves on the board of directors of Neogás do Brasil, a Global Environment Fund portfolio company.

Mr. Wadih received a B.S. in Electrical Engineering (BSEE) from Universidad Simón Bolívar (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 is a Principal at South Asia Advisors*, a sub-advisor to GEF Capital Partners.  He is based in Mumbai, India, and joined South Asia Advisors upon the inception of GEF Capital Partners in 2018.  Mr. Arora is responsible for sourcing, executing, and managing investments in South Asia.

Before joining South Asia Advisors, Mr. Arora worked at Global Environment Fund, which he joined in 2015.  While there, he dedicated his time to a number of portfolio company investments, including Concord Enviro, Shakti Pumps and Kalkitech.

Prior to joining Global Environment Fund, 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.  At Navis, Mr. Arora 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.

Mr. Arora received his Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Calcutta and an MBA from Indian School of Business, Hyderabad. He is also a Chartered Accountant and is proficient in English, Hindi and Bengali.

Alipt Sharma

Principal – South Asia

Alipt Sharma is a Principal at South Asia Advisors*, a sub-advisor to GEF Capital Partners.  He is based in Mumbai, India, and joined South Asia Advisors upon the inception of GEF Capital Partners in 2018.  Mr. Sharma is responsible for sourcing, structuring and managing investments in South Asia.

Before joining South Asia Advisors, Mr. Sharma worked at Global Environment Fund, which he joined in 2010.  While there, Mr. Sharma was responsible for assisting in the oversight of a number of portfolio company investments, including Rishabh Instruments, Concord Enviro and Kalkitech.

Prior to joining Global Environment Fund, 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.

Mr. Sharma received a B.A. 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.  He is proficient in English and Hindi.

Estevan Taguchi

Principal – South Asia

Estevan Taguchi is a Principal at GEF Capital Partners.  He is based in São Paulo, and joined GEF Capital Partners in 2019.  Mr. Taguchi is responsible for sourcing, structuring and managing investments in Latin America.

Prior to joining GEF Capital Partners, Mr. Taguchi was a partner responsible for sourcing and managing portfolio investments at Angra Partners. While at Angra, he led several M&A transactions and served on the board of directors of several of the firm’s portfolio companies, including Cattalini Terminais, LATTE and CBPB. Prior to joining Angra, Mr. Taguchi worked at Monsanto as product manager, at Value Partners as a management consultant and at Bank of America as a member of the Investment Banking team.

Mr. Taguchi currently serves on the board of directors of ENC Brasil.

Mr. Taguchi received a B.S.  in Industrial Engineering from Universidade de São Paulo (POLI-USP) and completed the Program for Leadership Development at Harvard Business School.

Krishnan Ganesan

Senior Vice President – South Asia

Krishnan Ganesan is a Senior Vice President at South Asia Advisors*, a sub-advisor to GEF Capital Partners. He is based in Mumbai, India, and joined South Asia Advisors in 2019.  Mr. Ganesan is responsible for sourcing, executing, and managing investments in South Asia. Additionally, he assists in various financial and administrative roles associated with the South Asia investment program.

Prior to joining South Asia Advisors, Mr. Ganesan was Director at Florintree Capital, an India focused alternate asset manager where he handled private equity investments across sectors and was also responsible for the finance function at the firm. Prior thereto, Mr. Ganesan was Vice President in the India investment team of Wayzata Investment Partners, a US headquartered PE fund and was earlier part of the private equity team at ICICI Venture, amongst India’s leading domestic PE funds. During his experience of around 13 years with these funds, Mr. Ganesan has full lifecycle investment experience and was involved in deals across several sectors covering growth equity, buyout and special situation investments. He has been a board member / observer on the boards and has been actively involved across several initiatives in the portfolio companies. Prior thereto, he has strategic consulting experience with Stern Stewart & Co and was part of the audit & assurance team at PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Krishnan holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Management from the Indian Institute of Management, Kozhikode, where he was awarded the Gold Medal for graduating at the top of his class. He is a national rank holding Chartered Accountant and also a Company Secretary.

Mario Mafud

Vice President – Latin America

Mario Mafud is a Vice President at GEF Capital Partners.  He is based in São Paulo, where he is responsible for sourcing and structuring investments in Latin America.

Prior to joining GEF Capital Partners, Mr. Mafud worked at Global Environment Fund, which he joined in 2014.  While there, Mr. Mafud was responsible for overseeing a number of portfolio company investments, including AGV and Luminae.

Prior to joining Global Environment Fund, Mr. Mafud was part of the corporate finance team at Voga, a boutique M&A advisory firm which was acquired by Banco Indusval & Partners in 2013.  Following its acquisition, Mr. Mafud worked on the team responsible for structuring the Investment Banking franchise at BI&P.

Mr. Mafud currently serves on the board of Luminae.

Mr. Mafud received a B.S. in Production Engineering from Universidade de São Paulo (São Carlos – SP) and also completed graduate coursework in finance at the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (Spain).

Raakhee Kulkarni

Vice President, Head ESG - South Asia

Raakhee Kulkarni is a Vice President, Head of ESG at South Asia Advisors*, a sub-advisor to GEF Capital Partners.  She is based in Mumbai, India, and joined South Asia Advisors in 2018.  At GEF, Ms. Kulkarni is responsible for steering the Fund’s ESG mandate to implement ESG systems and processes throughout the fund, the portfolio companies and at the GEF platform level. She closely interacts with the Limited Partners (LP’s) fulfill ESG requirements including Corporate Governance and Business Integrity. Her role involves right from undertaking ESG diligence at a pre-investment stage, identifying risks, and then hand holding the portfolio companies towards ESG transformation and value creation including incorporating Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s) and using key indicators to create a step change. Ms. Kulkarni also supports the deal team in identifying potential investment opportunities.

Prior to joining South Asia Advisors, Ms. Kulkarni was working as a Principal Consultant with ERM India Pvt and led the Transaction Services practice. Ltd. Her core expertise was into conducting due diligence, navigating EHS/ ESG considerations during negotiations and transaction documents and supported client in closing pre transaction commitments. She built a robust Transaction Services practice through focused business development, strong client relationships across the transaction value chain, technical competence, innovation and people leadership. Her expertise range over a wide variety of sectors ranging from chemicals, manufacturing, real estate, waste management among others.

Ms. Kulkarni has received her Master in Urban Environmental Management from Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand and a further Post Graduate Diploma in Environmental Law from National Law School, Bangalore.

Kshitij Sharma

Associate – South Asia

Kshitij Sharma is an Associate at South Asia Advisors*, a sub-advisor to GEF Capital Partners. He is based in Mumbai, India, and joined South Asia Advisors in 2018.  Mr. Sharma is responsible for sourcing, executing, and assisting in the investment program in South Asia.
Prior to joining South Asia Advisors, Mr. Sharma was an Associate in the Investment Banking team at Kotak Mahindra Bank, where he worked on M&A, Fundraise transactions in the Technology space. Previously, Mr. Sharma worked with Honda Cars, India in their Parts Quality division.

Mr. Sharma holds an MBA degree from IIM Calcutta. He received his Bachelor’s degree in Production and Industrial Engineering from NIT Bhopal. He has also cleared two levels of the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) program offered by the CFA Institute, USA.

David Hong

Associate – United States

David Hong is an Associate at GEF Capital Partners.  He is based in Washington, D.C., and joined GEF Capital Partners in 2019.  Mr. Hong is responsible for sourcing, and structuring investments in North America.

Prior to joining GEF Capital, Mr. Hong was part of the finance team at EIG Global Energy Partners (“EIG”), one of the leading providers of institutional capital to the global energy industry.  At EIG, he oversaw the operations of some of EIG’s flagship funds as well as a European clean energy fund with $4bn+ assets under management.  Prior to EIG, he worked as a fund accountant at ACON Investments and as a tax associate at KPMG, where he provided tax services for a private equity client with $1bn+ assets under management.

Mr. Hong received a BBA and Master’s in Accounting from the College of William and Mary as well as an MBA from Georgetown University.

Ricardo Cifu

Analyst – Latin America

Ricardo Cifu is an Analyst at GEF Capital Partners.  He is based in São Paulo, where he is responsible for sourcing and structuring investments in Latin America.

Prior to joining GEF Capital Partners, Mr. Cifu worked at Global Environment Fund, which he joined in 2016. While there, he was responsible for assisting in the oversight of Tecverde, AGV and ENC Brasil.

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

Robert Hurley

Chief Financial Officer

Robert Hurley is the Chief Financial Officer of GEF Capital Partners.  He is based in Washington, D.C., and joined GEF Capital in 2019.  Mr. Hurley is responsible for various tax, financial, organizational and regulatory matters for GEF Capital, and also oversees certain key vendors.

Prior to joining GEF Capital Partners in 2019, Mr. Hurley was the Chief Financial Officer of EJF Capital, an employee-owned alternative asset manager with approximately $10 billion of assets under management.  At EJF Capital, Mr. Hurley was a partner, executive and valuation committee member.  He organized and structured the company from start up to $10 billion ($7 billion of hedge and PE funds and approximately $3 billion of securitized assets) and played a key role in taking a company public on the Luxembourg exchange. He also oversaw the financial, regulatory and tax reporting at EJF. Prior to joining EJF Capital in 2005, Mr. Hurley was the Chief Financial Officer at a division of Citigroup which managed over $40 billion in assets.  At Citigroup, Mr. Hurley oversaw the financial reporting and operations of 2,200 branches in North America. He drove key M&A and business integrations for the company as well, including the $4 billion purchase of Washington Mutual Finance Corporation and Integrated Associates Financial Corporation.

Mr. Hurley received a B.S. in Accounting from the University of Dayton, and an MBA in Finance from DePaul University.

Paula Torre

Office Manager – Latin America

Paula Torre is an Office Manager at GEF Capital Partners.  She is based in São Paulo.

Prior to joining GEF Capital Partners, Ms. Torre worked at Global Environment Fund, where she served in a similar role.

Prior to joining Global Environment Fund, Ms. Torre was part of an administrative team at Rioforte Investimentos, a non-financial holding of Espírito Santo Group, a Portuguese company with investments in throughout the world.

Ms. Torre received a B.A. 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.