Omid ALIMIA

Born to Bangladeshi parents, Omid spent his early life in Iran and Bangladesh before emigrating to South Africa, aged 6, with his family. He completed his secondary schooling in Durban before moving to Johannesburg to pursue his engineering studies at the University of the Witwatersrand, graduating with an MSc in Mechanical Engineering in 2010.

In 2011, Omid joined Sasol – the largest integrated energy company in South Africa. During his three years at Sasol, in Sasolburg, he worked primarily in large capital petrochemical projects and also spent some time in maintenance engineering functions. In 2014, Omid was seconded to Worley Parsons – an international engineering design firm which operates in energy, oil and gas, mining and infrastructure. Whilst at Worley Parsons, he was involved in early stage engineering on water purification plants.

Seeking to move away from a technical career in engineering into a career in finance and investments, albeit still in the broader energy and infrastructure space, Omid decided to attend business school. In 2015, he completed his MBA at INSEAD, having spent time in both France and Singapore during his studies.

Upon returning to South Africa in 2016, he joined the Metier Sustainable Capital practice, a private equity fund with a focus on renewable energy, water and waste management, and energy efficiency investments on the African continent. He currently supports the investment team at Metier in the origination, deal-making, and portfolio management of investments. In particular, he supports the deal Principals on two portfolio projects, with a combined generation capacity of 150MW, in concentrated solar power.

In his free time, Omid enjoys road cycling, mountain biking, landscape and aerial photography, and pretending to keep fit. He also enjoys being in the water and is an avid scuba-diver and aspiring kite-surfer.