Aparna served as the Deputy and Acting Chief Climate Officer at the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC). A position appointed by the White House, she led the development and execution of the organization’s sustainability strategy, driving impactful change across multiple sectors. Under her leadership, DFC’s climate investment portfolio grew 8x over four years, reaching $13 billion globally. Aparna’s work focused on high-impact areas such as agriculture, electric mobility, conservation, and clean energy, positioning DFC as a leading player in global climate finance.

Aparna’s role also involved significant external representation, where she represented DFC at major global climate events, including COP, New York Climate Week, and various industry fora. As a prominent speaker and thought leader, she engaged with government officials, private sector leaders, and NGOs to promote innovative solutions and strategic collaborations to tackle climate change.

She built and managed a dynamic, cross-functional team of over 30 professionals across business units, including investment teams, legal counsel, communications, and environmental risk analysts. By aligning DFC’s operations with sustainability frameworks and science-based targets, Aparna ensured that the organization’s climate investments were both impactful and measurable. Her leadership also included forging strategic partnerships with multilateral peers and donors, driving co-financing opportunities that expanded DFC’s reach and effectiveness.

Aparna’s experience reflects a unique ability to integrate grant-funded and market-based approaches to deliver scalable, sustainable impact, while amplifying her influence on global climate policy and action.

In addition to her work within large institutions, Aparna has consistently shown a talent for entrepreneurship and execution in lean environments. Her entrepreneurial and operational leadership is grounded in more than a decade of international fieldwork across East Africa, South Asia, and Central America, combined with an academic foundation in mechanical engineering, environmental science, and business. Her early career included designing water and sanitation systems in post-conflict northern Uganda and developing livelihood programs in rural India that helped women farmer groups become economically self-sufficient.

She went on to establish the East Africa regional office of WASH United, a global social enterprise focussed on water and sanitation, overseeing a $1 million budget and building out HR, IT, and governance systems to sustain long-term growth. Under her leadership, a core team of ten was recruited and supported, and a network of more than 30 partner organizations and funders was built. She spearheaded policy advocacy around menstrual health that contributed to the adoption of Kenya’s National Policy and Guidelines on Menstrual Hygiene Management, paving the way for subsequent laws guaranteeing free sanitary pads for schoolgirls.

Her operational acumen extended into large-scale program delivery. She collaborated with local and international stakeholders on a public health campaign that reached more than 100,000 people across East Africa, led the development of water and sanitation programs benefiting over 8,000 students and 300 teachers in India, and formed partnerships with corporates such as Unilever, securing donations of 10,000 soap bars for community health initiatives.

She also co-founded and scaled a digital platform, LensShift, designed to facilitate critical reflection on systemic injustice in the aid and impact sector, which engaged more than 16,000 users in its first year. Despite the challenges of a startup context, she recruited and managed a remote team of 12, fostering collaboration and creativity across multiple time zones.

In addition to building organizations from the ground up, Aparna has advised startups and small and medium-sized enterprises on refining business models, improving operations, and shaping investor strategies. This breadth of experience has instilled in her the agile sense of hustle and strategic perspective required to guide teams and organizations through complex, fast-changing environments.

Aparna’s expertise in finance and governance is anchored in senior leadership roles spanning both nonprofit and private sector contexts.

As Climate Finance Lead at Mercy Corps, she designed and structured financial instruments to advance resilient, low-carbon infrastructure across emerging markets. She produced strategic analyses and policy briefs on green finance and climate risk, shaping executive decision-making and positioning the organization as a global leader in climate advocacy. She also built internal capacity by delivering training programs on sustainability finance to global offices, ensuring alignment with evolving ESG fund requirements and regulatory frameworks. At the same time, she forged cross-sector partnerships with civil society groups, industry coalitions, and UN agencies to scale integrative approaches to climate risk mitigation and decarbonization.

In parallel, as Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer of Fettl, Aparna sourced and advised on a £150 million pipeline of solar and wind investments, ensuring compliance with ESG standards and emerging reporting frameworks. Her dual role in corporate and nonprofit finance demonstrates her ability to bridge commercial imperatives with mission-driven goals, and to build governance structures that withstand scrutiny while enabling scale.

This experience, coupled with her leadership in banking where she grew a the U.S. development finance institution’s climate portfolio to $13B+, has made her a trusted advisor to executives, boards, and investors navigating the fast-evolving landscape of sustainable finance.

White House Forum on Advancing Inclusive Climate Action (2024)
Invited panelist at a high-level convening on embedding equity and inclusion in U.S. foreign policy and development approaches to climate. [Link]

U.S. Government Private Sector Call to Action (2023)
Served as moderator for a session featuring Secretary John Kerry and USAID Administrator Samantha Power on mobilizing private capital for climate action. [Link]

Transition Memo: The DFC & Climate Change (2021)
Authored a set of recommendations for the Biden Administration’s first 100 days, shaping priorities for climate investment and risk management. [Link]

Presidential Appointment to Biden Administration (2021)
Appointed by President Joe Biden to serve in a senior role, advancing the Administration’s climate and development agenda. [Link]

UN Climate Change Technical Expert Group (2019)
Appointed to a UN body focused on comprehensive risk management, contributing expertise on resilience and adaptation finance. [Link]

Financial Times Moral Money Summit (2024)
Leaders panelist in a session on nature, business, and finance, exploring the role of markets in protecting natural capital. [Link]

Latin America Climate Innovation Summit, Mexico City (2024)
Delivered keynote fireside remarks on financing climate innovation and scaling regional solutions. [Link]

Sustainable Investment Forum North America (2023)
Keynote speaker on scaling sustainable finance and embedding ESG across capital markets. [Link]

DevEx Climate+ Summit, COP28 (2023)
Panelist on mobilizing development finance for climate action. [Link]

COP28, Loss & Damage Session on Climate Insurance (2023)
Spoke on innovative climate insurance solutions providing lifelines to smallholder farmers. [Link]

SOCAP23, San Francisco (2023)
Delivered keynote remarks on the state of climate and capital. [Link]

Africa Braintrust Panel, Congressional Black Caucus Conference (2024)
Panelist in a discussion moderated by Representative Ilhan Omar on advancing climate justice. [Link]

DZ Bank Capital Markets Forum (2022)
Panelist on the role of capital markets in disaster risk financing. [Link]

TEDx Talk: Change Your Perspective. For Good. (2018)
Delivered a widely viewed talk on shifting mindsets toward collective action. [Link]

Resilience at Scale: A Systems Approach to Climate-Resilient Infrastructure (2024)
Contributed to a global paper outlining frameworks for scaling infrastructure that can withstand climate risks. [Link]

Reuters (2020)
Authored an op-ed on how remittances can serve as early-response financing in the face of climate-related disasters. [Link]

Blue Infrastructure Finance Report (2020)
Contributed to a groundbreaking study on integrating nature-based solutions for coastal resilience into financial systems. [Link]