Mustapha Mokass

 My education at HEC Paris played a decisive role in the design of my professional project. The MSc Sustainability and Social Innovation program remains from my global experience, a pioneering program in the world. 

Making private sector and international financial institutions work together

Since my graduation, I have constantly been driven by the vision that one of the most efficient ways to concretely fight poverty and climate change, consists of finding innovative approaches to make private sector and international financial institutions work together.

I had the chance to experience this vision, with the launching of unprecedented public private partnerships (PPP) within the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) and the World Bank.

The UNEP PPP consisted in collaborating multinationals of the building and construction industry, such as Lafarge, Arcelor-Mittal or Corus, towards decreasing carbon emissions by promoting scaling-up energy efficiency technologies and policies. Three years later, for the Global Environment Facility (GEF) within the World Bank, I contributed to the design and the launching of the GEF PPP Fund (50 Million $), aiming to better leverage public environmental finance by catalyzing private investments towards clean energy technologies and eco-agriculture in developing countries.

Six years ago, I moved to the field side, in order to practice my learning with implementation of such projects in the field. I created the company BEYA Capital in Morocco, specializing in carbon and climate finance investments in MENA and Africa. Lastly, with the deeper belief that fighting poverty and preserving the environment are inextricably linked, I created Poverty and Climate innovation, within which we want to implement innovative social business models to fight poverty by creating sustainable jobs and transferring clean technologies with stronger social impact.

For instance, I am the co-founder of Terres d’Amanar in the little village of Tahnaoute of the Atlas, in the Marrakech region, which is a social enterprise in the sector of eco-tourism which today employs 120 people hired from the village with a model based on authentic nature tourism, local organic farming, local jobs creation, buildings with local materials (no cement, no air conditioning…).

I can summarize my career commitment by this visionary quote of Kofi Annan, former UN Secretary-General: “The issue is not environment versus development, nor ecology versus economy. Contrary to popular belief, we can integrate the two. Nor is the issue one of rich versus poor. Both have a clear interest in protecting the environment and promoting sustainable development.”

A powerful positive energy within the HEC students’ community

My education at HEC Paris played a decisive role in the design of my professional project and I would like to take this opportunity to thank HEC Paris for creating the MSc Sustainability and Social Innovation program, which remains from my global experience, a pioneering program in the world.

At HEC, I learned a certain alternative way of thinking business within the class, between how to think differently and develop strategies to new problems (environment and social impacts). Most importantly three courses were decisive in my choices of career, project finance, carbon markets and global influence & lobbying.

But I think the most valuable lesson was not the skills but more the human dynamics, with a kind of powerful positive energy co-created by the HEC students’ community making me  feel that everything is possible as claimed by HEC Paris motto: the more you know, the more you dare.