André de Ruyter

Until recently, André was a Visiting Senior Fellow at Yale University’s Jackson School of Global Affairs, the School of Management, and the School of the Environment, where he lectured on the just energy transition and climate finance.

André brings more than 30 years of global business experience in the energy sector. He has lived and worked in South Africa, China, Germany, the Netherlands, and the United States, in addition to developing projects and managing businesses in numerous African countries. He has spent the last decade of his career in various senior executive roles, including group chief executive of Eskom, the largest electricity company in Africa. In that capacity, he developed a corporate strategy for the accelerated decarbonization of the largest emitter on the continent through a Just Energy Transition (JET) and created the first JET office for the repurposing and repowering of decommissioned power stations.

André wrote a best-selling book about his Eskom experience, entitled Truth to Power, which was chosen by The Guardian as one of its global top five books by whistleblowers. Additionally, he was selected as one of the top 100 influential Africans in 2023 by New African magazine.

He is interested in climate finance as it applies to developing countries in a global context and is researching options for climate financing and carbon market reform to enable greater access to liquidity for green energy projects in the global south.