M.K. Balaji is a senior management professional with over thirty-three years of experience in energy, finance and sustainability. He brings in the unique experience of working in both the corporate and the development sectors. He works for Deloitte Consulting as a Specialist Leader.

He is currently Director- Advanced Energy Systems under USAID’s SE Asia’s Smart Power Program. Prior to this he was leading the Off-Grid electrification under USAID Power Africa’s Nigeria Power Sector Program and was also Chief of Party of USAID-Private Finance Advisory Network - Asia program. In all these roles he has worked with the governments and private sector to support project development, derisking and mobilize financing for clean energy projects. He has worked on other similar assignments for various donors in the climate finance and energy sectors.

He has worked in the corporate sector and held several Board level/C-Level assignments in organizations in manufacturing, energy, project and private equity. He has fully-rounded experience across the life-cycle of projects from concept to commissioning and operations and across investment life-cycles from deal sourcing to exits. He has been a member of the Investment Committee of a private equity firm that was investing in clean energy and has seen deals over $ 1 billion and made investment decisions of over $ 200 m. He has managed a complex portfolio of assets for the private equity firm, spanning across 3 continents.

He is a Chemical Engineer from the National Institute of Technology, Rourkela, India and an MBA in International Business from Webster University, St Louis USA. He has a Certificate in Solar Technologies from the Renewables Academy, Berlin and Blockchain Technologies – Business Innovation and Applications from MIT Sloan School of Management.