Born in 1985, Ellul is an asset manager by profession. After graduating with a Banking and Finance Honours degree at the University of Malta, he specialised in corporate finance at a European University and completed a CFA programme in Charlottesville, Virginia, to become one of Malta’s only chartered financial analysts.

With a globally recognised financial designation to his name, Ellul would have had no shortage of job opportunities. He landed a job at Bank of Valletta and spent seven years at Malta’s leading bank, in roles such as portfolio manager, senior investment manager and Head of Asset Management.

Ellul was involved in advisory and portfolio captive insurance companies and mutual funds in the Middle East and North Africa, as well as investment management for high-net-worth individuals and institutions.

Shortly after Miriam Dalli was appointed Minister for Energy, Enterprise and Sustainable Development in November 2020, she hired Ellul as a policy advisor. With COVID-19 restrictions still in full swing, Ellul helped design schemes to support the business community through these rough waters.

Ellul also joined the board of directors of the Malta Development Bank, whose job is to offer financing for operations in line with the government’s strategic vision in cases where private banks are unable or unwilling to accommodate.

This includes promoting the ‘green economy’ by financing clean energy and energy efficiency projects, sustainable transport, and water resources.

Since 2014, he has been a visiting lecturer at the UoM where he lectures principles of finance within the Faculty of Economics, Management and Accountancy.

Ellul describes himself as a strong proponent of ESG, the business principle that environmental, social, and good governance practices should be enshrined within a company’s corporate strategy.

In 2021, he helped design the Malta ESG Portal, which allows investors and the public alike to evaluate the ESG credentials of major quoted Maltese companies. This initiative has attained voluntary ESG commitment by some of Malta’s largest companies totalling €3 billion worth of assets.

Ellul was also involved in the Malta Stock Exchange’s establishment of a ‘Green Market’ in 2021, through which issuers can raise capital for environmentally-friendly projects through ‘green bonds’.

In a 2022 interview with Malta Business Weekly, Ellul warned that companies who don’t change their business models to adapt to ESG principles are “running on a short expiry date” due to growing expectations from society.

“ESG needs to be deeply ingrained into a company’s culture at the decision-making level and work as the compass of an entity. It is not the responsibility of a marketing team,” he explained.

“We are noticing that younger generations entering the labour market are seeking companies with a strong commitment to ESG values. Today, society has increasing expectations of the role businesses should play in tackling some of the world’s biggest challenges.”

In a 2022 MaltaToday article, Ellul proposed charging non-residents for parking spaces in urbanised village cores, a system used in many European cities and one which Dalli has already hinted could come to Malta via Project Green’s new underground car parks.

“The cold reality is that we all love our cars more than we hate traffic,” he wrote. “Sustainable mobility can only be achieved if we, as individuals, start making choices that reduce the dependency on private car usage.”

“One way of tackling this is by having local councils charge non-residents for parking spaces in urbanised village core. This is the same system used in every other European city.”

He went on to say that revenues collected through parking fees, which in towns like Sliema or St Julian’s could amount to millions of euros annually, could then be used to fund the local council’s own budget and directly returned to the community.

“An initiative like this will increase the opportunity cost of using a private car without imposing draconian measures which are realistically difficult to implement,” he said.

On a personal level, Steve Ellul is married to Marisianne Ellul (nee Attard) and are parents to Aurora and Francesca.

Their relationship was the subject of a 2017 Malta Independent article, in which they spoke about how they grew up two blocks away from each other, started dating at a young age, and lived together for eight years before trying the knot.

At around 3am on an October night in 2013, they were celebrating Marisianne’s birthday aboard a Mediterranean cruise when Steve decided to pose the big question.

“We were going back to our rooms but Steve insisted we go for a walk. I was too tired so started to complain, who wouldn’t?” Marisianne recounted. “But I had to agree as he kept going and stopped when he found a quiet spot on the upper deck of the ship and asked me if I wanted to spend the rest of my life with him.”

“At first, I burst out laughing, but of course, I said yes, we always kind of knew that we would eventually get married.”

In January this year, Ellul was announced as the head of Project Green and immediately put down a market by promoting to partially convert San Ġwann’s main road, Vjal ir-Rihan, into a large open space and built an underground tunnel for passing traffic.

The following weeks have been quieter, but Project Green has continued working – consulting with San Ġwann residents, adding a picnic area to the San Klement Park in Żabbar, and launching a €10 million community greening grant to encourage residents to identify spaces for future public green areas.

Ellul is certainly qualified for the role, and his apparent passion about the economic opportunities involved in improving the environment will be a major plus, especially when it comes to convincing sceptical residents. Yet experience has shown that changing a nation’s mentality is no easy task, and in a country with a fixation on cars and constant construction, Ellul certainly has his work cut out for him.

Do you think Steve Ellul will be a success at the helm of Project Green?