The team
changing the face of the grid

Giles Newton

Chief Executive Officer

13 years in infrastructure origination, development, investment and policy advocacy. Previously Senior Investment Director at Meridiam ($22bn AUM), the developer of NeuConnect, a 1.4GW HVDC interconnector between the UK and Germany. At Meridiam, Giles led the acquisition and development of a 120MW hyperscale data centre in Ireland, and the industry lobbying effort for Early Competition, a c.£50bn new market for competitive transmission.

Prior to Meridiam, Giles spent four years at SSE as Head of Public Sector & Regulated Markets, deploying £1bn of capital into new infrastructure including IDNO developments and strategic energy partnerships.

Jamie Hepburn

Chief Financial Officer

13 years in infrastructure corporate finance, investment and asset management. Previously a Director at Infracapital ($9bn AUM) and owner of one of the UK's largest IDNO businesses, Last Mile Group. Over eight years, Jamie was involved in both asset management and deal origination, actively managing portfolio assets, leading governance and growth as a non-executive at GB Rail Freight, Gigaclear, Neos Networks and GIP, as well as being responsible for the asset management of Last Mile Group. In this role Jamie was responsible for raising over £1bn in new capital into portfolio companies and completing multiple M&A transactions.

Prior to Infracapital, Jamie was at EPH where he was responsible for corporate development and M&A within the UK portfolio of energy assets. Before this he worked in corporate development at a FTSE 250 upstream energy company, Nostrum Oil & Gas, having joined from Barclays Bank.

Adegboyega Akomolafe

Chief Technical Officer

14 years' experience in project development, lead design, construction management and commissioning of complex electrical infrastructure projects from 11-400kV, spanning the rail, renewables, I&C and data centre markets.

Ade started his career as an electrical engineer at Network Rail and over c.6 years led the team designing and commissioning three autotransformer substations on the western section of Crossrail (Elizabeth Line), as well as leading the multidisciplinary design team on the Great Western electrification upgrade programme. Ade then joined UKPN and was responsible for EHV connections (11-132kV) within the London Power Networks area. During his c.4 years at UKPN, Ade was the Principal Designer for multiple projects, including a new 33MVA substation feeding Imperial College London and neighbouring developments, and a 60MVA substation supply to a data centre.

Ade then spent one and a half years providing consultancy and Principal Design services to SSE within their Major Projects Connections team, National Grid and Northern Power Grid, before joining IG Renewables as UK Grid Director as part of the founding team. At IG, Ade was part of the UK management team that secured €80m of investment from Aviva, where he established and led the UK grid function, originating, developing and delivering over 4GW of solar, BESS and wind projects, as well as leading technical investment support and IG's regulatory engagement, including roles on the Grid Code Panel and CUSC working groups.

Lucas Root

Chief Operating Officer

16 years in the renewable energy industry, holding senior roles across engineering, operations, and project delivery, with experience spanning every stage of the project lifecycle, including extensive M&A.

Lucas has played a central role in scaling multiple start-ups, including sPower (a U.S.-based IPP), where he created the operations platform and control centre during a period of rapid expansion. By the end of his tenure at sPower, he was the Director overseeing the operation of $2.5bn of renewable assets spread across 11 time zones.

Following the sale of sPower to AES/AIMCO for $1.6bn, he joined Innova, where he grew the engineering function to a team of 20 to support the development of one of the largest transmission- and DNO-connected pipelines in the UK market (20+ GW), spanning solar, BESS, wind, and data centres. To date Innova have built 140 MW of that pipeline and has transacted on or is in transaction on nearly 2 GWs of that portfolio. As a board member, Lucas has been instrumental in shaping business strategy to successfully navigate a generational change in the UK grid connections landscape.