About

Peter De Neef was promoted to the role of business developer and chief legal officer in December 2016. He assumed his first in-house role at ENGIE in Dubai in 2008 after six years in private practice. Soon after joining he had closed an independent power producer (IPP) project in Abu Dhabi. ‘I was completely new to the business’, De Neef recalls. ‘The closing was supposed to be pretty straightforward. However, right then, the 2008 financial crises hit leading to months of very difficult negotiations with contractors in Germany and Korea, the government of Abu Dhabi, Japanese partners and banks’. The entire experience was a defining moment in his career and set him up for further successes. Since that time he has played a central role in structuring Mongolia’s CHP5 project, one of ENGIE’s major investments in the region. De Neef has been acknowledged by peers across the board and has been described by external counsel as having ‘great technical skill and focus on detail, while still maintaining a clear commercial perspective and appreciating the nuances of doing business in emerging economies’. Internally, De Neef has been central to introducing a document management system across Dubai, Bangkok and Jakarta. ‘This is in line with my strong belief in knowledge sharing’, says De Neef, who participates in various knowledge-exchange initiatives worldwide. De Neef moved to Bangkok in 2011 to continue his excellent work.