Melissa is a dual-qualified lawyer and dynamic business visionary who has seamlessly blended her legal acumen and strategic intuition to develop sustainable renewable energy and gas-to-power projects across Africa.

Boasting nearly a decade of multi-jurisdictional expertise in commercial law, project finance,  mergers, ,taxation and corporate governance Melissa has been instrumental in multimillion-dollar undertakings. Particularly noteworthy is her role as local counsel to the African Export-Import Bank in managing syndicated loan facilities totalling almost half a billion dollars for Zimbabwe.

As the Chief Vice President of Project Development and Strategy for GENESIS Energy Group, Melissa is at the helm of translating Group’s vision to ‘Light up Africa One Community at a Time.’ into a resounding reality. Collaborating closely with her dedicated teams, she has led GENESIS’ impressive expansion into new markets, culminating a contracted capacity of 500MW and a rapidly growing pipeline exceeding 3GW in record-breaking time.

A true champion of social responsibility – Melissa lends strategic investments counsel to several start-ups catalysing their growth by doubling valuations and securing significant seed capital. She is actively engaged in various advisory boards, a Leader under the Climate Reality Corps and a distinguished member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Shapers.

Melissa holds a Bachelor of Laws Honours degree with International Arbitration and Commerce from Brunel University London, a diploma in Tax Law from the University of Cape Town and is pursuing a Finance, Entrepreneurship and Innovation specialism from Harvard Business School. The highly motivated professional is a certified Solicitor in England and Wales, admitted Legal practitioner in the Republic of Zimbabwe and a member of the Chartered Institute of Securities and Investments UK.