Simon Desjardins

Co-Founder & Partner @ Shortlist Professionals

About

Excited to be building a better way to hire, combining the best of tech, data, and human touch to provide leading executive search and talent technology services across Africa, India, and 20+ countries globally. www.shortlist.net

Country

Kenya

City

Nairobi County

Industry

Human Resources Services

Skill

Corporate Social Responsibility, Social Entrepreneurship, International Development, Entrepreneurship

Experience

programme manager - access to energy

shell foundation

2009-4 - 2014-7 · 5 yrs 4 mos

* Co-created IntelleGrow (an Indian small business finance company with >US$100m in disbursements, www.intellegrow.com) * Co-created Sangam Ventures (a seed stage energy fund in India, www.sangam.vc) * Identified M-Kopa (www.m-kopa.com) and led the process to be the company’s first funder.

analyst

shell foundation

2008-3 - 2009-3 · 1 yr 1 mo

* Established the Shell Foundation Access to Energy Programme in India and Africa; * Identified and funded six pioneering energy enterprises, including Husk Power Systems (first institutional funder, www.huskpowersystems.com), d.light (early funder, www.dlightdesign.com), and Sedemac (early funder, www.sedemac.com), and others.

business analyst

shell

2006-5 - 2008-2 · 1 yr 10 mos

sales director

high street media

2005-1 - 2006-1 · 1 yr 1 mo

volunteer consultant

united nations

2004-1 - 2005-1 · 1 yr 1 mo

analyst

2003-1 - 2003-1 · 1 mo

co-founder and managing director, search

shortlist professionals

2020-1 - Present · 6 yrs 9 mos

portfolio director

shell foundation

2014-8 - 2016-2 · 1 yr 7 mos

* Co-created the ResponsAbility Energy Access Fund, a US$30+ million working capital fund managed by ResponsAbility and launched in Q1 2015; * Co-created (and board chairman) Impact Business Leaders – a leadership development non-profit. * Led the development and closed a US$50 million funding partnership with DFID, which doubled Shell Foundation’s energy access budget.