Mehrdad Nazari(QP, MBA, MSc), Lead ESG & IESC Advisor (USA)

Mr. Nazari (QP, MBA, MSc) has 30 years of experience across diverse projects in approximately 50 countries. This includes ten years as a Principal Environmental Specialist with the European Bank (EBRD), and two years as the Director of the Independent Accountability Mechanism/Office of Accountability at the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC). His advisory practice at Prizma focuses on sectors such as mining, renewable power, infrastructure, and private equity. He is a GRI-certified reporter, licensed assurance service provider, was a MAC-TSM Verification Service Provider and a Copper Mark Assessor (now merged and requiring re-accreditation), a member of the International Association for Impacts Assessment (IAIA), the Mining and Metallurgical Society of America (MMSA), and the Institute of Materials, Minerals & Mining (IOM3). 

Mehrdad Nazari makes ESIA/ESMS/ESAPs bankable, performs Human Rights Screening and Reviews, serves as Independent Environmental and Social Consultant (IESC) to investors aligned with the Equator Principles, provides ESG and sustainability reporting or associated licensed assurance services, generates climate risk and decarbonization strategies, and has served on Independent/Expert Rosters or directed independent accountability mechanisms (IAMs) of Development Finance Institutions, such as the IFC/MIGA‘s CAO, the IDB‘s MICI, the GCF‘s IRM, and DFC’s IAM. As an expert witness, he has also contributed to an investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) case before the World Bank’s International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID).

Previously, Mr. Nazari was a DFC-Board-appointed Director of the IAM, developing new policy and processing 19 complaints related to 5 DFC projects in Ghana (forestry), Kenya (education), Mozambique (LNG), Nigeria (fertilizer production), and Türkiye (chemical manufacturing); headed ESG Research at Fitch’s CoreRatings, London (divested to DNV and Innovest), working with a team of 20 analysts and providing subscription-based ESG risk ratings services; served as Principal Environmental Specialist at the European Bank (EBRD, London), appraising, trouble shooting and monitoring a high risk investment portfolio exceeding $3 billion; was Project Manager and EHS Auditor with Dames & Moore Frankfurt (merged with AECOM and ERM), supporting blue chip clients with their compliance and M&A-related due diligence initiatives.

Mehrdad studied in Germany (BSc-equivalent, Mineralogy, J.W. Goethe), USA (German Fulbright grantee at UW-Milwaukee) and the UK. He holds an MBA (Henley, UK) and MSc (Hydrogeology, University of Birmingham, UK). Mehrdad is also a GRI-certified sustainability reporting consultant, an AccountAbility licensed AA1000AS v3 assurance service provider. He has also delivered numerous courses related to the IFC Performance Standards, Equator Principles, and GRI Standards in Canada, China, Panama, Norway, Peru, UK, USA and Venezuela.