NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Maria Knodt is a Programme Manager in the Advisory team leading Energy 4 Impact’s (E4I) work on the Global LEAP Awards Off-Grid Cold Chain Challenge (OGCCC), the Mini-Grid Innovation Lab, the Powering Opportunities Partnership (POP), the Powering Renewable Energy Opportunities (PREO) and the Innovate UK Energy Catalyst programme with a focus on productive use of energy topics. She is furthermore providing advisory services for mini-grid developers across sub-Saharan Africa on market strategy, business planning and capital raising, and consulting policymakers on tariff models, licenses and concession agreements under the Green Mini-Grid Market Development Programme hosted by the African Development Bank. Besides this, Maria is setting up impact measurement processes, optimising data collection and analysis, and developing knowledge management products. She also represents E4I at industry organisations such as the Smart Communities Coalition (SCC), Global Plan of Action (GPA) and EnDev L&I Humanitarian Energy. Prior to joining E4I, Maria supported a solar mini-grid developer in Rwanda on developing a sound customer credit scoring and financial model, and created business cases for the productive use of DC and AC appliances. Maria has a background in managing technical implementations and data-onboarding projects for the world’s largest asset manager and in consulting for risk management and financial projects. She received her M.Sc. in Mathematical Finance from Imperial College London.

Follow her on Twitter @MariaKnodt