Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet Appoints Carol Koech as Vice President for Africa

Nairobi, Kenya | August 4, 2025 — The Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet (GEAPP) today announced the appointment of Carol Koech as its new Vice President for Africa, effective August 1, 2025. In this role, Carol will expand the Alliance’s presence in Africa, strengthening its reach in blended finance mechanisms to make GEAPP a clean energy superpower across the continent.

Carol brings over 20 years of experience in energy access, private-sector transformation, and regional leadership across Africa. She most recently served as Strategy Director for Sustainability and Thought Leadership at Schneider Electric, where she helped shape the company’s global sustainability initiatives and led programs to expand energy access to more than 50 million people worldwide.
Prior to that, Carol was Schneider Electric’s Country President for East Africa, where she expanded operations across the region, forged partnerships with government and industry, and drove inclusive, sustainable business growth. She has also held senior leadership roles at General Electric and Unilever.

“Carol’s appointment marks a powerful step forward for GEAPP’s work in Africa,” said GEAPP CEO Woochong Um. “She brings a deep understanding of Africa’s energy landscape, a passion for equity and access, and the proven ability to lead through complexity. Her leadership will be central to our alliance of partners delivering on the promise of Mission 300, building multi-stakeholder networks and relationships with key stakeholders, businesses and entrepreneurs – ultimately delivering results that transform lives and economies.”

“I’m honored to join GEAPP and lead this next chapter of impact across Africa,” said Carol Koech. “Access to clean, reliable energy is the foundation of inclusive economic growth. I look forward to working with GEAPP’s strong alliance of partners to implement bold, country-led strategies like Mission 300, empowering communities through job creation and enterprise growth, supporting governments to implement a just transition, and unlocking green growth across the continent.”

With over 600 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa still lacking access to electricity, Carol joins GEAPP at a pivotal moment as the organization scales its efforts to tackle this urgent challenge through transformative initiatives like Mission 300. This is a public-private-philanthropic ambition led by the World Bank and the African Development Bank with support from GEAPP, the Rockefeller Foundation, SEforALL, and more partners to connect 300 million people to electricity in Sub-Saharan Africa by 2030 while also driving economic growth and job creation.

Notes to Editors
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About Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet (GEAPP)
The Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet (GEAPP) is an alliance of philanthropy, governments in emerging and developed economies, and technology, policy, and financing partners. Our common mission is to enable Low- and Middle-Income Countries’ (LMICs) shift to a clean energy, pro-growth model that accelerates universal energy access and inclusive economic growth, while supporting the global community to meet critical climate goals during the next decade. As an Alliance, we aim to reduce 4 gigatons of future carbon emissions, expand clean energy access to one billion people, and enable 150 million new jobs. With philanthropic partners, IKEA Foundation, The Rockefeller Foundation, and Bezos Earth Fund, GEAPP works to build the enabling environment, capacity, and market conditions for private sector solutions, catalyse new business models through innovation and entrepreneurship, deploy high-risk capital to encourage private sector solutions and assist just transition solutions. For more information, please visit www.energyalliance.org and follow us on LinkedIn.