CFI.co Meets the Chairman and CEO of Elwan Group: Ibrahim I Elwan

Ibrahim Elwan is the chairman and the chief executive officer of Elwan Group – previously Infrastructure Capital Group – a company created in 1995 to develop, own, and operate infrastructure and real estate projects. To date, Elwan Group has developed projects in power, wastewater, and real estate in the United States, Europe, and the UAE amounting to about AED 2 billion, including TANQIA, a privately-owned wastewater utility in the Emirate of Fujairah. Elwan Group currently has a number of projects in advanced stages of development such as real estate undertakings, privately-owned wastewater utilities, andmunicipal solid waste treatment plants.

Prior to establishing the group, Mr Elwan held a number of senior positions at the World Bank during his nineteen years with the institution. His professional career was primarily focused on the development of infrastructure, energy, and the private sector in the emerging economies of Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia.

His last position at the bank was that of manager for private sector development and privatisation. In that role, Mr Elwan developed the Energy Development Fund in Pakistan. Established under the aegis of the World Bank bank to provide financing for private sector projects in the energy sector, the fund raised $600 million which, in turn, generated an additional $2.6 billion in equity and commercial debt to finance about 3,000MW of privately-owned power generation capacity.

At the World Bank, Mr Elwan was also responsible for the design of Enhanced Co-Financing, the first instrument provided by the institution to support projects financed under limited recourse by guaranteeing the performance of host governments. ECO instruments successfully attracted financing for major power projects in countries such as Pakistan and China.

Prior to joining the World Bank in 1976, Mr Elwan was a senior economist at Ontario Hydro and Shell Canada. Before that, he taught at a number of universities in the US and Canada. Mr Elwan has degrees in Engineering and Economics.

Mr Elwan has written two books on restructuring the energy sector in former Yugoslavia and Jordan. His articles on project finance have appeared in numerous publications, including the Financial Times, Project Finance International, Infrastructure Finance, the Middle East Economic Digest (MEED), Project and Trade Finance, Power in Asia, and the Far Eastern Economic Review.