When Yana Esterleyn addressed delegates at the United Nations General Assembly in September 2024, her message went far beyond a project or business model.. She was speaking from a life defined by scale, as someone who has continually reinvented herself — from a stage in Omsk, Russia, to shaping energy investment strategies across Africa, South America, and the United States. Each chapter of her journey has been a deliberate transformation, expanding both her vision and her impact. At every step, she has taken her vision for sustainable development and expanded it, building bigger platforms and broader alliances.
Today, Esterleyn leads Sustany Global, the company she founded to develop utility-scale solar projects and sustainable infrastructure. The firm has more than a gigawatt of projects under development, including alliances with governments and international institutions that tie renewable energy to broader goals of electrification, digital access, and smart city growth.
Her work in the Democratic Republic of the Congo exemplifies the scale of her impact. As Director of Global Development at SkyPower Global, she helped shape the landmark Green Giant initiative, a one-gigawatt solar photovoltaic program. Signed in 2020, the agreement was projected to add 2.3 billion dollars to the country’s GDP and stands as one of Central Africa’s most ambitious renewable energy projects.
Her path has not been without challenges, from navigating complex negotiations to aligning investor expectations with local policy realities — experiences that have only reinforced her determination to deliver lasting impact. Yet her entry into renewable energy was far from predictable. At the age of five, she began ballet training, eventually performing for over a decade with several theaters, including the Omsk State Music Theater. Around the same time, she enjoyed working as a news anchor for State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company Irtysh.
She moved to the United States in 2008, continuing her education while immersing herself in corporate operations and finance. At TransCash Corporation, she worked on expanding prepaid payment systems across Europe and Africa, gaining firsthand exposure to cross-border licensing and financial compliance. By 2018, she had earned a degree in Business Administration from Pepperdine University, followed by an MBA from the University of Southern California in 2021.
Philanthropy and advocacy run parallel to Esterleyn’s business endeavors, shaping her role as more than just an entrepreneur. She serves on the advisory board of Justice for Women International (JfW), a nonprofit dedicated to ending violence against women and children. Through this role, she has worked hand in hand with the team on projects such as Every Girl’s City, an initiative that aims to create safer, more equitable environments where women and children can access education, resources, and leadership opportunities without barriers. Her advocacy often intersects with her professional work, as she views energy access and women’s empowerment as inseparable drivers of long-term development.
In 2024, she launched SheEmpowers, a foundation dedicated to community-driven development and the creation of “Smart Villages” across Africa. The initiative focuses on providing access to clean water, renewable energy, healthcare, education, housing, and sustainable livelihoods, while working in close collaboration with traditional leadership and international organizations. Through projects such as microgrids powering rural communities and solar-powered water towers, agricultural cooperatives, women- and child-centered educational programs, and infrastructure improvements, SheEmpowers, in collaboration with JfW, is building model communities designed for long-term economic resilience and social equity. Under Esterleyn’s leadership, the foundation has aligned its efforts with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, ensuring that every intervention—from healthcare access to cultural preservation—strengthens both local empowerment and global sustainability. Her vision is to protect and uplift communities, one village at a time, creating a future where women, children, and entire regions thrive in safety, dignity, and opportunity.
Even alongside her leadership in solar and international infrastructure, Esterleyn continues to nurture her artistic roots. Between 2010 and 2012, she appeared in films, television productions, and music videos, and continues to channel her early experiences as a ballerina into philanthropy. She has supported ballet programs in post-Soviet countries, dedicating her time to mentoring and creating training opportunities for children from low-income families who would otherwise lack access to classical instruction. For Esterleyn, dance is more than performance—it is discipline, creativity, and resilience, values she sees mirrored in her work in business and philanthropy. Her early discipline in the arts continues to shape her leadership approach: focus, resilience, and creativity under pressure.
Her career reflects both precision and imagination. She continues working alongside governments, international agencies, and top-tier businesses, and delivering projects under strict environmental and regulatory guidelines. Yet beyond the balance sheets, she has consistently tied her ventures to human outcomes: greater access to energy, safer cities for women and children, and new opportunities for young people. This combination of technical skill and social purpose defines her vision of leadership, one where economic growth, culture, and sustainability move forward together.
From global forums to the front lines of clean energy, Esterleyn represents a new model of leadership that unites culture, business, and sustainability. Her journey brings together the discipline of the arts, the engine of enterprise, and the vision of long-term sustainability — showing that creativity drives innovation, scale turns ideas into reality, and sustainability is what makes progress last. Whether through advancing renewable energy infrastructure or building sustainable ties across governments and industry, her work reflects a clear conviction: lasting economic growth is possible only when business and sustainability advance together — and when that growth is shared broadly across communities.
