ELSIE MBUGUA

Elsie is the Founder and Managing Director of Leadwood Energy. She has more than a decade of experience as a physical energy trader and worked for some of the world's largest trading houses, including Goldman Sachs and J.P Morgan – covering markets in coal, emissions, power, natural gas, liquefied natural gas, and crude oil. Elsie began her career in New York at Goldman Sachs on the J. Aron energy trading desk. She later joined J.P Morgan's Global Commodities Division as a coal and emissions trader, participating in the first market-based effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (RGGI). In 2009, amid the global financial crisis, Elsie worked in Texas, assisting in managing and optimizing 3000 MW of power generating assets in California. She then relocated to London in 2012 to be more involved in Africa based markets and worked as a physical crude oil trader covering the Brent and West African markets. Elsie founded Leadwood Energy in 2015. She serves on the board of the Kenya Pipeline Company, having appointed in 2020. In the same year, she joined the advisory board of the BOMA Project, which seeks to end poverty, mitigate the effects of climate change, and improve the economic potential of women. Elsie is also a co-founder of Ekenywa, a Kenya-based charity dedicated to universal access to clean water across Africa and partnering with private and public sector organizations to alleviate poverty in rural Kenyan schools. Elsie holds a dual degree in Economics and International Relations from Tufts University and studied Biology at Harvard. She was the Tufts Research Scholarship recipient on Effective Development Tools in Microfinance and the Tufts Entrepreneur Award 2008. She also holds a Dean Scholar Award from Richmond, the American University in London. She is an expert assessor for the Global Development Network. She has professional accreditations with the Chartered Institute of Securities and Investment in FSA Financial Regulation and Commodity Derivatives in London.