T

hree decades spent in the energy sector has taken Mathew Mazhuvanchery many places — from oil tankers in Venezuela to offshore windfarms in the U.K. But it was an event closer to home — devastating floods in India’s Kerala region — that opened his eyes to the environmental impacts of the energy industry.

“It became clear to me that we were fueling, literally, disastrous climate change,”  Mazhuvanchery says. What also became clear, he says, is that it is extremely difficult to shift to renewable energy in developing economies.

In response, Mazhuvanchery founded Distributed Energy, which finances, installs, and monitors solar plants across Asia and Africa. The company matches the proposed projects of energy customers with reliable investors, creating a win-win situation for all stakeholders.

Mazhuvanchery says he enrolled in CBEY’s Financing and Deploying Clean Energy online certificate program to bolster his knowledge of renewable finance, particularly citing the effectiveness of the program’s quantitative modules and the benefits of networking with practitioners.

“The United States leads in several areas, like green banks and community solar,” he says. “Being a part of this program has inspired me and my company to get more innovative in policy and in finding new ways for these models to be deployed around the world.”