Management Team

Paddy Padmanathan is a professional civil engineer with over 35 years of experience. He is a key member of ACWA Power’s executive leadership team, having spearheaded its expansion from a startup in 2005 to where it is today.

Paddy has guided ACWA Power’s cost leadership and business strategy which is focused on reliably and responsibly delivering electricity and desalinated water, at competitive prices. He is also steering ACWA Power’s leadership in renewable energy, enabling it to be at the forefront in reducing the cost of clean energy on a global scale.

Prior to joining ACWA Power, Paddy was Vice President and Corporate officer at Black and Veatch, where he was responsible for developing privately financed power, water and wastewater projects at over a dozen countries.

Paddy holds a degree in Engineering from the University of Manchester, United Kingdom, a post graduate qualification in Civil Engineering production from University of Lancaster and in addition to his executive responsibilities at ACWA Power, also serves on the Board of Directors of several companies involved in power and water development across the globe.

Rajit Nanda has more than 25 years of experience. He is currently responsible for the global portfolio performance of ACWA Power. Rajit is responsible for ACWA Powers’ growth and remains functionally in charge of new business development, legal (projects), acquisitions & divestiture, and corporate and project finance. Rajit has also led the structuring and financing of Independent Water and Power Projects IPP / IWPPs across Asia, Middle East, Africa and Turkey. He is currently overseeing ACWA Power’s expansion across MENA, Southern Africa and South East Asia.

Before joining ACWA Power, Rajit was the Regional CFO for Engie’s Middle East, Asia & Africa region. Rajit sits on the Board of several power and utility companies owned and operated by ACWA Power and also serves as an independent Investment Committee member for an Infrastructure fund managed by INVESTEC Bank in South Africa.

Kashif Rana has around 20 years of power and water sector experience covering all areas of project development, structuring, project financing, security offering and other areas of operational finance and tax structuring. Before becoming CFO, Kashif was Director of Accounting, Controls & Taxation at ACWA Power and CFO for AES Middle East Region.

Kashif is a Chartered Accountant who qualified in 2001 from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Pakistan.

Julio Torre-Gutierrez is a professional engineer who serves as the Chief Operations & Maintenance Officer for ACWA Power and as the President and Chief Executive Officer of First National Operations and Maintenance Company (NOMAC). Julio has been part of the leadership team at ACWA Power since 2009, and brings over 33 years of experience within the power generation and water desalination industry. He has played a pivotal role in developing NOMAC, both in terms of management and control, and has spearheaded its position today as one of the most reputed and trusted operation and maintenance companies in the world. Julio is responsible for over 2,500 highly diversified employees in 24 sites in 11 countries, with operations yielding 34,000 MW of power generation and 5.9 million cubic meters of water desalination per day.

Prior to this, Julio served as Vice-President for Business Operations at Duke Energy International where he held positions of increasing seniority over a 23-year period, based in the United States and Latin America.

Julio is a graduate of North Carolina State University and holds a B.S in Nuclear Engineering.

Yara Anabtawi is responsible for Human Capital, Organizational Health, Corporate Alignment and Integration and Marketing & Communications at ACWA Power. With over 24 years of experience, Yara has been in various leadership roles covering a multitude of sectors including energy, investment banking, IT, automotive, education and healthcare in several geographies including the US, North Africa and the GCC.

Yara holds a B.Sc in Management and Information Systems from Brigham Young University, a Master’s degree in Management and Information Systems from the Florida Institute of Technology, a Post Graduate Degree in Education from the University of Sunderland, UK and a certificate in International Management from Thunderbird University. Yara sits on the boards of several power and utility companies owned and operated by ACWA Power.

Guy Richelle holds a MS in Nuclear Engineering from the University of Liege in Belgium and an MS in Climate Change from King’s College in London and has 40 years’ experience in the energy sector. He joined ACWA Power as Senior Advisor in charge of Transformation in 2020.

Guy spent the first 15 years of his career in the nuclear industry, working for Westinghouse and Eskom. He joined Engie in 1998 and held different positions of increasing responsibility as Head of Business Development in the Middle East, Regional CEO for Middle East, Asia and Africa, and COO of International Power. After leaving Engie in 2017, he served as Vice-Chairman of NOMAC and member of ACWA Power Nomination and Remuneration Committee. He has worked in in many countries including Algeria, Oman, the UAE, Thailand and South Africa.

As Chief Technology Officer, Bart Boesmans is leading technology development at ACWA Power. He brings over 25 years of international experience in the electrical power industry having held operational and executive leadership roles in a range of areas including engineering, business development, project execution and asset management.

Prior to joining ACWA Power, Bart’s  experience was primarily with Engie where he led several C-Suite roles for over 10 years across multiple geographies, the most recent one being Deputy Managing Director of Engie’s Global Business Line Renewables. Prior to joining Engie, Bart was CEO of Laborelec, an internationally operating electricity research and O&M services center.

Since his early engagement in wind energy over two decades ago, Bart has been actively involved in a wide range of technologies including conventional power generation, natural gas, LNG transport and storage, green gases, solar PV and CSP, hydropower, battery storage, demand side management and microgrids.

Bart holds a master’s degree and a PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the University of KU Leuven. He is also a visiting professor at the University where he teaches power generation engineering.

Alvaro Perez is the Chief Digital Officer and is leading ACWA Power’s digital transformation, as well as managing the ICT functions. He has over 20 years of experience within technology integration, and has been responsible for leading large international IT projects where technology and digitization were key for business transformation. Alvaro had been a member of numerous boards including International Oracle Utilities Product Development Advisory Board and Acolgen (Colombian Power Generation Association), and participated as an entrepreneur on different ICO, Blockchain & IoT initiatives.

Prior to joining ACWA Power, Alvaro held different posts at Enel for 10 years – most prominent being CIO at Enel X Iberia France and Head of Digital Hub at Enel X Iberia where he mainly specialized in electric vehicles, distributed generation, energy efficiency and smart cities development.

Alvaro is an Economy Science graduate from Complutense University, Spain and also holds a degree in Executive Strategies from Harvard Business School.