The Social Side of Solar, Universal Access, ESG and job Creation

Michel Sednaoui is the founder and CEO of Liberdade Solar, na impact company that designs, builds, finances and operates smart microgrids for low income residences. He has deep expertise in energy finance, acquiring his professional experience with Edmond de Rothschild Private Equity and through local funds operating in the brazilian capital market. Prior to Liberdade Solar, Michel successfully founded and exited Plexo Solar, a distributed generation developer that contributed over 45 MW to Brazil's clean energy matrix.

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Rodrigo is a production engineer who graduated from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) and holds an MBA in Economics and Energy Management from Coppead/UFRJ and an MBA in Finance from FGV-RJ. He also holds a postgraduate degree in Executive Leadership from the Dom Cabral Foundation in partnership with INSEAD (France). Rodrigo began his career at Banco BBM Investimentos in Rio de Janeiro, where he worked for four years. He joined BNDES through a competitive civil service exam in 2000. Since then, he has held various executive positions, including manager of financing for the steel industry, and later moved on to the oil and natural gas industry. He served as head of the digital credit operations department for micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises, overseeing the BNDES Card. From 2011 to 2016, he was superintendent of the Basic Industries Division at BNDES, where he worked on financing major projects in mining, pulp and paper, chemicals, and oil and gas production and transportation infrastructure. Between 2016 and 2017, as superintendent of the Capital Markets Division, he participated in asset restructuring operations and worked to improve corporate governance at the portfolio companies of BNDESPAR. Since late 2017, he has been working in the Energy Transition and Climate Division at BNDES, where he has participated in various initiatives and operations supporting the energy efficiency and distributed energy generation sectors, as well as structuring financing for renewable energy generation projects.

Graziella Albuquerque holds a degree in Environmental Management, with university extension studies in Community-Based Environmental Education and Political Ecology in Latin America. She is currently pursuing a postgraduate degree in Regulation of the Electric Sector at UFRJ and has training in International Negotiations from the University of Oxford and the Global Youth Coalition. She also holds a specialization in renewable energy from the International Research & Exchange Board (IREX). Graziella officially represented Brazil as a delegate at COP 27 and COY 17. She currently leads the research and policy advocacy department at Revolusolar.