Migara Jayawardena
Founder and Managing Director, AMALA Clean Energy Advisors
Migara Jayawardena is the founder and Managing Director of AMALA Clean Energy Advisors – a global consultancy specializing in supporting the clean energy transition for sustainable energy development. He leads AMALA’s global associates in helping clients formulate innovative investment and policy solutions to developing clean energy throughout the world. Mr. Jayawardena has three decades of experience in energy and infrastructure in emerging markets spanning Asia, Africa, Europe and Latin America and the Caribbean.
Prior to establishing AMALA, Mr. Jayawardena worked at the World Bank Group for over 20 years leading efforts to help clients reform and develop energy and infrastructure. He primarily worked in the Energy and Infrastructure Operational Global Practices at the World Bank, and also served as a Lead Evaluation Officer and Thematic Coordinator for Energy and Infrastructure at the institution’s Independent Evaluation Department (IEG). Through his tenure at the World Bank, Mr. Jayawardena worked globally on issues related to infrastructure reform and development finance focusing on business development, policy advice, and investment lending. His work in the energy sector was mostly on power sector and utility reform, renewable energy, hydropower, transmission and distribution, energy resilience, and rural electrification. Of particular interest to him are the utilization of public-private partnerships to achieve development goals; and addressing the impacts of climate change through infrastructure development. The investment projects he led at the World Bank received multiple awards for their design and development effectiveness.
Previously, Mr. Jayawardena also served as the Assistant Program Director and a Faculty Member for the Program on Investment Appraisal and Management, at Harvard University’s Institute for International Development (HIID). He continues to remain involved in training development professionals through a clinic he teaches at Georgetown University (Washington DC) on development financing for energy and environment investments; and, as a guest lecturer in executive programs in project evaluation and risk analysis at Duke University (Durham, North Carolina) and Queens University (Ontario, Canada). Mr. Jayawardena also helped establish Cambridge Resources International (CRI), an investment and risk advisory consultancy.
Migara Jayawardena received his B.Sc. in Economics from Towson State University and his Masters in Public Policy from Harvard University.