Andrew Smith, Founder

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Before heading up the Scottish Investment Bank 's £103m Renewable Energy Investment Fund. investing equity and debt into a range of marine, low carbon and community owned renewables projects, leveraging private investment, Andrew was a private sector lawyer in Scotland for over 30 years. Latterly he specialised in renewable energy projects and served as Head of the Energy Practice Group at Alliuris, an alliance of independent European law firms. 

Andrew returned to the private sector and was appointed Head of Investment at DP Energy, a developer of renewable energy projects world-wide before establishing his own consultancy firm, DEJA BLUE, in 2016.

Andrew is a recognised expert on the Blue Economy and a regular speaker/contributor at international and national conferences/events. 

Director of Greenbackers Investment Capital

Andrew is a Director and co-owner of Greenbackers who are at the forefront of the cleantech sector. Greenbackers have a number of innovative programmes to join technology with capital and drive carbon out of the economy.

Expert Assessor for Solar Impulse Foundation (SIF)

Andrew is an independent expert assessor of solutions seeking approval from SIF. SIF was launched by Bertrand Piccard in November 2017 as a means of taking the success of his solar-powered flight around the world further. SIF envisions ecology through the lens of profitability, and sets out to prove that solving climate change is a fantastic market opportunity. A challenge has been set to select 1000 solutions that can protect the environment in a profitable way and present them to decision-makers to fast-track their implementation.

Expert Panel Member for European Commission's Innovation Fund

By invitation from the EC's Directorate-General for Climate Action, Andrew is assisting with the design and initial operation of the Innovation Fund. 

The EC's Innovation Fund is one of the world's largest funding programmes for the demonstration of innovative low-carbon technologies. It will provide around EUR 10 billion of support over 2020-2030 for the commercial demonstration of innovative low-carbon technologies, aiming to bring to the market industrial solutions to de-carbonise Europe and support its transition to climate neutrality.

Member of UN Sustainable Blue Economy Finance Initiative Working Group

The UN took over this workstream from the EU and Andrew was asked to join the working group in light of his work on the Blue Economy and his unique perspective anchored in the experience of real deals he has led and completed and his ongoing work in the ocean sector.

This initiative was set up to help guide the crucial role that banks, insurers and investors can play, in supporting the Sustainable Blue Economy Finance Principles which were unveiled in 2018. The principles provide a guiding framework for financing a sustainable ocean economy, and were developed by the European Commission, WWF, the World Resources Institute and the European Investment Bank. 

Building on the momentum of these principles, UNEP FI hosts the Sustainable Blue Economy Finance Initiative - a new platform bringing together financial institutions to work with scientists, corporates and civil society.