Role of Private Sector and Financial Intermediaries in ADB’s Energy Sector Investments

Michael Barrow is director general of ADB’s Private Sector Operations Department, handling all of of ADB's private infrastructure and financial institutions investments, lending, and guarantees. He is concurrently on the board of Asian Climate Partners, a climate change-focused private equity fund established in Hong Kong. He joined ADB in July 2003. Prior to joining ADB, Mr. Barrow worked for the Deutsche Bank group over the course of 15 years in London, Tokyo, and Singapore, lastly as director of both project finance and transportation, with a project finance and PPP focus. He was senior vice president in the Structure Finance Department of Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. in Singapore handling project financing. Mr. Barrow was educated at the Lycee Internationale in Paris, France after which he obtained an MA in oriental studies from Oxford University England.

Mae Buenaventura works as the deputy coordinator of the Asian Peoples' Movement on Debt and Development (APMDD), a regional campaign alliance working on development finance and climate justice. She also currently serves as a board member of the Freedom from Debt Coalition which focuses on debt, tax, and essential services.

For more than two decades, Titi Soentoro has been active in women’s, environmental, and social movements in her home country, Indonesia, and other countries in Asia. She promotes human rights (particularly women's rights), safeguards, and accountability in the context of development. Aside from policy advocacy, Ms. Soentoro undertakes project monitoring and capacity building for campaigners and affected communities in Indonesia and other Asian countries. She also provides international skill-share training on gender, climate, and financial institutions. Ms. Soentoro monitors international financial institutions like ADB, the World Bank, the Green Climate Fund, as well as the financing of ASEAN. From 2009-2012, she was the network advocacy coordinator of the NGO Forum on ADB. Currently, Ms. Soentoro is the policy advisor of Aksi! for gender, social and ecological justice, an organization she established with other Indonesian feminists. She is the representative of Aksi! at the Asia-Pacific Forum on Women, Law, and Development. Recently, Ms. Soentoro became a member of the Jubilee South/Asia-Pacific Movements on Debt and Development.