Elsie Mbugua is the Founder and Managing Director of Leadwood Energy, a specialist energy advisory company focused on renewable energy projects. She was also one of the financial transaction advisors to the Government of Kenya on the country’s crude oil and natural gas prospects and is considered a thought leader and a key policy maker in Africa’s energy markets.

She is well known for working on what she terms as ‘first of a kind’ energy transactions in the region. She has been involved in restructuring various parastatals in Kenya through Financial Independent Business Reviews, developing the framework for a local currency Power Purchase Agreement, negotiating the Heads of Terms for Kenya’s Upstream Crude Project, overseeing critical infrastructure projects, and driving the energy transition discussions on the African Continent.

She is the co-founder of a US 501c3 called Ekenywa, which builds water infrastructure projects to ensure all rural public schools in Kenya have access to clean water. So far, more than 70,000 Kenyans rely on this infrastructure for their daily access to clean water.