Staff
Adriaan Korthuis
Adriaan Korthuis is a founding partner and director of Climate Focus. He is an authority on the design and implementation of the Kyoto Protocol, with a particular focus on the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) and Joint Implementation (JI). Prior to founding Climate Focus, Adriaan was initiator and programme manager of the ERUPT and CERUPT programmes of the Dutch government. He worked successfully in government-funded programmes as the bridge between government and business.
Adriaan holds an MSc in Food Science from Wageningen University in the Netherlands. His down-to-earth approach is combined with the technical insight of an engineer and the market savvy of an international business developer.
Charlotte Streck
Charlotte Streck is a founding partner and director of Climate Focus and an international law expert in climate change and carbon finance law and policy. She advises on the regulatory framework of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the Kyoto Protocol, and the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS).
Before she joined Climate Focus as Director in February 2005, Charlotte was counsel at the World Bank in Washington, DC for five years where she gained extensive experience in drafting and negotiating complex carbon finance agreements. She has a background in both law and sciences and she holds a PhD in environmental law from Humboldt University in Berlin. She enjoys working in a multicultural environment with a number of different teams and in a developing country context.
Mercedes FernÁndez
Mercedes Fernández is an environmental law expert with a focus on the legal and regulatory aspects of the UNFCCC, the Kyoto Protocol and the EU ETS. Her current work includes carbon finance transactions particularly in Spain, Portugal and South America.
Mercedes worked with the European Business Council for Sustainable Energy (E5), the European Commission Taiex programme and the German Öko Institut before joining Climate Focus. She studied law in Santander, Liège, New York and Florence. Mercedes is a strong communicator and serves as the linchpin in Spanish speaking markets.
Sandra Greiner
Sandra Greiner is a senior project manager at Climate Focus and an expert in developing CDM and JI projects. Sandra has extensive experience guiding energy and waste management projects through the CDM registration process, and she is a leading expert in baseline methodology development.
Before joining Climate Focus, Sandra was a Carbon Finance Specialist at the World Bank where she was responsible for integrating carbon finance into the lending business of the East Asia Urban Development Sector Unit. Sandra holds a PhD in economics from Hamburg University in Germany.
Jelmer Hoogzaad
Jelmer Hoogzaad is a technical expert in CDM and JI project assessment, risk management, and Green Investment Schemes. Before joining Climate Focus, Jelmer worked as a project officer at the ERUPT programme of the Dutch government. He also gained specific knowledge of renewable energy and energy efficiency in economies in transition at Cargill in Ukraine. Jelmer has an MSc in Natural Sciences and Innovation Management from Utrecht University in the Netherlands.
Robert O’Sullivan
Robert O'Sullivan was trained as a lawyer and specializes in regulatory and policy aspects of the CDM and JI. His diverse experience covers afforestation and reforestation projects through to energy projects as well as management of CER purchase programs. He is an expert in carbon finance transactions, both on the buyers’ and sellers’ sides of the negotiation table and was one of the lead drafters of the CERSPA initiative. He recently relocated to the Washington D.C. area as the Executive Director of Climate Focus North America.
Prior to joining Climate Focus, Robert was a lawyer in the World Bank’s Carbon Finance Business where he provided legal and regulatory advice to Carbon Finance Unit and the Bank's carbon funds including the Prototype Carbon Fund, Netherlands Clean Development Mechanism Facility and BioCarbon Fund. He holds degrees in sciences, arts and law from the University of Queensland in Australia and a Masters of Law from The American University in Washington, DC.
Thiago Chagas
Thiago Chagas is lawyer specialised in international law, climate change regulatory issues and in the Clean Development Mechanism, CDM. Thiago has experience in assisting in the sourcing and development of CDM projects in developing countries. Prior to joining Climate Focus, Thiago has worked for both private firms and non-governmental organizations in Brazil. As a consultant, he has advised on the institutional and legal aspects of the implementation of a variety of CDM projects, including renewable energies, energy efficiency and methane recovery and flaring.
Thiago holds an LLB from Pontificia Universidade Catolica de São Paulo and a Master of Laws in International Law from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland.
Juan Pablo Castro
Juan Pablo Castro is an environmental planning specialist and CDM and JI project manager at Climate Focus. He has experience in the design, implementation and risk assessment of renewable energy/energy efficiency, forestry, water, and waste management projects in Latin America and Asia. Prior to joining Climate Focus he worked as an analyst for a consulting firm in the Washington DC area, developing projects for institutions such as the World Bank, IADB, and USAID, amongst others.
Juan Pablo has a background in science and policy. He holds a BSc degree in Political Science from Universidad de los Andes in Colombia, an MSc in Environmental Sciences from The Johns Hopkins University in the US, and an MSc in International Public Administration from Erasmus University in the Netherlands.
Bamshad Houshyani
As a CDM/JI expert, Bamshad Houshyani is a renewable energy specialist and has a broad technical background in the fields of river and hydro-structures engineering. Before moving to the Netherlands in order to pursue an education in the discipline of energy science, he worked at DNM Co. (representing TORO U.S. and Irritrol Europe in Iran) as a technical and development manager for four years (2001-2005), in which he gained worthwhile experience in water resources development and management. In the Netherlands, besides other renewable energy technologies, he acquired extensive knowledge in the field of solar cell (photovoltaic) energy modeling.
He has a B.Sc. in Irrigation and Drainage engineering from Guilan University, a M.Sc. in river and hydro-structures engineering from T.M. Tehran University and a M.Sc. in Energy Science from Utrecht University.
Karla Lieberg
Karla Lieberg supports Climate Focus in the Chinese CDM market. Based in Beijing, she sources projects, builds face-to-face contacts with project owners and is our focal point for communication with our Chinese partners and for the on-site assessment of projects.
Karla has a degree in International Business Communication in Asia/Mandarin from Konstanz University of Applied Sciences that combines knowledge of Chinese language, history and culture with Business Administration and Economics. She has gained a thorough understanding of the Chinese renewable energy market by writing her thesis on the Chinese wind power market and by working on a GTZ wind power project in China.
Clayfox Clarke
Claybourne Fox Clarke is a licensed US attorney and serves as senior legal counsel with Climate Focus. His qualifications include specific experience in consulting clients from a wide range of sectors on the requirements and market mechanisms of the Kyoto, EU ETS and RGGI schemes, along with over ten years of environmental law experience representing government and private entities in litigation and the drafting and implementation of environmental regulations.
He received his LL.M in international energy and environmental law from K.U Leuven in Belgium in which his focus was climate change law. Other personal achievements include summiting several of the world’s highest mountains including Mount Everest.
Mao Yuxian
Mao Yuxian works with Climate Focus in the quickly expanding business in China. She is a Chinese language and culture trainer with a bachelor’s degree in fine arts and education from Beijing Central Art College. Yuxian completed her two year overseas teaching program at East China Normal University in Shanghai.
Since 2003, Yuxian has been working as a language and culture coach in Denmark and in the Netherlands. Besides assisting in communications and due diligence for projects in China, Yuxian also trains Climate Focus staff in Chinese language and culture.
Hongjuan (Nancy) Chen
Nancy Chen is a legal expert in the Chinese CDM market. She has participated in the organization of activities to raise awareness of climate change and the CDM in China. She is currently advising on the operational aspects to implement and interpret the Kyoto Protocol in China. Additionally she assists on the identification, development and assessment of CDM projects.
Before joining Climate Focus, Nancy worked for an international commercial company called Bekaert Group, Founders B.V., and for Greenpeace China, Greenpeace International and the Red Cross in the Netherlands. She studied China law at Wuhan University, and later on she obtained her LL.M. at Vrij Universiteit Amsterdam, and a M.A. at Rijkuniversiteit Groningen with a Delta scholarship.
Matthieu Wemaëre
Matthieu Wemaëre is a Senior Lawyer registered at the Paris and Brussels Bar Associations. He provides legal assistance and advice on climate change issues in general, and on emissions trading in particular, to international organizations, governments, regional and local public authorities, private companies and NGOs.
Matthieu worked for 6 years for the European Commission, was lawyer in the Waste Management Unit of DG ENV, and was a member of the European Commission Delegation for the UNFCCC negotiations on implementation measures of the Kyoto Protocol. Since 2003, he has provided assistance to some Member States’ Governments for drafting national measures transposing the EU ETS and the Linking Directives and implementing the Monitoring Guidelines, as well as, the Registry Regulation. Currently, Matthieu also lectures International and EU environmental law at the Aix-en-Provence Institute of Political Sciences (Master on environmental management and public affairs). He has also annotated related EU legislation in the French Environmental Code edited by LITEC.