LONDON: The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) on Monday announced the appointment of Nandita Parshad, an Indian-origin senior executive, as the head of its consolidated new sustainable infrastructure group within the multilateral organisation.
Parshad, currently Managing Director for Energy and Natural Resources at the EBRD, in her new role will lead the bank's engagement in environmental, transport and energy sectors in 38 countries across three continents with a particular focus on decarbonisation and sustainable financing, a statement said.
"Green investments increasingly require a complex approach combining energy, emissions, water and waste," said Parshad, who was born in Kolkata and holds undergraduate and graduate degrees from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University.
"This integration is shown in the emergence of a number of important cross-cutting themes such as electrification of trains, buses and electric vehicles, water-energy nexus, including the growing role of desalination, as well as green, sustainable cities.
By joining efforts of bankers structuring energy and infrastructure projects, we will capitalise on a common ethos and working model," she said.
Parshad is a member of the Energy Transition Commission and of the World Economic Forum Council on Future Energy, where she represents the EBRD and shapes policy-making and thinking in global challenges of decarbonisation.
The Bank's new Sustainable infrastructure group has a portfolio of over euro 22 billion and invests yearly over euro 4.5 billion in new investments, or about half of the EBRD's annual business.
Of her new team, effective from January 1 next year, Parshad added: "Our consolidated team, with its extensive experience of structuring projects with public companies and private investors, will continue working with authorities to build confidence and promote enabling policies in both energy and infrastructure sectors, reinforcing the close integration of investment and support for reform which is at the heart of the EBRD's mandate."
The EBRD said Parshad has 30 years experience in investing in the energy sector in diverse emerging economies.
She joined the EBRD's Power and Energy Utilities team in 1993 and took over as Director of the team in 2007.
She was appointed as Managing Director, Energy and Natural Resources in January 2017 and continued driving the Bank's increasing presence in renewables and strategic regional energy, in line with the EBRD's Green Economy Transition initiative.
The London-headquartered EBRD is a multilateral development bank set up in 1991 after the fall of the Berlin Wall to promote private and entrepreneurial initiative in emerging Europe.
It invests in 38 emerging economies across three continents, according to a set of criteria that aim to make its countries more competitive, better governed, greener, more inclusive, more resilient and more integrated.
India joined as the EBRD's 69th shareholder earlier this year, with the membership opening up joint investment prospects for Indian companies in markets such as Central Asia, Egypt and Jordan.