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, Chief Operating Officer

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.”

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.”

Brian Ryan, Board Director

ESB Customer Solutions, Strategy and Transformation Manager, BE, MSc Business

Brian is the Strategy and Transformation Manager for ESB’s Customer Solutions business which is helping customers achieve net zero. He led the Energy Services and Innovation businesses for ESB’s Electric Ireland retail brand, introducing a range of new smart home and demand side services in the Irish market when Gridbeyond’s pioneering demand side offering first came to ESB’s attention and subsequent investment. Brian has over 30 years of wide-ranging experience in the energy sector. He has held various senior roles in ESB ranging from the development of ESB’s extensive portfolio of wind generation assets to conventional power station operations. Brian’s initial career was as a lead engineer for GE on the installation of new power plants across the world. Brian holds a Bachelor of Engineering and a MSc in Business from UCD.

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.

Thuy-Nga Bui, Board Observer

TotalEnergies Ventures, Principal, Msc General Engineering, Centrale Lille – MSc Energy Markets, IFP School

“Thuy is principal at TotalEnergies Ventures, the venture capital arm of TotalEnergies that focuses on finding, funding and fostering high-potential start-ups which will contribute to creating a low carbon future.
She has over 15 years of professional experience in the energy sector, including project development and economics, and more recently in mergers and acquisition, focusing on the areas of energy efficiency and low-carbon solutions.
Thuy is French, graduated as an engineer (Centrale Lille) and also holds a MSc in Energy Markets (IFP School).”

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.

Eugene Smyth, Board Observer

Board Observer. AIB Seed Capital Fund, managed by DBIC Ventures, Investment Manager, BComm, BSc Comp Sci

Manager of Early-Stage Technology Investments Portfolio. Retained Management Consultant in the Venture Capital industry for over 20 years and member of Expert Jury panel on a range of European Commission Technology-led Innovation Programmes. Specialist areas include Cleantech, New Media, SaaS, ICT, eCommerce and Emerging Platform Technologies.

Aakash Deepak, Bsc Business Management

Advika Bhat, B.Tech MSc

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)

Ali Forbes, BSc

Amruta Nadgouda, MSc Env. Sustainability, MSc Computer Science, BSc Computer Science

Anjukan Kathirgamanathan, BE (Hons), PhD

Brian Gahan

CIO

Chris Smith, BA

Cian Lawlor, BSc

Dave Calder

Denver Blemings, BA Hons.

Diogo Cabral, BA, MSc Finance

Dominika Nowak, MSc

Etim Asuquo, BEng, MSc

Gabriella Di Salvo, MA Communications Management

Gerald O Connell, BSc

James O Sullivan, MEng, GDip, BEng

Jeff Power, MBA, MEng, CEng, CEM

Business Unit Manager – Delivery of Net Zero

“Jeff is an accomplished charted engineer with a Master in Energy Systems Engineering and an MBA from from UCD Michael Smurfit Business School.
Experienced across a diverse range of sectors (building services, financial services, data centres, mission critical industries, oil & gas, renewable energy) in engineering and leadership roles. Jeff posseses a strong proven capability in delivering projects from concept to completion with a critical focus on ROI, innovation and collaboration.

Jeff is a leader in sustainability who joined GridBeyond in 2021 to develop and deliver a trusted net zero roadmap for clients through the establishment of a new Business Unit. This Business Unit will leverage GridBeyond’s growing portfolio of services to deliver perpetual competitive advantage for your organisation.”

Keith Kelly, BEng, BSc

Kevin O’Sullivan, MSc. , BSc

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

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

Managing Director UK & Ireland

“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.”

Martin Stevens, HNC Electrical & Electronic Engineering

Matt Brindle, HND Electronic Engineering

Mehrdad Saei, BEng

Mike Haralambakis, BSc

Mitesh Chauhan, BSc (Hons)

Mitesh Gunputh, BEng, Prince2Agile

Nicholas Georgiou, BSc (Hons), MCIL, MBA

Nick Langlois, BEng

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.”

Paulo Sobral, M Eng

Head of trading and optimisation

“Paulo is an experienced senior manager with more than 20 years’ experience, leading trading, operations, and optimisation business strategy. Paulo has successfully led several multidisciplinary teams within the last 17 years. Paulo traded and optimised, in several different geographies, all kind of assets: big hydro reservoirs/run-of-rivers as well as renewables, thermal power plants, batteries, demand side response.

Prior to joining GridBeyond, Paulo worked as head of trading and operations at EDP-Energias de Portugal for 16 years. Before that as an Aircraft Structural engineer for 4 years at OGMA-Airbus.

Paulo has a Mechanical Engineering degree with a post-graduation on Aircraft Maintenance from Universidade Nova de Lisboa.”

Ricardo Rosa

Riccardo Oberdano

Rob Killeen, QFA

Seamus King, B.Eng

Sean O Neill, B.Eng

Seun Ottu, B.Eng, M.Eng

Shawn Duckett

Shreya Jacob, MSc

Shunsuke Amanai

Business Development Manager

Shunsuke majored the law at Waseda University.

Shunsuke started his career in the energy sector in 2017 at an American energy retailer, Ambit Energy, responsible for setting up its business in Japan and for regulatory affairs with METI.

Since then, he has been working on a wide range of energy-related projects 2018-2022, such as energy accounts acquisition and advisory of smart energy business models for Genie Energy, Tata Consultancy Services, and Sympower among others, leveraging his solid and diversified skills and experiences working as a banker in international finance.

He started his finance career at Chase Manhattan Bank (currently known as JPMorgan Chase) and worked for other reputable global financial institutions, based in Hong Kong, Tokyo, responsible for Asian based corporate clients.

Sinead Naughton

Tom McNamara, BEng, MBA, Prince2

Business Unit Manager – Battery, EV, Solar

“Tom has a Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering from the University of Limerick and a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from UCD Michael Smurfit Business School which he has both received a first-class honors.

Tom has strong experience working with end-to-end product life management in solar, batteries and automotive solutions, while working in several countries like Ireland, Hungary, Switzerland, and Australia.

Prior to joining GridBeyond, Tom has work with companies such as Alstom, Thermo King and Howden where he worked has a Mechanical Design Engineer, designing solutions for the automotive, power generation and solar industries.

Tom has been brought on board to manage the new asset development of the business which includes Batteries, EV and Solar as well as market entry strategy for the US.”

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.

Vivien and his team won the Marketing Comms Team of the Year Award at the The Energy Live Personality Awards 2018.

Vivien joined GridBeyond in 2013 to kick start the UK market and create demand generation strategies that help hit revenue growth targets and build the company story around company solutions and expertise.

Vivien builds the brand, shapes product offerings, drives engagement and generates demand through growth-focused and customer centric Account Based Marketing delivering the right content throughout the customer’s journey on a global scale.”

Wayne Muncaster, FISM

SVP North America

“Wayne is a fellow of the Institute of Sales Management, and brings over 20 years’ experience in both strategic and operational roles within the UK energy markets.

Wayne has considerable leadership experience, having successfully managed teams throughout his career, specialising in technology, software and services within the UK and EU energy markets for the last 10 years.

Prior to Joining GridBeyond in 2016, Wayne held several senior roles and directorships in Centrica, E.ON, PassivSystems and PowerPerfector.

Wayne has delivered and developed profitable and innovative relationships with numerous private and public sector organisations across food & drink, retail, leisure, manufacturing, logistics, energy services, renewables, healthcare, and local authorities.”