Finnfund, a Finnish development finance company that provides long-term risk capital for private projects in developing countries, has appointed Markus Pietikäinen as Chief Investment Officer, effective September 1.

In his new role, Pietikäinen will manage and develop investment operations and will serve as a member of the company’s Management Team and Investment Committee.

Pietikäinen graduated from the Swedish School of Economics (Helsinki) majoring in finance.

For the last 11 years he has worked in various positions at Wärtsilä Corporation and before that he worked in London for JPMorgan.

In his last position at Wärtsilä he was based in Houston, Texas and headed the Energy Solutions operations in South, Central and North America.

In 2012-2014 he was also a member of Finnfund’s Board of Directors.

Commenting on his appointment, Pietikäinen said: “I am excited about working for Finnfund at this interesting point of time.”

“Renewable energy is an example of a shift in energy production that offers great opportunities for good investments and significant development impacts. Finnfund already has a strong position in financing the energy and forest sectors in developing countries and I look forward in contributing to these activities,” he said.

Finnfund makes annual investments of €100-150m in 20-30 projects, with an emphasis on renewable energy and sustainable forestry.

The projects must be profitable and responsible and have positive development impacts.

Investments and undisbursed investment decisions currently total nearly €600m, of which half are in Africa.

Operations are profitable and the State of Finland is increasing Finnfund’s capitalization by €130m this year.