Washington, DC Executive Mentors
This year's Washington, DC-based executive mentor biographies:
Rodney Ferguson, CEO Designate, Concordia
Rodney Ferguson is the CEO-designate of Concordia as of July 28th, the transition period will last until October 1st.
He most recently served as Chief Operating Officer at The Clearing, Inc., where he provided leadership to the business that aligns with the company’s ambition to advance operational efficiency and effectiveness while growing its market impact and reach.
Prior to joining The Clearing, Rodney served for a decade as the President and Chief Executive Officer of Winrock International, where he was responsible for the strategic, programmatic, financial, and management operations with over 1,000 employees in more than 40 countries.
Before joining Winrock, Rodney worked for 20 years as a consultant on communications and strategy for the nonprofit, government and commercial sectors. There, he helped the MacArthur Foundation manage its $15 million MacArthur Fellows program—a.k.a. “genius”—awards portfolio. Rodney also worked with other prominent foundations, service providers, and philanthropic organizations, including the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Pew Charitable Trusts, the National Children’s Medical Center, and international aid and development projects in Iraq, Slovenia, and Qatar.
Born and raised in Alabama, Rodney graduated from Birmingham Southern College. He attended the University of St Andrews in Scotland as a Rotary Foundation International Scholar and graduated from Harvard Kennedy School with a master’s in public policy.
Tariye Gbadegesin, Chief Executive Officer, Climate Investments Fund
As one of the world’s largest multilateral climate funds, CIF deploys flexible, fast-moving finance to help low- and middle-income countries transition to a low carbon, climate-smart future. With over US$12 billion in pledges received to date, CIF has gone on to successfully unlock an additional US$64 billion in co-financing for over 80 countries around the world.
Prior to this role, Tariye was the CEO of ARM-Harith Infrastructure Investments, a leading Pan-African infrastructure fund investing in energy transitions and climate resilient infrastructure. She was also previously the Co-Chair of the Voluntary Carbon Markets Integrity Initiative (VCMI), an international organization enabling end-to-end, high-integrity, voluntary carbon markets for climate action.
She brings a wealth of global experience to the role, from her time working at the International Monetary Fund, the Boston Consulting Group, and Price Waterhouse Coopers. Throughout her career she has served in a range of climate and economic development organizations, including as a member of the Climate Policy Initiative’s Global Innovation Lab for Climate Finance, the Infrastructure Advisory Committee for the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investing (PRI), the African Advisory Board of the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ), the Board of Advisors - Columbia University Center on Global Energy Policy, and the Advisory Council of the Millenium Challenge Corporation.
She holds a BA in Economics from Amherst College, and an MBA from the Harvard Business School.