Subject: Fw: Sharing experiences and moving to ADB
From: Amitabh Desai <[email-masked]>
To: Bruce Lindsey <[email-masked]>, Laura Graham <[email-masked]>, Doug Band - PC <[email-masked]>, Justin Cooper - PC <[email-masked]>, "[email-masked]" <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 21 Apr 2012 16:43:59 -0400

FYI

________________________________
From: Amit Jain
To: Amitabh Desai
Cc: Amit Jain <[email-masked]>
Sent: Fri Apr 20 20:55:04 2012
Subject: Sharing experiences and moving to ADB

Hi Ami:

Hope you are doing well. I wanted to touch base with you and update you on my future plans.

My journey with Clinton foundation started four year back on February 12, 2008 and have been full of learning, excitement and challenges. I feel proud and satisfied in the execution of Delhi waste project and to some extent with Rajasthan and Gujarat solar park, although there is still a long way to go. I have been fortunate to have worked under President Clinton’s leadership and learned a lot during this period. At this stage of my life, I wanted to take up more challenges and have decided to move on. I want to share an honest feedback on my experience with CCI and C40-CCI in the past four years.

I also want to share my frustration with C40-CCI in the past 6-8 months. I had a discussion with you during the launch of C40-CCI in New York and we agreed that we should give C40-CCI sometime to settle and strategize. Unfortunately, things have gone from bad to worse.

I know there were issues with CCI before merger with C40. But there was one thing which was clear, we were lead by Ira Maganizer, who had a clear vision. Although I had limited interaction with him in the first two years, but we all drew inspiration and motivation to work at the ground level with the government and the only objective was to develop and implement project to reduce GHG and we were strictly advised not to interact with media as the organization believed that work would speaks for itself. Unfortunately, with C4-CCI, I think the only objective is to get media publicity. There is one mail which I get regularly as part of C40-CCI, which mentions how successfully C40-CCI is getting media attention.

Let me not talk subjectively and place some facts before you. I just want to ask one question how many tons of CO2 we have been reduced after 12th April 2011, when CCI and C40 merger took place. We did organize a number of conference and workshop and attracted media attention for it. But definitely we are missing the point and diverting from the core issues. The reason I signed up for the foundation four years was based on following principles

1.       The only objective was to reduce GHG emissions. My performance was measured by tons of C02 reduced per annum

2.       CCI was a small flat organization, where ground staff was allowed to take decisions and improvise based on local conditions

Before the merger, CCI has more than 70 employees and today we have less than 20. Please note all of them have resigned and none has been fired post merger. There could be two reasons for this mass attrition. One, CCI employees were frustrated by CCI-C40 post merger and decided to quit. Second, CCI did a terrible mistake in hiring non competent employees which finally quit. I will let you choose the right reason. CCI-C40 is virtually working as a skeleton with strong central executive team (all directors) and literally zero people on the ground. I am not sure who is working locally with 40 cities whom we partner with.

CCI was never more than 75 people organization and organization structure was very flat. Anybody could talk to respective line manager, director or Chairman with new ideas, projects or issues, which is not the case anymore.

Please note frustration with C40-CCI is just one of the reasons for me to leave CF, there are other professional reasons. But I thought after spending four years with foundation, I should share my thoughts with you.

I will be leaving Clinton Foundation at the end of April to join Asian Development Bank (ADB) as a clean energy consultant to develop and finance energy access projects for empowerment of poor people in Asia. I will be moving to Manila, Philippines for one year assignment and will be responsible for developing innovative financing and delivery mechanisms for access to energy team with in ADB. 30th April is my last day at Clinton foundation, my personal email id is [email-masked]<mailto:[email-masked]>

Best,
Aj

AMIT JAIN | C40, in partnership with the Clinton Climate Initiative| Regional Coordinator, Solid waste and waste water [email-masked]<mailto:[email-masked]> | www.C40.org<http://www.C40.org>