Team

Jonathan Maxwell, Founding Partner & CEO

Jonathan is the CEO and Co-Founding Partner of Sustainable Development Capital LLP. He has completed over 45 investment vehicle transactions over the last 16 years involving investment in infrastructure, private equity, real estate and listed securities. During this time has worked on investments in Europe, the Middle East, Asia and the Americas. 

At SDCL he has advised on the formation of a number of investment vehicles involving total capital raised of approximately US$600 million. He has also served as an advisor to governments, to the United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative and is a director and trustee of the Institute for Sustainability in the UK.

Jonathan was previously Director of Business Development for HSBC’s real estate and infrastructure investment arm, where he managed a diverse range of successful investment transactions. Jonathan graduated with a degree in Modern History from Oxford University.

L. Warren Pimm, Partner

Warren joined SDCL with a focus on financial advisory and capital markets. Prior to SDCL, he worked with the corporate finance group of Canaccord Adams Limited (UK) in London, where he focused on global capital markets and mergers and acquisitions across the diversified and sustainable sectors. He is a former principal and co-founder of Berkshire Securities Inc. where he established and led its Capital Markets Group, and was responsible for leading the development of Berkshire Securities into a leading independent Canadian investment bank, growing the organization from start-up to over 2,200 professionals, $12.5 billion in client assets, and 200 offices.  Warren has completed on over 80 separate underwriting transactions collectively raising over $9.8 billion in total equity capital. Warren earned a Masters in Business Administration from the Segal Graduate School of Business, and a B.A. (Economics) from the University of Calgary. He is a CFA Charterholder and a Member of the CFA Institute, and the CFA UK.

Gil Levy, Partner

Gil joined SDCL with a focus on special opportunities and private equity. Prior to SDCL, he worked at Fortress Investment Group LLC in both London and Frankfurt, on their private equity and principal real estate teams. His responsibilities at Fortress included acquisitions, divestments and asset management of €5.5bn of commercial real estate portfolios. Previously, Gil worked at Nomura International PLC in their London-based Principal Finance Group, where he financed full capital structure opportunistic real state and asset backed transactions. Prior to joining Nomura, Gil worked at Global Capital Group in the real estate investment banking team in London. Gil received his bachelor degree in Law (LLB) from Sheffield University. Gil served in the armed forces between 1994 and 1997.

Jason Segal, Partner

Jason oversees SDCL’s New York office, with a focus on financial advisory, capital raising and sourcing of projects and partnerships in North America. Prior to joining SDCL, Jason was a Managing Director at Citigroup, based in New York. In this role, he worked with a broad range of investors on financing, portfolio management, product strategy and business development. Previously, Jason managed the Portfolio and Electronic Trading businesses for Nikko Citigroup's Equities Division in Tokyo. Before joining Citigroup in 2004, he was a Vice President and Portfolio Manager for Goldman Sachs Asset Management in the firm’s Quantitative Equities team in New York. Jason received his Masters in Business Administration from the Wharton School, and a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Wesleyan University. He is a CFA Charterholder and Member of the CFA Institute.

Joanna Brass, Consultant

Previously a partner, Jo is now an independent consultant to SDCL. She assists SDCL in relation to corporate finance, fund structuring and governance issues. Prior to joining SDCL, Jo was Counsel in law firm O’Melveny & Myers’ London office practising in the investment funds sector.  Her legal and fund structuring experience includes private equity , venture capital, clean tech, renewable energy, real estate, secondaries and emerging market funds (with a particular focus on China, India and Latin America).  Jo’s client base has included a wide range of investors (major financial institutions, development finance institutions and sovereign wealth funds), fund managers and fund of funds managers.  Before joining O’Melveny & Myers in 2005, Jo was with Dickson Minto W.S. in London, a private equity law firm, where she acted on a large range of international and domestic private equity driven transactions.  Jo received her B.A. in English Literature and her Bachelor Degree in Law (LLB) from Auckland University.  

Carl Bengtsson, Director

Carl joined SDCL  with a focus on financial advisory and capital market. Since 2009 he has work with establishing frameworks for advising institutional investors on their investment activity within the sustainable development sector. Prior to 2008, Carl spend 13 years in investment banking and has held senior positions with Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan and Lehman Brothers. In these roles and throughout his career, Carl has worked with institutional investors and advised them on their broader allocations to alternative investments, including infrastructure, private equity, credit and hedge funds.  Carl received his bachelor degree in Social Science with a major in economics from Lund University, Sweden.

Mike Burychka - Director

Michael comes to SDCL with a focus on financial advisory and capital markets. Most recently Michael was the CFO of The Climate Group, an international network of business and government leaders seeking to advance policies, technologies and capital investment in sustainable economic development, where he was responsible  for the financial management and strategy of the group’s international activities as well as working with its members to develop innovative capital solutions.  Michael has a strong track record of financial strategy and capital markets across the US, Europe and Asia, having headed the international private capital markets teams in London at both Lehman Brothers International and Barclays Capital.  Prior to this, Michael was employed by Pennsylvania Merchant Group, Ltd in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania as well as with Wasserstein Perrella & Co in New York, where he specialised in technology public offerings, private placements, private equity investment, project finance, and mergers and acquisitions advisory.  Michael holds a BSBA degree in accounting from Bucknell University and an MBA from the London Business School where he also studied at the China Europe Int’l Business School (CEIBS) in Shanghai, PRC.  

Shujia Ma, Associate

Keith Driver, Analyst

Keith focuses on financial advisory, capital markets, project development and fundraising. Keith previously spent six years as an investment analyst focusing on infrastructure fund investment with Pantheon Ventures, a global private equity asset manager, with responsibility for investment, fund formation, market research, portfolio management, valuations and marketing. Before this Keith worked for Close Asset Management Guernsey. Keith has a BA (hons) in International Relations and International Security from Bradford University.

David Maxwell, Analyst

David has been with SDCL for four years and has responsibilities as a financial analyst and project manager within SDCL's investment advisory business. Over the past four years, David has supported the development of SDCL's energy efficiency investment program and strategy, focussing on the industrial and commercial sectors in the UK and Europe. David provides key support in evaluating investment proposals, managing relationships with financial and technical partners, as well as in providing relevant information at both project and Fund level for accounting, valuations and reporting to investors. David graduated with a Masters in English Literature and Italian from Edinburgh University and holds a further post-graduate Masters Degree in Media & Communications from the University of London.

Martin Maxwell, Global Operations Director

Martin has been with SDCL since its inception in 2007 and has responsibility for managing and procuring telecommunications and IT services and for the administration of the group of offices globally.

Deborah Lee, Office Manager

Deborah joined SDCL Asia in June 2012 and is dedicated to administrative affairs in Hong Kong office. She is responsible for the organisation and coordination of office operations, procedures and resources in order to ensure organisational effectiveness and efficiency. She directs and coordinates a variety of internal management and support services within the team activities. Deborah has a high diploma of Business Administration from HKU School of Professional and Continuing Education.