Our Team
Leila Chennoufi, Partner
Leila is an expert in sustainability, environment, health & safety, and the application of international standards for project finance, both public and private. She gained 10 years consulting experience with URS corporation (now AECOM) in France and the US, and spent eight years managing the environmental safeguards team for the InterAmerican Development Bank. She now works for a variety of clients including the World Bank, Millenium Challenge Corporation and DEG. Leila has worked in over 40 countries and assessed hundreds of sites and projects across a variety of industrial and infrastructure sectors. She has an MS in Structural Engineering from the Ecole Speciale des Travaux Publics and a PhD in Engineering Geology from the Ecole Nationale Superieure des Mine de Paris. She is an Environmental Management Systems lead auditor with significant experience in ISO 14001, hazardous waste and emergency response, and is SA 8000 qualified. She has also worked extensively in the integration of environmental and social issues management and resettlement. Leila is a native Arabic and French speaker with fluent English and Italian, and strong working Spanish.
Charles E. Di Leva, Partner
Charles is a leading international authority on environmental and social (E&S) risk management, and the development and application of E&S standards for investment and project finance, with over four decades in leading positions at the World Bank and the public and private sector. He served as the World Bank Chief Officer, Environmental and Social Standards, where he launched the new “E&S Framework”, and as Chief Counsel, Environmental and International Law, where he led a practice group responsible for E&S standards application and compliance; climate change law and finance; and advising on international E&S treaties and instruments. He advised the Bank’s senior management on projects in nearly 100 countries, particularly on complex high-risk projects. With his expertise, Charles advises clients on a range of ESG matters. Charles served with the U.S. Department of Justice as Trial Attorney in the Environment and Natural Resources Division; as Senior Council with a predecessor firm of DLA Piper; as Director of the IUCN Environmental Law Program in Bonn; and as Senior Officer with the UNEP Environmental Law Unit in Nairobi. Charles has often published and taught in his areas of expertise including at the American University and George Washington University, and has working knowledge of Spanish and French.
Bilal Rahill, Partner
Bilal is a global leader in sustainability, working at the nexus of business and development. As a Senior Manager then Director with the IFC and the World Bank, Bill has engaged with public and private sector leadership on a range of emerging sustainability issues. At IFC, his team of environmental and social (E&S) development professionals worked in emerging markets, assisting clients to implement best practice solutions in hundreds of investment projects worldwide. He also co-led the review and update of the 2012 IFC Performance Standards, and was integral to the development of the World Bank’s new E&S Framework.Throughout his career, Bill has provided technical advice and support to clients for investment operations in finance, infrastructure, agri-business and manufacturing. He has 30 years technical experience in the application of international standards for project finance, management systems, sustainable finance and natural capital and the various global environmental funds. Bill has a B.Eng. and graduate degrees in business management, finance and public policy. He is a native English and French speaker with conversational Arabic.
Sasha Koo Oshima, Partner
Sasha is an international scientific policy and business development leader in agri-environment, health, energy, and natural resource management. As the Deputy Director with the UN Food & Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the International Water Lead with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Sasha has led global engagements and program development on sustainable agriculture and healthy food systems, operationalized strategies in E&S governance through innovative public and private partnerships, digital data informatics, and sustainable financing. She has strategized in the development of various revolving funds for wastewater financing and provided expertise for the Millennium Challenge Corporation Compacts on sustainable infrastructure financing mechanisms. She is an expert in water reuse and other circular economy dimensions. Her deeper background includes service with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in pioneering life-cycle analyses and with private sector global environmental consulting firms. She is now a Governing Board Member of the World Water Council, the International Commission on Irrigation and Drainage, UNEP Global Partnerships on nutrient and wastewater management and, formerly, the CGIAR’s Water Land Ecosystems. Educated with a graduate degree from Yale University, she is a fluent English and Chinese speaker with strong language skills in French, Italian and Japanese.
Peter Cohen, Senior Associate
Peter holds a Ph.D. in Applied Anthropology from Columbia University and has more than 20 years' operational experience in development projects for the World Bank, Inter-American Development Bank, and European Bank for Reconstruction, among other institutions, in Africa, Latin America and Asia. His main area of specialization is Social Safeguards and Risk Management with a focus on informal livelihoods (e.g., informal recycler integration in solid waste management systems); strategic-level evaluation and planning (portfolio reviews, thematic reviews, policy dialogues, institutional strengthening); use of Borrower Systems, institutional-strengthening programs, strategic policy and institutional recommendations, operational guidance, toolkits; training and capacity building and troubleshooting and problem solving (complex, high-risk and Category A projects, Restructurings, Inspection Panels, Audits, etc.). Peter has worked, published and taught extensively on involuntary resettlement, the social dimensions of solid waste and the social inclusion of informal recyclers. Peter currently resides in Brazil, is a native English speaker with fluent Portuguese, French, Spanish, and a working knowledge of Haitian Creole, Wolof, and Swahili.
Iona Hawken, Senior Associate
Iona is an environmental and social specialist with over 20 years of global experience supporting sustainable development and conservation, environmental and social (E&S) risk management, biodiversity management and risk, and stakeholder-based natural resource governance. She has worked in biodiversity conservation, climate resilience and adaptation, community-based resource management, and indigenous and traditional local peoples’ engagement, with a regional focus on Latin America and Amazonia. Iona’s expertise integrates social and natural sciences with development policy and planning, particularly in relation to E&S safeguards, ecosystem services, and traditional knowledge systems. Examples of clients include the Inter-American Development Bank, the World Bank, The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), the Brazilian Biodiversity Fund (FunBio), and the Global Environment Facility (GEF). Ms. Hawken’s Ph.D. research focused on urbanization and land-use change in Amazonia, and Ms. Hawken also holds an M.Phil. in Environmental Science, Conservation and Development, Ecological Anthropology—and a Masters in Environmental Management, all from Yale University. Ms. Hawken has lived and worked in seven countries, and is a native English speaker, with general fluency in Spanish, and working knowledge in Portuguese, French, and Italian.