About us

Michael Ryan, Board Director, Chairman

BComm, MBS

Michael is a highly successful entrepreneur and business leader with 35 years of experience working in international business. He has a strong track record of significantly increasing wealth for companies such as Kleerex, Quaestus Management Consultants, Irish Export Board and Smurfit Finance.

Prior to joining GridBeyond, Michael held the role of CEO of Kleerex where he focused on transforming the company from an Irish focused, single product, manufacturing led business to an international service-led company employing over 400 people.

Under his leadership, revenues grew from €3m to €80m and it became the “Number One” supplier of bespoke fixtures displays and value added services in the UK market. During this time he was nominated for the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the year in 2002.

He holds a BComm and an MBS from University College Dublin. In addition to his role at GridBeyond, Michael sits on the board of a number of scaling companies.

Michael Phelan, Board Director, CEO & Co-Founder

MBA

“Michael has over 22 years management experience in sales, marketing and product development in electronic and software companies targeting the energy sector.

Prior to joining GridBeyond, Michael held positions at Philips, Microsol, PCAS and Duolog in automation and electronics. He was responsible for developing European, Asian and American markets and OEMs such as Invensys, Mitsubishi, Toshiba, and Alstom. In addition, he has facilitated several successful exits. Michael is a graduate of University College Dublin where he obtained an MBA in Business Administration, Management and Operations.”

Richard O Loughlin, Board Director, Deputy CEO

BA, FCA

“Richard is a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland and brings to GridBeyond a wealth of experience garnered in financial director, control and asset management positions.

Richard has developed extensive transactional experience in domestic and international markets over many years, spending his career working with partners and clients to protect, create and maximise the value to stakeholders he represents in a diverse range of projects.

Prior to joining GridBeyond in 2014, Richard held several senior management positions and directorships at Select Capital, Venturise, Conlon & Co and Investor First Ltd. and therefore has significant experience in strategic planning, financial reporting, due diligence, definition and implementation of growth strategies, identifying and implementing corporate venturing opportunities, trade sales, M&A, and equity fund raising.”

Bastien Gambini, Board Director

Klima Energy Transition fund – Alantra, Managing Partner – MBA

Bastien leverages his experience in Venture and Private Equity, coupled with a robust financial analysis background, to spearhead investments in cleantech across Europe and North America.

Before being managing partner at Klima Energy Transition Fund, he held key positions at Equinor Ventures and Demeter Partners, leading deals in energy-related and environmental sectors. With board memberships in over 13 companies spanning renewables, power grids, waste management, and AI, he has acquired profound sectoral expertise. Bastien is a graduate of Paris University Panthéon-Assas with a financial degree and holds an MBA from INSEAD.

Debbie Rennick, Board Director

Act Venture Capital Limited, General Partner

Debbie is a General Partner in Act Venture Capital Limited, one of Ireland’s leading venture capital firms. Act has raised over €555 million sourced from leading US, European, Irish and UK institutions and invested in 135 companies. Debbie has a wide range of investment experience in a number of technology sectors over a twenty year career in venture capital and has a degree in Civil Law and is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland.

Miguel Fonseca, Board Director

EDP, ExCo EDP Client Solutions B2B and Solar DG, Msc Management, Universidade Católica – MBA, INSEAD

“Business builder and transformation focused executive leveraging over 18-years of experience as a Partner at McKinsey & Company and 2-years at EDP. Currently leads EDP Retail B2B BU in Europe and Solar Distributed Generation strategic agenda for EDP global client solutions platform.
International experience in business development and marketing and sales across industries (Utilities/ Renewables, Telecom and Media and Banking). Proven track record of success in large scale transformation – 2 to 3-year business transformations industry and consulting side lead – and business building – successful new B2C and B2B start-ups and business acceleration results.
Deep skills in implementing state-of-the-art customer base management practices, new product and value propositions and respective go-to-market, as well as developing and executing robust digital marketing and sales strategies. A strong leader, business partner, and brand builder fostering strategic innovation to enhance growth and customer experience.
Multilingual communicator with proficiency in Portuguese, English and Spanish, with basic knowledge in French.”

James Sprinz, Board Director

Energy Impact Partners, Vice President

James Sprinz is a Vice President at Energy Impact Partners (EIP) where he invests in and works alongside European growth-stage companies spanning a variety of ClimateTech verticals.

He brings over a decade of experience working in cleantech across investment, strategy, and research roles. Prior to joining EIP, James spent six years at BloombergNEF, most recently leading the Decentralized energy team from New York. James advised energy companies, investors, technology firms and policymakers on clean energy markets and technologies.

James holds a MSc in Theoretical Physics from Imperial College London and a MSci in Physics & Philosophy from the University of Bristol.

Anne Boulet, Board Director

Mirova – Investment Director – MBA

Anne has spent most of her career in the energy space.
She joined Mirova end of 2021 as part of the team launching the environmental impact private equity strategy.
Prior to that, she had spent almost ten years in the Eren group, a family office focusing on cleantech and the energy transition. In particular, she participated in scaling up the branch dedicated to renewable power generation which was bought by Total Energies.
Anne holds an MBA from ESSEC Business School.

Maria Muro-Lara, Board Observer

Klima Energy Transition fund – Alantra, Senior Analyst

Maria has experience in venture capital and energy transition investing since she joined Klima fund in 2020. She has a financial background and before joining Klima fund, she worked at JP Morgan in Leverage Finance and in the Private Equity team of Alantra.
Maria is a graduate of the international degree of ICADE and Lancaster University in Business Administration and Management

Luís Manuel, Board Observer

EDP Inovação, Executive Director

Luis Manuel, Executive Director of EDP Inovação since 2008; responsible for corporate VC (EDP Ventures) and startup engagement activities. Board member or observer of Effizency, Defined Crowd, Arquiled, Feedzai, Aperio, Principle Power, Gridbeyond and Vyntelligence, among others. Previously he worked 2 years at Explorer Investments (private equity) and 6 years at Galp’s Strategy and Business Portfolio department. He also worked in Espírito Santo Investment in the Project Finance and Corporate Finance Advisory divisions in Portugal and Brazil. Member of the Cabinet of the Secretary of State of Economic Development and Innovation during the XVI Portuguese Constitutional Government. He is also a member of the board of the Portuguese Electric Vehicles Association (APVE). Luís has a degree in Economics from Universidade Nova de Lisboa.

Aakash Deepak, Bsc Business Management

Marketing Data Manager

“Aakash graduated from University of Essex in 2019 and joined Gridbeyond during August 2019 as a Data and Marketing Intern.

Aakash helps the Marketing & Pre – sales Team in lead generation, data acquisition, CRM management, “

Aidan Downes, BEng, Prince 2

Head of Client Solutions

Aidan is electrically qualified with a background in the Aggregates industry. He has a BEng (Hons) in Electrical Engineering with Edinburgh Napier University and a Level 9 Postgraduate Diploma in Management & Marketing from the Dublin Institute of Technology. Aidan is also Prince 2 certified.

Prior to joining Gridbeyond, Aidan spent years working as a field / project engineer for Rockwell Automation both in the UK and Ireland delivering automated solutions across all the different industrial sectors. Aidan developed extensive practical experience programming PLC’s, configuring VSD’s and commissioning bespoke solutions to a wide range of clients.

Since joining Gridbeyond in 2017, Aidan has managed the customer facing technical team in designing technical solutions, developing proposals and overseeing project delivery in all our markets.

Alden Phinney, BA (Hons)

Business Development Manager

Alden Phinney develops business relationships for GridBeyond activities in North America, including demand response, distributed energy resources, and energy and sustainability analytics. Alden’s 8 year background in data sciences and business development for the energy transition allows him to holistically implement creative clean energy solutions that save clients money and reduce emissions. Alden received a B.A. in Business Management Economics and Sustainability with Honors from the University of California Santa Cruz. Based in New York City, Alden is an avid cyclist, amateur mixologist, and aspiring surfer.

Ali Forbes, BSc

Global Head of Content

“As Content Manager, Ali is responsible for producing all types of content for GridBeyond, from informative market-focussed information through to marketing and sales documents that communicate GridBeyond’s unique services and expertise.
Ali has been involved in the energy industry since 2009, and prior to moving to GridBeyond in 2021 she spent over a decade at consultancy firm Cornwall Insight, where she was initially responsible for industry publications before setting up the marketing function for the business.
Ali has a BSc Hons in Environmental Science from the University of East Anglia.”

Anjukan Kathirgamanathan, BE (Hons), PhD

Aoife Mc Mahon, BComm, ACA, MBA

CFO

Aoife has over 12 years of energy experience from holding senior roles at Mainstream Renewable Power. Prior to joining GridBeyond, she was Head of CEO Office and played a pivotal role in implementing a Group-wide strategy, and new organisational structure and operating model.
Prior to this, Aoife held leadership roles including General Manager for the Philippines and Corporate Finance Manager. Throughout her career, she has led large-scale financial transactions, strategic business transformations, and high-value corporate negotiations, demonstrating a strong track record in driving financial and operational excellence.
As CFO, Aoife is responsible for overseeing our Finance and HR teams, ensuring robust financial management, strategic planning, people strategy and plays a key role in supporting the company’s growth ambitions.
Aoife is a Bachelor of Commerce graduate, obtained her ACA qualification with PwC and her MBA with the Michael Smurfit Business School.

Denver Blemings, BA Hons.

Regional Director

Denver has been responsible for the developing sales within Ireland since joining the company in 2017. He has a background in sales and business development within Renewable generation and engineering. A keen interest in energy efficiency and sustainability has help him lead the company to break into many new areas for Demand Response and smart grid applications.

Gerald O Connell, BSc

Software Developer

“Gerry is a graduate of U.C.C., having gained a B. Sc. Degree in Computer Science, and has been working for many years in a variety of companies, across a number of different industries, in software development roles.

His programming experience covers a wide range of languages including Fortran, C, C++, Delphi, Python and C#. He has worked on software development in a number of different environments which include IBM Mainframes, DEC Minicomputers and both Windows and Linux PCs / Servers.

Gerry joined Grid Beyond in 2019 working in the R & D Team in Cork, developing various back-end database and communications applications, and is also involved in transitioning the platform to move to the Cloud (Azure).
“

Keith Kelly, BEng, BSc

Senior Energy Proposals Engineer

“Keith has a BEng in Energy & Environmental Engineering and BSc in Energy Systems Engineering. He joined GridBeyond in March 2016. He previously worked in the telecoms industry for 10 years, working nationwide as a telecoms rigging engineer.

Currently responsible for Customer Sales Proposals, Ire. Grid Compliance & Testing, Companywide ISO Document Control.”

Kevin O’Sullivan, MSc. , BSc

Data Scientist

Kevin joined GridBeyond in November 2021, after graduating from his MSc. in Data and Computational Science in UCD. Prior to this Kevin completed a BSc. Computer Science in UCD. Kevin works as a a Data Scientist in GridBeyond, devloping energy price forecasters amongst other things.

Laura Merriman MSC CIPD

HR Manager

Laura is an experienced Human Resources Leader who graduated from DCU and DIT. Laura has a proven history of strategic HR delivery in technology, security solution, pharmaceutical and gaming industries. Skilled in Leadership, Talent , Strategy and M&A. Specialist experience of complex TUPE,ER and WRC interactions.

Manik Lowe, MBA, BSc

Sales Operations Director

With almost 10 years of experience within the commercial energy sector, Manik joined GridBeyond in 2018 after completing his MBA from the Cranfield School of Business Management. Manik works as the Sales Operations manager for UK and Ireland where he uses commercial thinking and analytical adeptness to deliver a data driven approach to sales operations, enabling the Regional and Account Directors in building healthy pipelines in multiple markets and creating cross-functional collaboration across Sales, Marketing, Product, Regulations, Trading and Senior Management. Manik manages the business development executive team across UK and Ireland, ensuring that the strategic direction of the business is aligned with the prospecting and sales strategy, in addition to maintaining the integrity of the CRM database. He also manages the development of structures and processes around territory and pipeline management and implements conitnuous improvement at all levels: people, processes and proposition/products.

Mark Davis, MBA (AMBA), BSc (Hons)

CCO

“Mark is an experienced business leader with more than 20 years experience leading business development and business strategy. Mark has successfully led sales, marketing, communications, and technical teams through his career, with the last 20 years focusing on energy risk management and demand side response in the UK and Europe. Mark’s management experience combines the knowledge gleaned from a leading finance house, a market leading energy company, a start-up with a world’s first technology, and accelerating growth and new markets within a major international energy company.

Prior to joining GridBeyond, Mark headed Business Development at Total Gas & Power, representing the UK for Pan-European partnerships. Prior to this he held the position of Sales & Marketing Director at a UK based aggregator, which he joined from RWE where he held the responsibility for the Industrial P&L within RWE npower major business.

Mark has an MBA (AMBA) from the Open University and a BSc (Hons) in Industrial Engineering from DeMontfort University.”

Mehrdad Saei, BEng

Miguel Sakamoto

Sales Director, Japan

Mike Haralambakis, BSc

Systems Architect

“Michael Haralambakis is a System Architect with the Control and Grid Services team within R&D with a background of the Applied Physics and Instrumentation from MTU.
With GridBeyond he has designed and developed various Software systems used for interacting with the distributed network of customer assets operating as a Virtual Power Plant.
He has worked in designing a scalable platform for management of sensor metrology covering characterisation of sensors, data filtering, data acquisition, to a Lambda architecture storage.
He has designed the Energy Service Aggregation Platform suite of software for continuous sub-second real time process control and orchestration of assets distributed geographically but acting in sync as aggregated portfolios for participation in Energy services in a range of Energy Markets
“

Mitesh Chauhan, BSc (Hons)

Business Development

Mitesh graduated from Sheffield Hallam University with a BSc in Business and Financial Management, his first sales role was at a start-up insurance brokerage in 2018, he most recently joined GridBeyond in October 2021. Mitesh has a passion for sustainability, climate change and helping people understand how they can contribute to make a positive impact on the environment.

Nicholas Georgiou, BSc (Hons), MCIL, MBA

Business Development

A sustainably minded business professional; with proficient research and analytical competencies, demonstrable client acquisition and business development expertise acquired from both the environmental and financial services sectors, having worked in Fintech and SaaS start up environments and within large organisations, both in the UK and internationally. Nick holds a Master’s in Environmental Policy and Climate Change Law, and International Relations. Nick opens new doors and opportunities for GridBeyond within both FTM and BTM and amongst private and public sector organisations through thorough market research and through a holistic understanding of how GridBeyond’s services and solutions can impact businesses.

Padraig Curran, BEng, MEngSc

CTO & Co-Founder

“Padraig is a University College Cork (UCC) and Tyndall National Institute Research Masters Graduate in wireless sensing and control technology with eight years’ experience developing smart grid energy optimisation solutions.

Padraig joined GridBeyond after a research collaboration project with Tyndall National Institute. Since then, he has led the development of market leading aggregated demand response, frequency response and smart tariff optimisation platforms for the Irish and the UK Markets.”

Ricardo Rosa

IT

“Ricardo is a Desktop Support Engineer and service delivery with over 10 years of experience in, EMEA-based markets (PT, ENG, Spanish), in Telecommunications, Banking, Logistics, Aviation, and now in the Energy industry.

Experience in IT Onsite and Remote Support: working in a dynamic environment in Contact Centers, and offices, including Executive/VIP IT Support and Service Delivery, working in a team or autonomously and as SPOC (Single Point of Contact).

Ricardo considers himself a dedicated professional with a focus on solutions and a strong sense of work ethic. Loving working in a multicultural environment, and being a way to interact with people from other countries, realities, and cultures.

His thirst to help others both in the IT field has always been huge. His passion and the delivery of his work are focused on analyzing/solving problems, giving alternatives, and collaborating with others to achieve the same purpose: accomplishment and success for the benefit of the team and the company.”

Sean McEvoy, BSc, MBA

US President & CPO

With over twenty years’ experience at the forefront of technology innovation, Sean is leading the North American team, with a critical focus on pioneering front-of-the-meter and behind-the-meter AI solution development, a role which combines his technical expertise and passion for connecting innovation with real-world applications. His appointment follows GridBeyond’s acquisition of Veritone Energy Business Inc. In his various C-level and executive leadership roles, Sean has managed several teams across multiple business sectors including sales, product management, software development, and product marketing. Before joining GridBeyond, Sean worked for Veritone, IBM, DELL, QUEST, and Symantec. Having lived in both Europe and Asia, Sean possesses a deep understanding of international markets. His keen insights into global trends and adeptness in formulating go-to-market strategies have enabled companies to establish a presence on the international stage. He has a BSc in Software Engineering and an MBA in International Business.

Sean O Neill, B.Eng

Shawn Duckett

Director

Shawn joined GridBeyond in 2017 as our Regional Director supporting our clients in the North region in the UK. Prior to joining GridBeyond, Shawn has gained over 11 years experience within the renewable energy, demand response & power quality sector, and 4 years experience within investment advice, including a start-up business. The skills & knowledge he has picked up throughout his career ensure that he is very successful in aiding our clients in making good business decisions, both from a carbon and financial point of view.

Shreya Jacob, MSc

Data Engineer

Shreya works as a Data Engineer at GridBeyond. She has a Master’s degree in Data Science from Trinity College Dublin. Prior to joining GridBeyond, she worked as a Data Engineer for Nissan Digital for 2 years. She is well versed with Data modelling, warehousing and visualization.

Vivien Boidron, BA, MSc

Global Marketing Director

“Vivien is a Business School of Management of Grenoble Masters Graduate in Marketing & Communications with twenty years’ experience translating technical capabilities into innovative marketing programmes that drive demand, shape market perception and support revenue growth.

Vivien and his team won the Marketing Comms Team of the Year Award at the The Energy Live Personality Awards 2018. He was also recognised as one of FINITE’s 30 influential marketers in Sustainability Tech in 2023. More recently, GridBeyond’s marketing team was shortlisted at The Drum Awards Marketing EMEA for its Global Energy Trends campaign, competing alongside National Grid, government-backed initiatives and major agency-led campaigns.

Since joining GridBeyond in 2013 to help kick-start the company’s first market expansion, Vivien has played a key role in building the company’s brand, shaping its product and solution positioning, and creating demand generation strategies that support market expansion and revenue growth.

Vivien’s mission is to communicate GridBeyond’s leadership in transforming how the world uses, produces and distributes electricity by creating customer-centric marketing programmes that make complex energy solutions easier to understand, trust and act on.”

Yuko Tanaka

Yusa Minto MA, Communications Manager