Big Green Men… part 2

Tom Murley – head of the renewable energy team at HgCapital

Tom Murley is head of the renewable energy team at UK mid-market outfit HgCapital. Set-up in 2004, it manages Europe’s largest renewable power projects fund, investing in a range of sectors including wind, biomass, geothermal, solar, waste and hydro, providing capital at all stages – from development to pre-construction to operating projects

Murley joined HgCapital in 2004 and has more than 15 years’ experience of investing in renewable and conventional power projects and development companies. He was formerly co-head of Allianz Private Equity’s renewable energy team. Prior to that he was with the EIF Group, established in 1987 by John Hancock as the first private equity fund manager for power generation.

Murley’s investment experience includes providing equity finance to over 1,400 MW of biomass, hydro, wind, waste-to-energy, coal and gas-fired plant and numerous project development companies. He has led transactions in the UK, France, Ireland, Poland, Israel and the US.

He also led the fundraising efforts for HgCapital Renewable Power Partners, a €300m fund, as well as heading up the firm’s investments in Wind Direct, Tir Mostyn and Picardy Wind and co-led the Sorne wind farm investment and is a director on their boards.

Tom Delay – CEO of The Carbon Trust

The Carbon Trust is a Quango set-up by the UK Government to accelerate the move to a low carbon economy by working with organisations to reduce carbon emissions and develop commercial low carbon technologies. Its investment arm – Carbon Trust Investments – co-invests alongside private investors in British cleantech companies, committing between £250,000 and £3m in any one business, with an average transaction size of between £500,000 and £10m. The Trust also has a commercial arm called Carbon Trust Enterprises which will actually develop and fund new companies rather than existing ones, as the investment arm does.

The Carbon Trust is headed by CEO Tom Delay, who was appointed in 2001. A chartered engineer with extensive experience of the energy sector, he worked for Shell for 16 years in a variety of commercial and operations roles including four years as General Manager of Pizo Shell – a Shell subsidiary in Gabon, Africa. He moved into management consultancy with McKinsey and Co and then worked as a Principal with the Global Energy Practice of AT Kearney before joining the Carbon Trust.

Delay was educated at the University of Southampton, where he received a first class degree in mechanical engineering. He completed an MBA at INSEAD, Paris in 1988.

Peter Horsburgh – partner, ETF Enterprise Technology Fund

Peter Horsburgh has intimate knowledge of cleantech, as adviser to more than 20 companies in the water, solar PV, sustainable forestry, emission mitigation, geo-thermal and mass transportation sectors. “In the past few years I have seen more companies emerge in this sector and, though they were good investment opportunities, it was hard to find funding for them. There was a clear gap for a specialist investor in Europe – that is why I started ETF,” he says. ETF recently closed its first fund on US$220m with investments from Swiss Re, EIF and F&C, among others.

Horsburgh spent 10 years at PaineWebber International. During that time he worked on a variety of green tech transactions involving companies such as Ionics, US Filter, Fuel-Tech NV, Thermo Electron and Culligan Water. He launched the PW Annual European Environmental Service Companies Conference. He also worked for five years at Matrix Corporate Finance as an adviser to a variety of privately held cleantech companies. Horsburgh is a co-winner of the Laurent Perrier Conservation Award (1992); is a member of the Parliamentary Renewable and Sustainable Energy Group and has served on the European Advisory Board of the Cleantech Venture Network.

James Cameron – vice-chairman of Climate Change Capital (CCC)

James Cameron is a founding partner of CCC and Chairman of the Advisory Board and represents the investment banking group at the highest levels of business and government. CCC advises and invests in companies who recognise that combating global warming is both a necessity and an economic opportunity. Its activities, which also include investment management and financing emission reductions, aim to make the world’s environment cleaner while delivering attractive financial returns. Cameron is one of the world’s pre-eminent experts in developing market-based policy responses to climate change. Prior to CCC he was Counsel to Baker & McKenzie and the founder and the head of their Climate Change Practice. Cameron spent much of his legal career working on climate change matters, including negotiating the UNFCCC and Kyoto Protocol as an adviser to the Alliance of Small Island States. He has held academic positions at Cambridge, London, Bruges and Sydney and is currently affiliated with the Yale Centre for Environmental Law and Policy. As a barrister he appeared in several of the leading cases in environmental law. He is the Chairman of the Carbon Disclosure Project and a treasurer of REEEP and a trustee of The Climate Group. He is a member of the board of GE Ecomagination.

Peter Crombie, partner, Emerald Technology Ventures

Emerald is one of the few truly transatlantic venture capital companies investing in cleantech. As a business, it focuses not only on finance but on operational expertise as well and that is where Peter Crombie comes into his own. Crombie has over 30 year business experience working principally with high technology companies in financial, investment and senior executive roles. He currently serves on the boards of Encorp, and on the investment committee of Sustainable Development Technology Canada. At Emerald he is responsible for leading venture capital deals in the fields of energy, materials and water. Prior to joining Emerald, he was CEO of OPG Ventures, a wholly owned subsidiary of Ontario Power Generation. He was also formerly President of BCE Capital, a venture capital fund wholly owned by BCE Inc.

David Sneddon – partner energy technology group, Scottish Equity Partners

David Sneddon has a deep understanding of the evolving technology needs of the energy sector, as well as the market dynamics and cycles that affect the industry. As well as securing the successful trade sale of pipeline inspection technology company RST to Weatherford. Sneddon has led Scottish Equity Partners’ investments in ARKeX, MTEM and Atraverda. Atraverda owns the intellectual property rights to a conductive ceramic, known worldwide through its trademark Ebonex. The technology has a range of commercial cleantech applications in the power storage, water treatment and construction markets.

Sneddon has a degree in chemical engineering and a background that mixes industrial and financial experience. His early investment career was with SDF, then Royal Bank of Scotland’s acquisition finance team following which he was a local director at Bridgepoint Capital. He joined SEP in 2001.

With excellent commercial experience, Sneddon is a strong source of practical advice for growing companies across all of SEP’s sectoral groups that are making the transition from being technology-led, entrepreneurial start-ups to becoming more market-led, professional and sustainable businesses.