Our Team

Mike is co-founder of the strategic HR consultancy: Westcott & Judge providing leadership and strategic HR advisory services to listed multinationals, private and PE invested companies. He is also Operating Partner with Executive Search and Advisory firm Hobbs & Towne, who partner with disruptive and transformational technology companies in the US and Europe.  Previously, Mike was CHRO for National Grid for 12 years and Head of Commercial Property, stepping down in July 2019.  Prior to this he spent 14 years with Diageo in a number of senior HR roles, including SVP for North America based in Connecticut and SVP International markets, covering LATAM, Asia, Middle East, and Central Europe. His early career was spent in commercial and HR roles with Guinness, ICI, and BOC plc.

CEO of Absolute Return Investment Advisors (ARIA) AG – a multi-family office based in Zug, Switzerland; investment advisor to institutions and ultra high net worth individuals; formerly Chief Alternative Investment Officer at Ferrier Lullin & Cie SA (now Julius Baer) and Union Bancaire Privee.

Ian is Managing Director and Head of CVC Europe at National Grid Partners, who he joined from Ardent Capital where he was Chief Operating Officer. During his tenure at Ardent Capital, Ian oversaw new and follow-on investments into more than ten early-stage companies.  Prior to Ardent, Ian spent ten years with Intel Capital based in their London, UK office, where he made investments into 13 companies, which resulted in 1 IPO and 7 M&A exits, one of which was a Unicorn.  Before joining Intel Capital, Ian worked for four years in corporate finance with Paris-based investment bank Bryan Garnier and Associates, was Founder and CEO of cybersecurity startup Cequrux and worked in consulting for IBM. Ian holds an MBA from HEC Paris and a B.Sc. in Computer Science and Psychology from the University of Cape Town.

Joaquin is a venture partner for Energy Innovation Capital and the CEO of EICP an investment platform focused on sustainable infrastructure investing backed by the George Kaiser Family Foundation and WestRiver Group.  Joaquin is also co-founder and Chairman of Continuus Materials a waste to building materials manufacturer with strategic co-investment from Waste Management.  Prior to EICP, Joaquin co-founded and served as CEO of On-Ramp Wireless from 2008 through 2014.  Under his leadership On-Ramp became a pioneer in the Internet of Things communications space, obtaining a Department of Energy grant and successfully raising three rounds of capital from private equity sources and leading strategic companies such as GE, ConocoPhillips, NRG, Enbridge and Sempra.  Prior to his entrepreneurial career Joaquin was a Vice President at the technology investment-banking firm Montgomery & Co.  Earlier in his career, Joaquin was a Captain in the United States Air Force. Joaquin holds an MBA from University of California, Los Angeles and a BS in Management from the United States Air Force Academy.

Head of Private Equity investment at Nevastar Finance, an independent asset manager for institutions and family offices, Non-Executive Director of Delta Plus Group; Formerly Balmoral Capital Private Equity, Marakon Associates. MBA Wharton, Master International Law, University Aix-en-Provence; Kedge Business School.

Jim retired from Southern California Edison after 38 years of service. Jim was SVP of Transmission & Distribution, responsible for the operation and maintenance of an electrical grid comprised of over 12,000 miles of transmission and 100,000 miles of distribution lines spread across a 50,000 square mile service area. Jim was one of the early pioneers of the SmartGrid, developing a roadmap for a smarter, safer, more reliable and more environmentally responsible electric grid. He pioneered the deployment of synchronous phasor measurement, the Distribution Circuit of the Future, and many other advances in grid sensing, monitoring and control. Among other awards and honors, Jim was selected as the IEEE’s “Leader in Power”. Since his retirement, Jim has advised or directed a number of publicly traded and privately held firms in the energy space.

Tim’s career experience over the last forty years has been split equally between direct utility experience and product strategy roles in companies focused on delivery of new technology to the industry.  At Southern Company, Tim served in both the T&D organizations with the highlight of his career being to manage the delivery of energy to the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta.  Primary expertise was in Distribution Engineering. Tim also led organizations delivering products to utilities including Smart Metering, Industrial IOT Systems, Energy Management and Analytics, and Distribution Automation. At Landis & Gyr, he held multiple executive roles in Customer Operations, Sales, Product Management and Engineering. Enabling utilities to adopt new technology to improve operations is what energizes Tim in his current consulting and advisory work.