Richenda Van Leeuwen
Time at Durham
Richenda studied at Durham University twice, first from 1984 -1987, when she studied Geography and resided in St. Cuthbert's Society, and the second time gaining an MBA in 2002. While at Durham she played table tennis for the university, and enjoyed playing hockey for Cuth's and dabbling with rowing. She was also active in the Christian Union.
Professional Life
Richenda currently works in private equity in the renewable energy sector with Good Energies Inc., a global investor in the renewables space, which she joined in 2006 and where she focuses on emerging market investing, as well as investments with a social as well as financial component, particularly focusing on rural electrification in developing economies. She also serves as a founding board member of the Good Energies Foundation which supports philanthropic efforts in the renewable energy sector around rural electrification and energy access.
Before joining COFRA, the parent company of Good Energies where she focused on restructuring the work of its corporate foundation supporting microfinance and small and medium sized enterprise (SME) international development initiatives, Richenda spent almost ten years working in the economic development arena, including post-conflict reconstruction in Bosnia (1996) and Kosovo (1999-2000), domestic U.S. economic development in Seattle and New York, and global microenterprise development as CEO of the New York-based Trickle Up Program from 2001-2005 where her work covered developing countries in Africa, Asia and the Americas. She has spoken extensively on issues related to microenterprise development, microfinance and gender development.
Immediately following graduation from Durham in 1997 Richenda moved to Hong Kong where she spent the next six years, working initially in the social service arena managing programs to assist rehabilitating heroin addicts as well as directing assistance program to newly arrived refugee and asylum seeker populations, and subsequently joining the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), in its work with the Vietnamese Boat People in SE Asia before moving to Pakistan (1993-95) where she worked as a consultant on humanitarian issues before moving to the United States.
Social and Family Life
Richenda married Rob, a former UN diplomat in Hong Kong in 1993, and has two stepchildren and a growing array of step-grandchildren. Having married an American it was unsurprising that the family decided after years of diplomatic missions to settle in the United States in 1995. Stints followed in New York and Seattle, with time out back in the Balkans twice, although they are now permanently settled in Maryland just outside Washington, DC. She holds both US and UK citizenship. Richenda enjoys playing squash against her husband and occasionally winning, as well as the occasional ping pong match, although she gave up the hockey once she was relegated to the "senior" league. A keen musician, she enjoys clarinet and piano, is an avid horticulturalist, and in her limited spare time is also passionate about politics, religion, foreign policy, global poverty and social issues and the environment.