Lucas Gastaldi is an Associate Partner from Panama office. He joined the Firm in 2016, currently leads the Sustainability practice for Central America. Before McKinsey, over 10 years of experience in project management in different industries and co-founded biogas renewable energy startup.

Relevant Experience in energy and sustainability

• 2-year experience in US biogas market as business developer for player in US Northeast area, developing end to end projects for 1MW to 4MW plants.
• Co-founded biogas renewable energy startup in Argentina to design, build and operate biodigesters based on agro-industrial waste (co-digestion). Company running since 2016, awarded, built and operate three PPAs +1MW plants (300 t/day organic waste) and operating other 3 plants already built.
• org leader in LATAM, independent NGO of McKinsey & Company, focused on waste management and circular economy. Full startup, definition, design and implementation of regional strategy, consolidating external funding, training of +2,000 workers and integration of the entire value chain between private and public sector.
• Leading nature conservancy project with National Government. Strategy and nature conservancy prioritization, business case and PMO design and implementation in line with 30×30 CBD global agenda.
• Leading Net Zero pathways analysis for Panama and Guatemala, analyzing decarbonization scenarios in line with NDC targets. Analyzed technologies, returns, risks and opportunities at country level to generate insights and elaborate green business opportunities for private and public sector.
• Holistic transformation in steel industry, redesigning steel scrap strategy to minimize CO2 and maximize results to business. Designed and implemented business intelligence area, advanced analytics models for scrap price definition and proactive inventory management, and lean management in distribution centers at scale.

Education and Background

Lucas is an Industrial Engineer with a MS in Engineering Management at Northeastern University, Boston, Fulbright Scholar.