Lauren Thomas

[:en]Lauren Thomas is the Regional Manager for Mozambique overseeing the project development in the country, including the Pavua Hydropower Project, Namaacha Wind Farm and other renewable energy and gas-to-power projects. Lauren joined eleQtra in 2011 as Project Developer and Financial Analyst. Lauren has a background focused in corporate finance and development finance in Southern Africa. Prior to joining eleQtra, Lauren worked with TechnoServe, Inc. to facilitate the launch of a smallholder facility for the African Agriculture Fund, a $500 million pan-African private equity fund, and to initiate private capital raising activities for SME entrepreneurs in Africa. She also has provided advisory financial services for AgDevCo, the South African Trade Hub and the Embassy of the Netherlands in Mozambique, and founded the social enterprise Mozambikes to apply bicycles to combat rural poverty.
Before moving to Mozambique in 2008, Lauren was in the Leveraged Finance Group of Deerfield Capital Management LLC as part of a 5-person team based in New York that built and managed a $400 million alternative investments portfolio. Lauren began her career in the Financial Sponsor Group of Banc of America Securities LLC, the investment banking subsidiary of Bank of America.[:]