Commercial counsel and business development for renewable energy projects, electricity trading and cross-border wheeling across the SAPP and Sub-Saharan Africa. The brief is simple: enable the deal, accelerate your self-destruct countdown — be effective, then be unnecessary.
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retention.target = minimum_viable
Most advisors optimise for retention. Lexara optimises for enablement — the work is measured by deals closed, platforms launched and teams that can run without us.
The work spans the lifecycle of a renewable energy project: early-stage strategy, development and structuring, financing, electricity trading and wheeling arrangements, and the regulatory and contractual architecture that holds it all together. Mid-sized to utility-scale. Single jurisdiction or cross-border.
The credentials are dual: admitted as an Attorney of the High Court of South Africa and as a Solicitor of England and Wales. The lens is commercial first, legal second — focused on transactional enablement, with regulation treated as a constraint to navigate rather than a deliverable to bill against.
Targeted support across the development cycle — engaged à la carte or as integrated counsel from origination through close.
Board-level direction on market entry, deal structuring, partner selection and operating models — built around commercial enablement, not advisory dependency, to move from prospect to financial close.
End-to-end project shaping — origination, feasibility, stakeholder negotiation, permitting strategy and bankability work — including SAPP-linked structures and cross-border wheeling arrangements.
Contractual architecture for PPAs, EPCs, O&Ms, trading, wheeling and financing documents; regulatory navigation across SADC and ECOWAS jurisdictions and the SAPP framework.
Multi-jurisdictional transactions across South African and English law, cross-border wheeling structures and electricity trading platform design — built to enable the deal, not extend the mandate.
Strategic counsel at the nexus of law, energy and trade — 18+ years of enabling renewable energy projects from concept to commercial operation across the SADC region.
Alex is a dual-qualified Attorney (South Africa, 2007) and Solicitor (England & Wales, 2008) who has spent his career bridging the commercial, technical and legal spheres of renewable energy. He has been at the forefront of establishing one of South Africa's first electricity trading platforms, and routinely structures bankable PPAs, EPC and O&M contracts, cross-border wheeling and SAPP-linked trading arrangements, development agreements and financing documents; manages licensing and regulatory approvals with NERSA, NTCSA, Eskom and the IPP Office; and aligns sponsors, lenders, EPCs and offtakers around deals that close. The orientation is unambiguously commercial — business, project and transactional enablement first.
Previous chapters include Senior Business Development Manager at Scatec / Lyra, Commercial Manager at Mainstream Renewable Power (1.3 GW of public-market projects), Head of Projects & General Counsel at O&L Nexentury (Namibia & South Africa), and M&A Associate - Private Equity M&A at White & Case LLP.
Brief outline, a deadline, or a deal you want a second pair of eyes on — direct contact is the fastest path in.