Jon Kornik has a background in climate change, environment, energy and mining. He has a Bachelor of Business Science and a Masters in Finance from the University of Cape Town and is currently undertaking a Masters in Business Administration through Columbia Business School in New York, where he is one of five candidates in his class to receive the Feldberg Fellowship.
Jon began his professional career by lecturing finance, strategy and economics at the University of Cape Town, focusing primarily on fixed income securities and derivatives. He then spent two years at McKinsey and Company in Johannesburg, focusing mainly on transport and logistics, mining and energy. During his time at McKinsey, Jon was involved in management consulting in a wide range of functions, including strategy, operational turnarounds, capital optimization and procurement. Through this work, Jon served clients in South Africa, Australia and South East Asia.
Jon left McKinsey and Company at the end of 2007 to found and build up the sub-Saharan African office of South Pole Carbon Asset Management, a Swiss international carbon firm, specializing in carbon financing and climate change consulting. Through this business development and technical role, Jon has gained deep exposure across the African continent to the full spectrum of greenhouse gas emission reduction technologies.
Jon has presented at 15 conferences on carbon finance in Africa and related topics. He has also assisted the World Bank in training Ghanaian banks on carbon finance, and the C40 Cities develop their thinking on reducing their transport sector emissions.
