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PIiers Cumberlege has had an international career working in and with multi-national corporations, private equity management, governments and civil society organisations across Asia, Europe, Africa, and North America. He is Chairman of The Climate PI Foundation, and recently retired from the Board of South Pole Group, the first “climate unicorn”. He is also Adjunct Professor of Leadership in the Executive Education Faculty at HEC Paris, Doha and Riyadh. In the non-profit sector Piers sits on the Investment Committee of Engineers Without Borders
Since 1999 Piers has been an active Board director of public corporations listed on the Frankfurt, Moscow, and Toronto exchanges. He has also served on several high-profile joint-venture and investee company boards and has experience of Finance Audit and Risk, Governance and HR, Compensation, Strategy Committees.
He has more than 35 years of corporate roles in General Management, Government Relations, Investment, and International Business Development of major transportation, telecommunications, power, infrastructure and industrial businesses at Bombardier Inc., GEC Plessey Telecommunications (GPT), and Hawker Siddeley Group, living and managing multi-cultural teams in Russia and the CIS, Asia, Africa, Europe, and North America. More recently he was Head of Partnership of the World Economic Forum.
Piers has significant business experience in Financial and Corporate direct investment, ranging from sourcing and completing transactions to fund management and portfolio company Board representation. He is currently structuring a Fund of Funds for the Government of Ghana and advising a major private equity group on acquisitions in the climate finance sector. He previously co-managed the Canada Investment Fund for Africa.
He holds a Master’s degree from Oxford University, has a graduate business degree from Coventry University in association with the General Electric Company, and holds the Corporate Director certification from McGill University and the Canadian Institute of Corporate Directors. He has lived in several countries and speaks a number of languages.
In 2013 Piers received the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal for services to development.