Core Team
Our core team spans conservation ecology, development economics, venture building, and systems-level impact design. They are backed by a bench of strategic global advisers and subject experts across energy, agriculture, technology, financing, and policy.
Osman Siddiqi
Co-Founder, CEO
Osman is a climate change and impact strategy specialist with over a decade of experience leading organizations across sectors in Africa and South Asia. He has scaled high-impact organisations in complex operating environments: as Chief Impact Officer at Arifu, reaching 2 million users across Africa; as Country Director at Innovations for Poverty Action, leading an $8M+ annual portfolio; and at Instiglio, launching the Africa strategy and designing national-level results-based financing mechanisms across energy and livelihoods.
Osman leads Acclimate with a conviction that the knowledge, resources, and solutions needed to scale climate and nature response already exist in climate-vulnerable regions. What is missing is the capacity to bring together deep sector and scientific expertise, operational know-how, and collective leadership rooted in those regions to translate that potential into strengthened futures.
He holds an MPA/ID from Harvard Kennedy School and serves as a Board Member at Legado Initiative and Manna Tech, and is a Climatebase Fellow.
Smriti Iyer
Co-Founder, COO
Smriti is an Economist with over 12 years of experience designing, scaling, and evaluating programmes across agriculture, livelihoods, education, skills, health, and climate resilience in South Asia, Africa, and the United States. She has worked across government, philanthropy, multilaterals, and the private sector, including with the World Bank, Tata Sons, and IMAGO Global Grassroots.
Smriti believes that technical expertise in isolation rarely translates into lasting impact. She grounds her work in frameworks that enable organisations and leaders to move beyond the "quick fixes" and navigate uncertainty, fostering innovation by expanding the organisation's capacity to experiment, question prevailing assumptions, and harness the collective intelligence required for truly durable climate solutions.
Smriti holds a MSc in Environmental and Resource Economics from the TERI School of Advanced Studies, and an MPA in International Development from Harvard Kennedy School. She is the Asia Lead for the Harvard Alumni for Climate and Environment.
Dr Irene Amoke
Nature and Biodiversity Lead
Dr. Irene Amoke is a landscape ecologist, conservation strategist, and Founder of Conserveability Pathways, a strategic partner of Acclimate that turns conservation strategy into measurable, fundable impact.
Trained as a spatial ecologist, Irene has worked across every dimension of conservation: as Executive Director of the Kenya Wildlife Trust; as a peer-reviewed researcher published in leading journals; and through sustained engagement with government agencies, conservation NGOs, and international research institutions. She brings a conviction that nature-positive outcomes depend as much on institutional trust and community legitimacy as on ecological knowledge.
She is an Eisenhower Fellow, a 2023 Women in Environment Fellow, and a Senior Associate at the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership. She holds a PhD in spatial ecology.
Yoeal Haile
Senior Adviser, Venture Builder
Yoeal is a venture builder and Senior Advisor at Acclimate with over a decade of expertise in financial services, technology, and enterprise development across Africa. He has scaled ventures through extreme complexity: as Co-Founder and CEO of Sava, raising $5M and securing a South African Reserve Bank digital banking license; and as Founder of Aspira Kenya, building a 100-person market leader with a $10M annual budget.
Yoeal serves at Acclimate with a conviction that African enterprises possess the ingenuity to define their own growth trajectories. He focuses on providing the sophisticated financial architecture, governance frameworks, and investor relationships required to transition high-potential models from local promise to capitalized scale.
He holds an MBA from Wharton, a BS in Industrial Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and a Graduate Certificate in Financial Engineering from Stanford.
Abhay Rao
Climate and Nature Finance Specialist
Abhay is a climate finance and strategic partnerships specialist with experience spanning philanthropic ecosystems, distributed energy finance, and climate finance strategy across emerging markets. At EnFin and SunPower, he supported over $1B in distributed solar and storage asset sales and tax credit monetisation transactions across financial modelling, investor diligence, and transaction structuring. At Dasra, he worked across venture philanthropy and multi-stakeholder initiatives involving government, philanthropic, and private sector actors, including within the Gates Foundation's WASH portfolio in India.
Abhay leads Acclimate's climate and nature finance work with a conviction that the gap between available catalytic capital and viable project pipelines is not primarily a resource problem. What is missing is rigorous, integrated analysis of financeability pathways that connects carbon revenues, ecosystem services, debt capacity, and long-term sustainability into a picture investors can act on.
He holds a Master of Environmental Management from Duke University and an Integrated Master's degree in Development Studies from IIT Madras.
Naheed Popat
Lead, Circular Economy & Sustainability
Naheed is a circular economy expert with over 15 years of experience driving environmental impact across energy, conservation, construction, and humanitarian sectors globally. He has implemented and scaled environmental strategies across complex environments, serving as Environment and Climate Change Team Leader at the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), where he managed a global team and developed 112 environmental performance systems across 105 sites; as CEO of Wildlife Habitat Trust, where he developed sustainable businesses to improve community livelihoods and protect biodiversity; and as Founder and Managing Director of Greenkey Environmental Solutions, leading the certification process for Eaton Place, the first LEED building in Kenya.
Naheed serves at Acclimate with a conviction that verifiable data and robust partnerships are essential to turn sustainability intentions into trusted, actionable outcomes. He focuses on providing organizations with the frameworks, capacity building, and strategic guidance required to successfully drive environmental outcomes through practical regenerative business interventions while directly enhancing community livelihoods.
He holds a Bachelor of Social Science with a double major in Environmental and Geographical Science and Social Anthropology from the University of Cape Town, and is an accredited IFC Edge Expert.