who we are

Catriona Paterson is an environmental and social professional with more than 30 years’ experience, specialising in developing and emerging markets across Africa and Asia. She is a senior advisor to 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 16 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. She holds an MSc in Environmental Impact Assessment and an IOSH construction health and safety qualification, and is a Certified Advisory Board Chair.

Sandeep Shrestha is a senior ESG specialist with over 14 years’ experience in ESG, impact investing and private equity across South Asia. As former Head of ESG and Compliance for the Dolma Impact Funds (US$108 million, backed by FMO, IFC, BII, Swedfund and JICA), he built and ran environmental and social management systems, led E&S due diligence, and negotiated and monitored E&S Action Plans with portfolio companies — tracking corrective actions to closure and reporting to lenders.

His expertise spans ESMS design and implementation, grievance mechanisms and human-rights due diligence, with a deep command of DFI and lender standards — the IFC Performance Standards, the World Bank ESF, FMO, BII and the Equator Principles. His sector experience includes ESG management for Berkeley Energy’s Asia renewable fund and ECP FUand ESMS preparation for solar and hydropower developers. Sandeep advises the World Bank as a Social Development Consultant and UNDP as a national expert on business and human rights, and is visiting faculty in sustainability management at three colleges in Nepal. 

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.

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.