Sayge Partners

Michael Fichtenberg

Managing Director

Michael is the founder and managing director of Sayge Partners.  As Executive VP finance & business development at Gigawatt Global, he has been responsible for both corporate and project finance and for leading the business development team. Michael was also the Managing Director of Gigawatt Global Burundi, whose solar field was the first new power station of any kind in the country for over 30 years. Starting his career as an entrepreneur in construction materials in NY, Michael worked in private wealth management focused on clean technology start-ups, and in the acquisition/sale of operating solar fields.  He later joined Arava Power Company as the Deputy CFO and assisted in raising the debt and equity for over 100 MW of solar PV projects.  Michael holds a BA in finance and an Executive MBA from Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management.

Weldon Turner

Director

Weldon is a director at Sayge, responsible for compliance, strategy, and internal operations, and is an investee portfolio manager.  He currently serves as Chief Operating Officer and Chief Compliance Officer at Gigawatt Global, where he heads Gigawatt’s operational management, is in charge of the implementation of policy and strategy, and sits on the board of directors.  Weldon spent many years on Wall Street where he was the director of international equity sales/trading at Credit Suisse and a VP of equity sales/trading at Salomon Brothers.  He entered the renewable industry as senior product manager at RCS Solar.  Weldon has been on the Board of Advisors of Thorium Power Company and Portofino Equity Advisors.  He holds a BA in political science and history, a law degree, and a Masters of Law (LLM) from the Thomas Jefferson School of Law, and is a candidate for a PhD in environmental law from Sunderland University.

Patrick Nzitunga

VP Acquisitions & Portfolio Manager

Patrick is VP Acquisitions at Sayge, responsible for on-ground presence for deal generation and relationship management with investors, and is an investment portfolio manager.  He currently serves as a project developer and assistant project director (Burundi) at Gigawatt Global.  With 10 years of work in African markets analysis, prospecting and penetration strategies, international financing support and oversight of stakeholder’s engagement, Patrick has recently built his experience with all aspects of solar PV project development with his intense involvement in the Burundi project. Patrick holds a Bachelor's degree in law and a Master's equivalent qualification in Results Based Management from the ITICLO/Turin School of Business.

Dr. Hanna Klein

VP Operations & Portfolio Manager

Dr. Klein is the VP operations at Sayge, responsible for portfolio investee oversight and management, Health Safety Environment issues, and market research.  Hanna currently serves as VP project management and research at Gigawatt Global, and contributes her experience as a business consultant, renewable energy and environmental expert and deep involvement in development in some of the poorest nations in Africa to the Sayge team. Her clear methodology and team building focus have been applied to renewable energy project developments in Burundi, Liberia, South Sudan, Mozambique and Kenya.  She has acted as an environmental & social expert for UNDP, and serves as an expert for the European Commission regarding renewable energy and environmental science. Hanna was a business consultant for Accenture out of Amsterdam, built integrated solar PV solutions for Kenotomi in Israel and gas turbines with ABB in Switzerland, worked in nuclear safety for Vattenfall power company in Sweden, and designed concentrated solar systems with Aora Solar. She has developed her own patents in concentrated solar technologies (as EZKlein), holds an MSc in energy systems from the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm and a PhD in solar energy from the Weizmann Institute of Science, and has lectured at UC Berkeley's course on Innovative Finance for Development.

Aryeh Green

Advisory Board Member/Investor Relations

Aryeh is a senior advisor for Sayge on strategic planning, fundraising, and investor relations.  He currently serves as Chief Strategy Officer at Gigawatt Global, responsible for strategic business planning, institutional investment and corporate communications.  He has over three decades of experience working as an executive and business consultant for a number of private and publicly-traded companies, including AudioCodes, ECI Telecom, Pfizer, Aladdin and Moto Guzzi, as well as for various non-profits and NGOs, and served as a senior advisor to minister Natan Sharansky in Israel’s Prime Minister’s Office.  Aryeh holds a BA from UC Berkeley, an MSc in business management from Boston University and Ben Gurion University, and an MA in international relations from Hebrew University.

Akiva Turner

VP Finance & Portfolio Manager

Akiva is responsible at Sayge for overseeing financial due diligence for acquisitions and financial engineering of the fund, including risk mitigation facilities, and is an investee portfolio manager.  Currently, Akiva serves as a financial analyst for Gigawatt Global, where he supports the financial modeling and deal structuring on the company’s projects.  Over his years at the company he has become an expert in project financial structures and the myriad activities required to finalize agreements and bring projects to Financial Close.  Prior to joining the renewable energy industry, Akiva worked as a financial analyst at a boutique consulting firm in Los Angeles which provides financial and strategic advisory services to large independent film and TV companies in Hollywood.  Akiva has a BA in business administration and finance from IDC Herzliya.

Emmanuel Chilufya

Business Development Associate

Emmanuel is responsible at Sayge for deal sourcing, on-ground due diligence, and local representation.  He is the owner of Jothanuel Zambia, an energy and civil construction company.  He has a wealth of knowledge in the energy sector in Zambia, serving currently on the boards of the Zambia and Lusaka Chambers of Commerce & Industry, and as a member of the national chamber’s Energy and Infrastructure committee.  Previously, he worked at Dunavant Zambia, World Hope Int’l Zambia, Starvrou Transport, and National Milling Corp.  He holds a diploma in Business Administration, a Certificate in Entrepreneurship, CPD Certificates in energy, and is currently pursuing a Bachelor's Degree in Business Administration (BBA) at Cavendish University.

Elvis Bugusu, M.D.

Business Development Associate

Elvis is responsible at Sayge for deal sourcing, on-ground due diligence, and local representation.  A licensed medical doctor, Elvis is the CEO of NBN, a logistics and transport company operating in the East African region – mainly Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Rwanda. Elvis is an investor and shareholder in different trading companies in the area, including MedInvestors, a company in Burundi trading medical equipment in Burundi and South and North Kivu – DRC, and One Mind Traders, a general trading company operating in Tanzania and Uganda. Elvis has a broad understanding of business sectors and links to a large network of investors and manufacturing companies’ owners in the region. He has also worked in market research since 2019 with OASYS Groupe, a Senegal research institute, where he served as an independent consultant to a cartography mission assigned by GAVI-Alliance mapping local and regional technical assistance facilities in 20 francophone countries.

Elvis graduated in 2016 from Frank Ogden School of Medicine, Hope Africa University, with a strong passion for maternal health, specifically in underserved populations. He is the co-founder of a local medical organization, Jars of Love Community, which provides wholistic care to vulnerable pregnant women in Bujumbura, Burundi. Elvis is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in Obstetrics and Gynecology at Kilimanjaro Christian Medical University College in Tanzania.