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Advisory Board

The combination of Erik’s passion for the natural environment and his deep experience in large-scale, long-term investments in emerging markets, led to the founding of Oceans Finance Company (OFC). Erik has over 20 years of responsibility for organic and inorganic growth investments in infrastructure sectors in emerging markets for various entities, with a cumulative project value in excess of US$ 15 billion. 

Featured as one of 10 people in the 2018 edition of Africa Power Elites. Prior to founding OFC, Erik was part of the investment team at Climate Fund Managers. He served as Senior Transaction Advisor for the U.S. Government’s Power Africa initiative, and held the positions of Head of Energy at Harith General Partners (in excess of USD 3 billion in funds under management), as well as the Head of Business Development at Cennergi (joint venture between Tata Power and Exxaro resources). 

He has also provided management and strategy consulting services to various entities including Sasol, Standard Bank, General Electric, Development Bank of Southern Africa, the U.S. Trade and Development Agency, Royal Bafokeng Holdings, Deloitte, Tetra Tech (a NASDAQ listed company), ESBi (Irish utility) and EnBW (German utility). 

On 9 May 2023 OFC concluded the largest debt-for-climate conversion in history to protect one of the planet’s most important ecosystems: the Galapagos Islands. 

The Galapagos conversion exchanged USD 1.628 billion in Ecuadorian government bonds for a $656 million impact loan. The transaction will generate savings to the Ecuadorian fiscus of USD 1.126 billion through 2041. In addition, USD 323 million is realised for the conservation of the Galapagos up to 2041 and the establishment of a new endowment fund maturing to USD 227 million to finance their preservation thereafter.