Douglas B. Baker
Founder & Chief Executive Officer
Houston
About Baker Global
Baker Global is an investment and advisory firm built for complex international markets, where capital must move with judgment, trust, and local fluency.
Founded by Douglas B. Baker, the firm works with institutional investors, sovereign governments, and private-sector project sponsors to originate, structure, and advance opportunities across Africa, MENA, Eastern Europe, Latin America and other emerging markets. Its work is grounded in disciplined transaction design, sovereign alignment, and the ability to navigate the legal, political, financial, and cultural realities that shape execution.
Baker Global's approach reflects a simple conviction: in emerging and frontier markets, successful outcomes depend on more than capital. They require trusted relationships, patient market knowledge, credible local partnerships, and the ability to align public priorities with private-sector discipline.
The firm also acknowledges the public-service legacy of former U.S. Secretary of State James A. Baker III, whose career in diplomacy, policy, and global affairs remains an important part of the Baker family history. Baker Global carries that heritage forward in a contemporary investment and advisory context, with an emphasis on trust, discretion, and disciplined international engagement.
The firm brings together experience in investment management, public service, diplomacy, legal and regulatory strategy, public affairs, and cross-border execution. That multidisciplinary perspective allows Baker Global to support opportunities from origination through implementation, helping partners move from strategic ambition to practical, investable structure.
Baker Global operates with discretion, discipline, and long-term alignment. The firm works selectively, focusing on opportunities where its relationships, judgment, and execution capabilities can create meaningful value for investors, governments, and project sponsors alike.
Our Differentiators
Trust-Based Origination
Baker Global's has decades of experience in international structuring and deep networks that aid in project origination.
Working with our own team members on the ground, Baker Global prides itself on its local execution, which is complemented and enhanced by direct government access.
Working with our own team members on the ground, Baker Global prides itself on its local execution, which is complemented and enhanced by direct government access.
Institutional-Grade Structuring
The firm helps shape opportunities so they can withstand investor scrutiny, regulatory complexity, geopolitical risk, and the practical demands of implementation.
Sovereign Government and Local Alignment
Baker Global works with government stakeholders and in-country partners to support projects that reflect national priorities while remaining commercially viable for private capital.
Multidisciplinary Execution
The firm brings together investment, advisory, legal, policy, public affairs, and cross-border execution experience to support complex international opportunities from origination through implementation.
Leadership
Marina Akopian
President
London
Ferdinand Schenck
Head of Business Development
Johannesburg
Eng. Mohammed Alkaff Alhashmi
Vice President
Abu Dhabi
Ambassador Adam Ereli
Head of Policy & Public Affairs
Washington, D.C.
Ambassador Darlington Mwape
Legal Advisor, International Trade
Southern Africa
Ed Wilson
Head of Legal
Washington, D.C.
Operating Partners
Mohammed Maghraby
Managing Director, Middle East & North Africa
Cairo
Paul Smith
Head of Global Resources
Johannesburg
Hassan Abassi
Head of Maghreb
Casablanca
Ejaz Adham
Head of UK and Special Projects
London
Guven Giray
Head of Latin America
Mexico City
László Károly, M.Sc. Eng., DMS, MBA
Head of Europe and Renewables
Budapest
Global Approach
Baker Global works in markets where opportunity is shaped by more than financial return. In emerging and frontier markets, successful projects require alignment among investors, governments, local partners, regulators, communities, and execution teams.
The firm's approach begins with trusted relationships and disciplined market judgment. Baker Global seeks to understand the political, regulatory, financial, and cultural conditions that determine whether an opportunity can move from concept to execution.
The firm emphasizes sovereign alignment, local partnership, and institutional-grade structuring. Each engagement is shaped with attention to risk, governance, commercial viability, and long-term value creation.
Baker Global is sector-aware but opportunity-led, with experience across infrastructure, energy, mining, agriculture, technology, transport, housing, and industrial development. Across each sector, the firm's role is to help structure opportunities that can meet public priorities while attracting private capital and operational execution.
The result is a practical, relationship-led model for complex markets: patient enough to earn trust, disciplined enough to protect capital, and experienced enough to move meaningful projects forward.
