Andrew Herscowitz

Chief Executive Officer, Mission 300 Accelerator | RF Catalytic Capital

Andy is the CEO of the Mission 300 Accelerator, a special project of RF Catalytic Capital, a charitable spin-off of The Rockefeller Foundation. He previously served as the inaugural Executive Director of ODI Washington, one of the world’s leading global affairs think tanks, and spent more than 20 years as one of the U.S. Government’s most senior development diplomats, having lived and worked on four continents. He brings extensive expertise in international finance and energy access.

He built and led the U.S. Government’s Power Africa initiative, which grew to become the largest public-private partnership for development in the world and has helped more than 200 million people in Africa gain access to electricity.

Andy also served as the first Chief Development Officer at the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation, where he devised and oversaw a $75 billion development strategy and served on the Investment Committee. Earlier in his career, he was part of the U.S. Government legal team that helped develop the original framework for the Global Fund.

He has received two Lifetime Achievement Awards for his contributions to advancing the African power sector. In 2018, Andy was awarded the “Service to America” medal, given to U.S. Government officials who have delivered the greatest benefit to the American people. In 2005, the Federal Bar Association recognised him as one of the five most outstanding lawyers under the age of 35 in the U.S. Government.

Andy has also been named an MIT/Rockefeller “Global Commissioner for Ending Energy Poverty” and has served on three different World Economic Forum (WEF) Global Future Councils since 2013, including the Council on the Energy Transition. He is a member of the WEF’s high-level network for “Unlocking Barriers and Solutions to Scale Capital for the Energy Transition in the Global South.”

He has authored more than 40 articles and opinion pieces, most of which focus on improving the development finance architecture to support investment in the Global South and in challenging sectors.