Stephen is C40’s Head of Energy Strategy and Implementation. He has been working on urban clean energy and climate change response for more than 12 years, and also has several years of experience as an independent consultant, coach and facilitator. Stephen originally joined C40 as the City of Cape Town’s climate change adviser in 2018, and supported the city to develop its first-ever Paris-aligned Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan. He then joined C40’s global team, where he supported C40 cities in all regions with their greenhouse gas inventory reporting and climate action plan development.
Since 2025, Stephen has been leading C40’s grid decarbonisation and fossil fuel phase-out work, enabling our cities to achieve a just and inclusive clean energy transition. Before working in the cities space, Stephen was a researcher at the Energy Research Centre in Cape Town for 4 years, where he lectured in energy and climate change topics, and led several research projects on residential energy efficiency and behavioural change. He has also designed and facilitated numerous multi-stakeholder engagements related to clean energy and climate change.
Stephen has a Master’s degree in Operations Research from the University of Cape Town and a degree in Statistics and Actuarial Science from the University of the Witwatersrand. He also holds certificates with the World Bank’s City Climate Planner Program and with the Centre for Appreciative Inquiry as a coach and facilitator. In his spare time, Stephen can be found rock climbing or running around his local mountains, and diving in the Great African Sea Forest.