James Varghese Abraham is an entrepreneur, strategist, and institution builder who has spent his career at the intersection of energy, capital, and technology. He joined CEEW as its CEO in August 2026. He is a seasoned leader with over four decades of experience, the most recent two spent working with businesses on net zero, emissions reduction, technology, nature-based solutions, and renewable energy.

He was a founding partner of the Boston Consulting Group in India from 1998 to 2009, leading its expansion into New Delhi. His work focused on organisational transformation, infrastructure and energy.

He later co-founded SolarArise, an IPP with utility-scale solar-power plants and helped shape India's early solar policy at a time when solar was still treated as expensive and marginal. SolarArise was one of the first to make solar power cheaper than coal. The firm was sold to a listed Investment Trust in the UK (ThomasLloyd Energy Impact Trust). In 2023, he founded Mynzo Carbon, a platform to monitor nature-based investments with satellite data and AI.

James has also held leadership and board roles across business and development, with a track record of building institutions, scaling solutions, and driving meaningful change. He is a fellow of the Aspen Global Leadership Network and a senior moderator of Aspen’s leadership programmes. He is a Trustee of the Ananta Centre in India. James serves on the boards of LTIMindtree, where he chairs the audit committee, MakeMyTrip, where he chairs the CSR committee, and International Justice Mission, where he is the Chair of the Board. Previously, he has served on the boards of L&T Water and Effluent Treatment, L&T Power Development, and Vistaar Financial Services.  

James earned a BSc (electrical engineering) from the University of Waterloo, an MBA (Palmer Scholar) from Wharton, and an MA (International Relations) from Johns Hopkins University. In his free time, he likes to read, run, cycle, and have a really nice glass of wine.