Barbara has over 30 years experience in development finance, working in specific areas of finance, risk management, business development, investor analytic services, government advisory, and decision-making support. As Vice Chair of the Business Steering Committee, United Nations Financing for Development, Barbara was actively involved in developing specific strategies aimed at mobilizing private sector capital and expertise for development. She also served as Senior Advisor to the World Economic Forum, developing specific recommendations on enhancing leverage of official sector resources in developing countries.  Barbara was formerly Chase Manhattan Bank’s Director of Country Assessment, responsible for managing Chase’s $50 billion country risk exposure worldwide. Dr. Samuels also served as Managing Director of Moody’s Emerging Markets Service. She has a Ph.D. in Management and Political Science from MIT, an M.B.A. from the Sloan School of Management, and a M.S. in Political Science from MIT.

Carla has 20 years’ infrastructure advisory, infrastructure due diligence and financial analysis experience gained in South Africa and Europe. She is a Chartered Accountant and holds a degree in Civil Engineering. Carla has undertaken a number of feasibility studies and procurement processes for large infrastructure projects in South Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa, including Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Uganda, Mozambique and South Africa. Over the last 10 years, Carla acted as financial advisor to various DFIs, African governments, and private sector bidders during the development of infrastructure projects and programs. These projects and programs included: a waste diversion program across 40 municipalities in South Africa, a mixed-use development project in Uganda, an energy efficiency program for public buildings in South Africa, a rail PPP in South Africa, an 800 MW Power Plant in Namibia, and a waste PPP. Carla successfully raised climate finance for two of these programs from the NAMA Facility and the GCF.

Over the last 30 years, Bob has advised international and entrepreneurial private sector companies, multilateral development banks, and governments on developing and financing infrastructure projects using his skills as an attorney and investment banker.  Bob previously served as Co-Head of the Global Project Finance Group at Bank of America, where his work covered syndicated bank loans, private placements, capital markets and a wide variety of financial advisory assignments.  He designed the “Foreign Exchange Liquidity Facility” that was provided by the Overseas Private Investment Corporation as part of the US$300 million AES Tietê bond issued for hydroelectric projects in Brazil.  This issue received an investment- grade rating at a time when Brazil’s sovereign ratings were B1 and BB-.  Bob also teaches international project finance as an adjunct professor at the Moore School of Business at the University of South Carolina. He received J.D. and M.B.A. degrees from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, from which he also has an M.A. in European history and where, as an undergraduate, he was a Morehead Scholar.