Jonathan Berman is a partner and head of the global corporate practice for Dalberg Global Development Advisors, Sonila Cook is a partner in Dalberg's New York office and leads Dalberg's Energy and Environment practice, and John Stephenson is a project manager in Dalberg's Washington D.C. office.
Jonathan works closely with clients to strengthen their developing country operations through social and economic development strategies.
He has more than 15 years of experience advising global corporations and governments. His practice focuses on the natural resources, agribusiness, health and financial sectors, with additional expertise across Dalberg's corporate client range. He has led client engagements throughout Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America focusing on frontier markets and providing counsel to business unit leaders, senior corporate executives and key government ministers. He assists corporate clients to understand host country development priorities, find the partners they need and develop social investment strategies that yield results for shareholders and host countries. He has assisted government and corporate clients to jointly address acute crises and long-term development challenges.
Sonila advises leading multilateral organizations, government agencies, companies, and NGOs in the areas of strategy, organizational effectiveness, and public-private partnerships. Sonila has extensive experience across a broad range of development topics including environment and energy, humanitarian assistance, governance and economic development. Her work spans a broad range of clients, and includes: developing the business plan for an innovative technology to produce non-food biofuels; advising the Inter-American Development Bank on barriers to renewable energy investments in Central America; designing an innovative financing mechanism for climate change projects within UNDP; developing business models to engage the private sector in the phasing out of CFC technologies in various parts of Latin America; developing the three year strategy for a leading human rights organization; assisting the UN Secretariat with a review of the governance and oversight system of the United Nations, encompassing over 30 UN entities; and developing, in collaboration with the UN Global Compact and Financial Times, the first ever market-based assessment of the partnership skills of NGOs.
Prior to joining Dalberg, Sonila worked for McKinsey & Company, where she served organizations in the financial, non-profit and media sectors. She holds an MBA from Columbia University and an undergraduate degree in economics from Harvard University.
John has consulted to the senior management teams of leading multilateral organizations, foundations, multinational corporations, and international financial institutions on energy and environmental policy, monitoring and evaluation, strategy, and emerging markets investment.
John has specific expertise in the environment and renewable energy space, including (i) leading Dalberg's work as the strategic advisor to the IFC SME Ventures Fund which seeks to invest $50 million in post-conflict and fragile economies; (ii) co-leading the $500 million OPIC Global Renewable Energy Fund call for proposals, evaluating fund manager proposals, and conducting due diligence on emerging market funds; (iii) conducting studies on the energy policies and environmental implications in India, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Egypt; (iv) developing a monitoring and evaluation framework for the United Nations Foundation and Vodafone Group Foundation's programs in emergency response and health data systems; and, (v) assisting the East African Community to formulate an energy access scale-up strategy to support attainment of the Millennium Development goals with a focus on alternative energy sources.
John is the co-author of "Will the US-India Civil Nuclear Cooperation Light India?" in Gauging US-Indian Strategic Cooperation (Strategic Studies Institute, 2006), which was cited by the Economist in 2008 and Newsweek (Japan) in 2007. On this topic, John presented at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, D.C. John has also participated as a panelist on the "Renewable Energy: Unlocking Africa's Green Potential" panel at the Harvard Business School 2009 Africa Business Conference.
Prior to joining Dalberg, John worked at the World Bank where he participated in the formulation of the Bank's first Country Assistance Strategy for the Democratic Republic of Congo since that country emerged from civil war. While working at Mercer Management Consulting (now Oliver Wyman), John engaged private sector clients in the airline, paper, pharmaceutical, and telecommunications industries.
John holds a master's degree with distinction in international affairs from Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service and a bachelor's degree magna cum laude in government and east Asian studies from Harvard University.