Edison Electric Institute
Lawrence Jones is Senior Vice President of International Programs at Edison Electric Institute.
In July, EEI launched an initiative with the Liberia Electricity Corporation (LEC) aimed at enhancing the capacity and knowledge of LEC stakeholders. Through workshops and other in-person sessions, we educated employees and other key stakeholders on the fundamentals of electrifying a country, raised awareness of the challenges and opportunities in the electrification process, and transferred knowledge in areas such as electric company planning, operations, maintenance, customer engagement, communications, and financial management. As part of this engagement, I interviewed a wide array of global industry experts to discuss their electrification journeys, enable knowledge sharing, and further international collaboration toward energy access.
For this column, I'm sharing excerpts from my interview with Spero Mensah, the former Minister of Energy, Oil and Mining, for the Republic of Benin and CEO of JEM Smart, a power engineering and consulting group based in Africa.
We discussed his career journey, which includes developing robust electrification strategies and opportunities to catalyze investments in African energy projects.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Lawrence Jones: Tell us about yourself, including your place of birth, where you grew up, and career journey in the electricity sector that took you from tech executive and public servant to investor and entrepreneur.