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Our Story

It’s our mission to make clean power accessible across the world.

We believe that a net-zero society is within reach

And we want to get there as quickly as possible.

 

We design, finance, build and operate battery solutions. Our batteries capture renewable energy, balance its supply on the grid and transport it to electric vehicles. At the end of their lifecycle we repurpose them.

We’re building a circular economy for batteries. The output from one process can be the input for the next, saving vital materials, carbon and value.

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72994

73,497.928

tonnes of CO2 avoided to date

c.
c.430MW
MW
contracted storage assets
c.
c.1,000

electric vehicles supported

Zenobe high vis jacket

Zero to full power

Since we began in 2017, we’ve raised c.£1.8 billion in debt and equity funding. We have c.430MW of grid-connected batteries live or under contract and c.1,000 electric vehicles with strong ambitions for the future.

 

We have fast-growing operations in the UK, Australia, New Zealand and Benelux, and a global headquarters in London.

 

We’re the leading owner and operator of battery storage in the UK. We are supporting the National Grid with the uptake of renewable power and work with c.90% of the major bus companies, powering 25% of the UK e-bus market.

 

We’re also the number one owner and operator of e-buses in Australia and New Zealand, and are quickly expanding into light commercial vehicles and trucks.

 

So what’s next?

Our 2026 looks like

  • 4,000 electric buses, trucks and commercial vehicles in operation
  • 1.2GW of battery power delivering grid services
  • Over 1 million tonnes of CO2 avoided since we began

Partners that share our bold commitment

We work with clients and partners that are committed to driving real, quantifiable change. Whether that’s reducing greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution, securing affordable and reliable clean power, or using batteries in innovative new ways.

 

We make bold moves, balancing commercial and environmental priorities to reach net zero. From powering Scotland towards 100% renewable energy to delivering Australia’s largest electric bus project, you can read through our growing portfolio of international projects here.

Zenobe project manager discusses bus and battery maintenance with a depot engineer

An ambitious and innovative team

We are an ambitious team of experienced power, technology and finance experts from diverse backgrounds. We work to bring innovative solutions to practical and technical challenges.

Join the team
James Basden
James Basden
Founder Director
Nicholas Beatty
Nicholas Beatty
Founder Director
Steven Meersman
Steven Meersman
Founder Director
Martyn Adeyinka
Martyn Adeyinka
Director of Delivery
Alexey-Alexeev
Alexey Alexeev
Head of Operations
Matthieu-El-Assad
Matthieu El Assad
Head of Commercial Analytics
Sophie Barr
Sophie Barr
General Counsel
Amit Barnir_Headshot_Small
Amit Barnir
Vice President (US Network Infrastructure)
Tim-Boothman
Tim Boothman
Corporate Finance Director (UK)
Anne Darnell
Anne Darnell
Head of HR
Arron Dowie
Arron Dowie
Business Development Director (EV Fleet and Second-life Batteries)
Chris Dunley
Chris Dunley
Head of Finance and Tax
Bradley-Fox
Bradley Fox
Director of Business Development
CG, LinkedIn Pic
Chad Gimbert
Vice President Business Development (US Fleet)
Ross-Kilbane
Ross Kilbane
Head of Procurement
Julia-Meek
Julia Meek
Director of Business Development (UK Fleet) & Marketing
Mark Oxtoby
Mark Oxtoby
Director of Technical Sales (EV)
Semih Oztreves
Semih Oztreves
Director of Network Infrastructure (UK)
Peter Pauwels
Peter Pauwels
General Manager (Benelux)
Gareth Ridge
Gareth Ridge
Country Director (Australia and New Zealand)
Pete-Smith
Pete Smith
Head of Product
Ian-Dennis
Ian Dennis
Director of Business Development
Ian-Allder
Ian Allder
Director of Business Development
Walter-Watson-headshot
Walter Watson
Executive Vice President (US EV Partnerships and Operations)
James Basden
James Basden
Founder Director
Nicholas Beatty
Nicholas Beatty
Founder Director
Steven Meersman
Steven Meersman
Founder Director
Steve Holliday
Steve Holliday
Non-Executive Chairman
Sophie Barr
Sophie Barr
Company Secretary
Alessandro Boninsegna
Alessandro Boninsegna
Non-Executive Director
Lorenzo Cannizzo
Lorenzo Cannizzo
Non-Executive Director
Ed Clarke
Ed Clarke
Non-Executive Director
Ben_Francis
Ben Francis
Non-Executive Director
Andy Matthews
Andy Matthews
Non-Executive Director
Toshihiro Oki
Toshihiro Oki
Non-Executive Director

Zenobē in...

Australia
From our office in Sydney, we have established a strong presence in Australia with connections across the country.
Benelux
In Benelux, we are proving how our battery systems can support on-site renewable energy generation
New Zealand
Drawing on our global experience, we're enabling the transition to electric vehicles and renewable energy.
The UK
Our global HQ, where it all began. We’ve taken 5 years of innovation, experience and knowledge to build out a global business.

Want to learn more? Contact us

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James Basden

Founder Director

James is one of the Founders of Zenobē. He leads our Network Infrastructure business which enables transmission and distribution power grids to transition to a renewable energy world.

Prior to Zenobē, James spent over 20 years advising the Boards of major power and utility companies, as well as large infrastructure funds, on strategy, mergers and acquisitions and change. He was a partner at Oliver Wyman where he led the Global Utilities and Infrastructure practice between 2013 – 2018. Before this role, James was a founder of Corven, a consulting and private equity group with offices in London, Boston, Chicago and Houston focused on the European and US Energy sector with over 100 professional staff. He also spent 9 years either in an executive or non-executive director role within the motorsport world with Lotus Cars and Caterham Cars.

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Nicholas Beatty

Founder Director

Nicholas is one of the Founders of Zenobē. He leads our financing activities including capital and debt raises and supporting Steven in the development of the Fleet business.

 

Prior to Zenobē, Nicholas spent 28 years in corporate finance advising a wide range of businesses and financial investors, assisting them to raise debt and equity capital and advising on mergers and acquisitions and listings in the UK and overseas. He was at Hambros Bank for 20 years in the UK and US leaving as a Director in the corporate finance department before joining BNP Paribas as Head of Corporate Finance for BNP Paribas UK between 1998 and 2006.  Before starting Zenobē and after his financial career, Nicholas established and led the private financing of two solar operating companies where he was a director and developed the companies’ activities to include the deployment of LiFP batteries which were the first deployed on the UK grid to provide balancing and power services.

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Steven Meersman

Founder Director

Steven is one of the Founders of Zenobē. He leads the EV team which aims to make the ecologically sustainable option also the financially sustainable one for fleet operators. In addition he’s responsible for Delivery, Operations and Product teams.

 

Prior to Zenobē, Steven spent nearly two decades between battery and traded energy commodity markets. He was a Global Head of Deals Desk at Trafigura where he led the commercial optimisation and market risk management teams for two refineries and over 30 import terminals and storage sites across Africa and Central America. Before this role, he was part of Oliver Wyman where he supported trading houses and utilities on optimising asset-backed trading strategies as well as investment and disposals of energy related infrastructure. He started his career in batteries as part of the team that set up AES Energy Storage (now Fluence).

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Martyn Adeyinka

Martyn Adeyinka

Director of Delivery

As Interim Chief Operating Officer, Martyn is leading on the optimisation of corporate systems and processes at Zenobē, as the company grows in size and geographical reach. Martyn is responsible for the Procurement, Delivery, Product, Asset Management and Commercial Analytics teams.

 

Prior to joining Zenobe, Martyn spent over 13 years in the infrastructure industry, leading multidisciplinary teams in global organisations like MAG (Airports Group) and Black & Veatch where he was responsible for the delivery of major infrastructure programmes.

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Alexey Alexeev

Head of Operations

Alexey is responsible for Zenobē’s operational team. Day to day activities include ensuring that all our live projects across EV and NI are running smoothly, troubleshooting any issues and guaranteeing compliance with health and safety regulations.

 

Alexey has considerable experience in the energy sector, with operational roles including managing the world’s largest fleet of domestic smart batteries at Moixa.

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Matthieu El Assad

Head of Commercial Analytics

Mathieu leads our Commercial Analytics activities. His team is responsible for optimising the use of our current battery storage and EV portfolio through data analysis and recommendations, while also supporting the growth of the business through in depth power modelling and through building revenue and trading strategies for our assets.

 

Mathieu’s background is data analysis in digital services, and primarily, battery storage, having worked for Green Hedge and EDF.

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Sophie Barr

Sophie Barr

General Counsel

Sophie is our General Counsel, responsible for all the day-to-day legal aspects of the company as well as being the Company Secretary.

 

Sophie has spent over 10 years working in energy with wide ranging experience across the sector including solar, oil and gas, wide ranging regulatory advice, new build nuclear decommissioning, district heating and offshore wind. Her experience includes working in private practice at Pinsent Masons as well as in-house at Hitachi Nuclear Energy and Ofgem.

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Amit Barnir

Vice President, Network Infrastructure (US)

Amit leads Zenobē’s US market entry for the network infrastructure side of the business, with a focus on the Northeast and ERCOT power markets.

 

Prior to joining Zenobē, Amit was Director of New Markets & Energy Storage for Kearsarge Energy, a Boston-based IPP, he also served as Co-Chair of the MA DPU appointed Energy Storage Interconnection Review Group (ESIRG).

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Tim Boothman

Corporate Finance Director (UK)

Tim runs the day to day corporate finance activities at Zenobē, including raising growth capital for the business, structuring and financing investments, and more broadly supporting strategy and reporting to management and shareholders.

Prior to joining Zenobē, Tim spent nearly 10 years at PwC working in the Corporate Finance practice, including 4 years in SE Asia. Tim advised a range of clients in the infrastructure and power/utilities space on Project Finance, M&A and strategy, including both an equity and debt raise for Zenobē in 2019.

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Anne Darnell

Head of HR

Anne leads the Zenobē HR and people activities, including managing a growing team responsible for talent acquisition and retention, employee engagement, performance management, reward, supporting the employee journey, managing our Embankment Office space and ensuring that our culture keeps up with our growth.

Anne’s experience includes leading HR teams for GlaxoSmithKline, executive coaching at PwC, and then setting up HR functions for fast paced start and scale up companies in the online travel technology and energy sectors.

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Arron Dowie

Arron Dowie

Business Development Director (Fleet and Second-life Batteries)

Arron is principally focussed on developing business within the Electric Vehicle and Second-life Battery sectors.

He brings over 20 years’ banking experience as a Relationship Director providing structured asset finance solutions to a wide range of clients across Corporate and Investment banking at Barclays and Santander. He has successfully arranged and executed over £500m of financing facilities across transportation, utilities, distribution and IT asset classes.

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Chris Dunley

Chris Dunley

Head of Finance and Tax

Chris leads the finance function at Zenobē. This includes responsibility for general support for the business, financial planning, building and maintaining reporting systems and processes as we grow, and developing the finance team.

After starting his career at KPMG, Chris has led finance teams in innovative start ups covering the energy, water and hospitality sectors.

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Bradley Fox

Director of Business Development (UK Fleet)

Bradley is Director of Business Development for EV Fleet, focusing on selling and developing Zenobē’s innovative electric bus vehicle and charging infrastructure managed service offering to fleet operators. He works closely with the corporate finance team on optimising the underlying finance arrangements to facilitate these transactions.

Bradley has over 10 years of experience in front office roles in corporate and investment banking with specialisms in structured asset finance and relationship management. He has previously worked at Santander, Lloyds Bank and Barclays having executed a range of complex financing structures across many sectors for larger corporates. 

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Chad Gimbert

Vice President Business Development, EV Fleet (US)

Chad leads Zenobē’s Business Development efforts for EV Fleet in the US.  His team provides our clients with technical, operational, and financial support as they transition their Bus/Truck fleets to EV.

 

Chad has more than 25 years of experience financing transportation equipment and in commercial fleet management. He specialises in creating successful partnerships in complex B2B relationships with multiple stakeholders.   

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Ross Kilbane

Head of Procurement

Ross leads the procurement function at Zenobē, supporting all projects across NI and EV. He is responsible for maintaining standardised procurement processes, leading contract strategy and negotiations with suppliers, supporting initial decision making around technology/equipment selection in early stage projects and running competitive tender processes.

Ross’s background is as a procurement specialist in the energy sector, having worked for both client/developers and EPC contractors such as RWE Renewables, Centrica and Subsea 7 across a range of major UK and international CAPEX projects.

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Julia Meek

Director of Business Development and Marketing

Julia is responsible for Zenobē’s marketing activities across the business and is also a Director of Business Development on the EV fleet team.

Julia’s career has included a range of senior roles at mission-driven start-ups and scale-ups. Prior to joining Zenobē she was Head of Business Development for a UK social enterprise bus operator which included leading on public procurement bids, Chief of Staff at a microfinance organisation in China and co-founder of a social investment resource. She has an MBA from London Business School.

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Mark Oxtoby

Director of Technical Sales (EV)

As Director of Technical Sales (EV), Mark leads the team responsible for designing bespoke solutions on EV infrastructure projects. Working closely with the EV Business Development team, Technical Sales develops future-proofed and flexible solutions that reflect client requirements and unique constraints and opportunities.

Prior to joining Zenobē, Mark worked on major projects in the energy sector and is a qualified electrical engineer.

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Semih Oztreves

Semih Oztreves

Director of Network Infrastructure (UK)

Semih is focused on the development of large-scale battery systems for transmission, distribution and infrastructure companies as well as providing solutions for industrial and commercial businesses. He brings seven years’ experience of battery storage systems and energy markets.

Prior to joining Zenobē, Semih was an integral part of the Business Development team at Wärtsilä’s Energy Storage and Optimization business unit – formerly Greensmith Energy. He was responsible for the European and Middle Eastern expansion of the business’ grid scale stand-alone storage, solar plus storage and engine plus storage markets.Prior to this, Semih worked as a Managing Consultant for Navigant Consulting – an energy research and consulting firm.

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Peter Pauwels

Peter Pauwels

General Manager (Benelux)

Peter is the General Manager for Zenobē in the Benelux and is leading Zenobē’s expansion in these markets with second-life, behind the meter batteries and fleet electrification solutions.

Prior to joining Zenobē, Peter held several key roles at Barco including Vice President of Sales EMEA and Director of Corporate AV Maeket, where he gained significant experience across strategy, marketing, sales and programme management. 

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Gareth Ridge

Country Director Australia

and New Zealand

Gareth is the Country Director for Australia and New Zealand leading the expansion of Zenobē Energy into these markets.

Gareth has extensive knowledge of the Australian energy and water utility industries. He has worked as a Management Consultant undertaking strategy and business model development projects with Australia’s major network service providers and metro water authorities focusing on new and disruptive technologies. Gareth also worked for TransGrid in the Strategy, Innovation and New Technology function, focusing on corporate strategy, electrification of industry and grid-scale storage. Gareth commenced his career in Corporate Banking at the National Australia Bank.

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Peter Smith

Head of Product

Pete leads Zenobē’s growing team of Product specialists across all areas of the business. His team oversee our R&D as well as product development in both hardware and software.

 

He has been working in the European E-Mobility sector from over ten years, specialising in the design, build and delivery of software systems for EV Charging.  

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Ian Dennis

Director of Business Development

Ian is a Business Development Director for EV fleet, focused on our innovative electric HGV and charging infrastructure managed service offering.

 

Ian has over 20 years’ experience providing asset finance and contract hire solutions to clients in the corporate and public sectors. He has previously at Lombard, Barclays, Rothschild & Co, and Ryder. He is a member of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport.

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Ian Allder

Director of Business Development

Ian is Director of Business Development in the EV fleet team. Ian was previously an Investment Director at Downing LLP focusing on their wholesale funding proposition. He has 20+ years of lease finance experience having worked at Lombard, Santander and DLL.

 

He holds degrees in Law and Biochemistry, and post graduate qualifications in Law (LPC) and Lending (Chartered Banking Institute).

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Walter Watson

Executive Vice President (US EV Partnerships and Operations)

Walter co-leads North American market entry and the EV fleet business for Zenobē Americas, specifically overseeing partnership development and operations.

 

Walter has spent the past 20 years in Transport and Logistics, having served in various leadership positions within operations, finance, procurement, fleet and asset management, and commercial development. Notably, he has had senior and executive roles with Union Pacific Railroad (Fortune 500), National Express (FTSE 250), and previously served as Chief Operating Officer and Board Member of Levo Mobility, a joint venture between Stonepeak Infrastructure Partners and a cleantech company. 

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Steve Holliday

Non-Executive Chairman

Steve Holliday is the former Chief Executive of National Grid plc. He is Chairman of Zenobe, President of the Energy Institute and Chairman of the Board of Trustees at Crisis, the homeless charity. He volunteers his time as Vice Chairman of the Careers and Enterprise Company, Vice Chairman of Business in the Community and Chairman of Black Stork.

Steve joined National Grid Group as the Board Director responsible for the UK and Europe in March 2001, becoming Chief Executive of the company in January 2007, which he led for almost 10 years, until 2016.

Prior to joining National Grid, he was on the Board of British Borneo Oil and Gas and was responsible for the successful development of its international businesses in Brazil, Australia and West Africa. Steve spent much of his early career with Exxon, where he held senior roles in refining, shipping and international gas.

Steve is a Fellow of both the Royal Academy of Engineering and the Energy Institute. From 2012 to 2014 he was also appointed as a National Ambassador for HRH The Prince of Wales and served as lead Non-Executive director with DEFRA from 2016 until the end of 2017. Steve served on the board of Marks & Spencer as Independent Non-Executive director from 2004 – 2014, as Deputy Chair at Convatec from 2016-19.

Steve holds a BSc degree from Nottingham University and honorary doctorates from Nottingham and Strathclyde universities. His sporting interests include cycling and following the fortunes of the England Rugby team.

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Sophie Barr

Sophie Barr

Company Secretary

Sophie is our Legal Counsel, responsible for all the day-to-day legal aspects of the company as well as being the Company Secretary.

Sophie has spent over 10 years working in energy with wide ranging experience across the sector including solar, oil and gas, wide ranging regulatory advice, new build nuclear decommissioning, district heating and offshore wind. Her experience includes working in private practice at Pinsent Masons as well as in-house at Hitachi Nuclear Energy and Ofgem.

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Alessandro Boninsegna

Non-Executive Director

Alessandro is Managing Director and a founding member of Tiger Infrastructure Partners LP and previously of Lehman Brothers Infrastructure Private Equity Team. Before Lehman Brothers Private Equity Team, Alessandro spent eleven years as a member of Lehman Brothers Merchant Banking, where he managed Lehman Brothers’ middle-market private equity funds. During this time, he also established and served on the investment board of Italian infrastructure private equity firm, F2i. Prior to his time at Lehman Brothers, Alessandro worked as a Management Consultant for Bain & Co. and, before that, as a Public Accountant at Haarmann Hemmelrath.

Alessandro currently holds positions on the boards of several Tiger Infrastructure investee companies. He holds a degree in Business Administration, magna cum laude, from Bocconi University, part of which he earnt at New York University Stern School of Business.

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Lorenzo Cannizzo

Non-Executive Director

Lorenzo joined Infracapital in 2020 from 3i Infrastructure Plc where he was a Director managing the fund’s portfolio investments across Continental Europe including transport, utilities and social infrastructure assets and contributing to the fund’s origination.  Lorenzo previously spent three years at EISER Infrastructure Limited as an Asset Manager managing investments in the transport, utilities and renewables space in Italy and Spain.

Prior to this Lorenzo was a member of the Power, Utilities and Renewables Investment Banking team at HSBC for three years.  Lorenzo’s early career includes consultancy positions at both Cambridge Associates in London and Value Partners in Argentina, as well as a finance role at Eni SpA.

Lorenzo holds an MBA from London Business School and a Masters in Economics and Business Management from Luiss Guido Carli University, Rome.  He also holds the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation.

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Ed Clarke

Non-Executive Director

Ed co-founded Infracapital with Martin Lennon, and has over 32 years of infrastructure, project finance and investment experience.

Ed joined the Project & Infrastructure Finance business at M&G in 2001 to build out the infrastructure equity investment side of the business with Martin.  Ed also worked on the establishment of the Innisfree M&G PPP Fund (“IMPPP”) in 2002 and continues to sit on the Investment & Steering Committee of IMPPP.  Prior to joining M&G, Ed worked at Societe Generale where he was responsible for structuring and arranging capital markets issue to fund infrastructure projects. Before this, Ed was a leading member of the Hambros Bank infrastructure advisory team where he also set up their infrastructure advisory business in South Africa.

Ed holds an MA from Edinburgh University and is authorised to undertake investment activities by M&G under the Certification Regime.

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Ben_Francis

Ben Francis

Non-Executive Director

Ben Francis joined Infracapital in 2016 to develop its greenfield infrastructure investment and asset management activities. Ben has over 20 years’ of infrastructure investment, development and asset management experience.

 

Ben is responsible for originating and execution of greenfield investments with a focus on the energy transition, including various forms of energy storage. Prior to joining Infracapital, Ben was an Associate Director in Arup’s Business and Investor Advisory team, responsible for advising on the development and investment of infrastructure projects and businesses, totalling over $15bn, in Europe and Africa.

 

He holds a Masters of Engineering from Nottingham University, and is a Chartered Engineer and Member of the Institution of Civil Engineers. He is authorised to undertake investment activities by M&G under the Certification Regime.

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Andy Matthews

Non-Executive Director

Andy joined Infracapital in 2015 to lead its greenfield infrastructure investment activities. Andy has over 34 years’ of infrastructure financing, development and asset management experience.

Prior to joining Infracapital, Andy was a Partner in 3i plc’s infrastructure team. He was responsible for origination in greenfield and brownfield PPP, renewable energy and core infrastructure sectors. Andy transferred to 3i plc following their acquisition of Barclays Infrastructure Funds Management, where he was the Managing Director and Chief Investment Officer. Before joining Barclays, Andy worked in infrastructure development roles at John Laing and Alfred McAlpine.

Andy holds an MBA from Manchester Business School and graduated from Nottingham Trent University with a BSc (Hons) in Quantity Surveying. He is a Fellow of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors, the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators and was a Member of the Advisory Board of Association of Consultants and Engineers from 2005 to 2011.

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Toshihiro Oki

Toshirio Oki

Non-Executive Director

Mr. Toshihiro Oki has been Managing Director of JERA Power UK Ltd. since June 2019 assuming responsibility for the development and management of the company’s UK and European renewable energy projects such as offshore wind power and battery storage.

 

Mr. Oki has over 20 years’ experience in the power sector and has been involved with managing the construction, operation and maintenance of a number of JERA owned power plants including LNG receiving terminals and natural gas pipelines.

 

 Mr. Oki holds a Masters Degree of Engineering from the Tokyo Institute of Technology.

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