



who we are
Our ESG specialists have global experience and have lived and worked in Asian emerging markets. Areas of expertise include environmental, social and governance, health and safety, gender equality and job quality.
Our Team.
Joanie Davis
In order to meet our clients’ diverse needs, Paterson Sustainability works in partnership with respected independent specialists who have experience of bringing international standard practices to emerging markets. Our network includes current IFC consultants and retired senior IFC E&S specialists as well as local consultants.
All our work is led by our founder Catriona Paterson, who has more than 30 years’ experience as an E&S advisor for public and private sector clients in more than 40 countries across the globe. Our core consultants are listed here:
Catriona Paterson
Director, E&S Specialist
Catriona Paterson is an environmental and social professional with more than 30 years’ experience, specialising in developing and emerging markets. She is a senior advisor to a number of private equity funds and infrastructure developers and operators in Asia and Africa and provides technical advice to Development Finance Institutions in Europe. Her recent experience includes Senior Sustainability Advisor to Aquila Clean Energy Asia Pacific, supporting the management team to deliver renewable energy projects that meet international ESG standards; Senior Advisor to AP Moller Capital (APMC), in 2023 acting as interim Head of ESG for six months, advising the boards of their highest E&S risk companies in Africa, advising the growing ESG team on upgrade and implementation of the ESG Management System to accommodate commitments to DFIs and EU regulators for the Article 8 and 9 funds, and providing sustainability training to board representatives. She has worked as an Environment and Social Specialist at IFC in South Asia and East Asia and Pacific and Africa for 15 years and has a term contract to provide advisory support to DEG. Catriona is founding director of Paterson Sustainability and works throughout Asia and Africa, using her knowledge of the IFC Performance Standards, Asian Development Bank (ADB) and Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) E&S safeguards, as well as an understanding of the international conventions, labour standards and sustainability principles on which these standards are based. Previously, Catriona managed environmental assessment teams in the UK and Malaysia; she was an Environment Advisor in DFID across Africa.

Bharti Solanky
Associate, Social Specialist
Bharti is a social specialist with over twenty-five years of experience working on social & environment risk and sustainability issues in development finance. She specialises in social impact assessment, resettlement and rehabilitation planning, stakeholder engagement and environment and social management systems, and her work on these, spanning 150+ projects in multiple sectors across India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Kenya, Denmark, Germany and Australia, has enabled companies and financial intermediaries respond meaningfully to ESG challenges. Bharti has worked with IFC as a consultant and staff for more than ten years, undertaking social and environmental due diligences against international standards and national regulations. Designing and delivering capacity building programs for social and environmental impact assessments and risk management for project operator and financial intermediary clients has been another key area of work for her.

Bram Woltjer
Associate, Health and Safety Specialist
Bram is an international health and safety specialist with over 20 years of experience managing safe work on large projects during construction and operation across Asia. He has been responsible for development and implementation of HSE management systems and emergency response systems to ensure compliance with major risk legislation. He has trained and managed HSE teams to implement international health and safety standards in challenging projects. He has worked with IFC across Asia to assess capacity and practices of IFC investment projects during appraisal, construction and operational phases, working with IFC’s clients to enhance their OHS standards.

Luis Cestari
Associate, Life and Fire Safety Specialist
Luis is a life and fire safety and occupational health and safety specialist who works globally. Luis has been working with IFC for more than 10 years as a life and fire safety specialist. He works with hospital, education, transportation and hotel clients who operate public access buildings to help them meet the World Bank Group EHS Guidelines with respect to fire safety. He undertakes life and fire safety assessments and advises on measures to ensure they meet an international fire code or adequately address risks to life. His work involves reviews of building designs, assessments of operating buildings and their fire safety management systems. He helps clients to develop emergency preparedness and response plans and provides training to support clients’ effective implementation of their responsibilities.

Raffaella Marinucci
Associate, E&S Specialist - Banking
Raffaella supports Financial Intermediaries to develop and enhance their E&S risk management processes to comply with IFC’s E&S requirements. Raffaella collaborates closely with bank E&S officers in emerging markets to develop their environmental and social management systems, discussing their approaches to addressing portfolio and project E&S risks, and working with them to monitor the performance of the project companies. Raffaella provides on-the-job training to both FI clients and their sub projects, and regularly provides interactive training workshops on E&S issues to bank clients and IFC internal investment staff. She has been working with IFC for more than 10 years across Asia, Middle East, Africa, and Eastern and Central Europe.