In this episode I’m Joined by Mike Nakrani, CEO of VEV. Mike is an OG in the electrification of transport, and that’s ignoring the milk float joyride! We talk about the challenges, opportunities and many converging technologies and factors that impact fleet electrification.

There are of course many examples now that light and heavy-duty electric fleets are here and scaling. Grid connections aside, the biggest challenges is to demonstrate and achieve better TCO and true commercial viability. As Mike said during our conversation,  “Electrification only works when it works commercially.”.  We also talk about how having worked in behemoths like Ford and BP have been a positive rather than a negative as he leads a nimble start-up, taking the good and the bad, and how he sees and leads innovation at speed.

We talked through:

• The new economics of fleet electrification
• What genuinely drives ROI
• Why scaling is very different from running a pilot
• Financing models and infrastructure ownership
• The role of software and optimisation
• And what kind of leadership this next phase requires

It’s a thoughtful conversation about what it really takes to move from ambition to operational reality, from pilots to scale.

I hope you enjoy it.

Mike Nakrani:

With more than two decades of experience spanning automotive OEMs, mobility services and energy transition, Mike Nakrani is steering VEV’s mission to support commercial fleets in moving to electric power.  

He stands at the intersection of automotive, mobility services and the energy transition – three sectors converging rapidly. Through his role at VEV, he represents how commercial fleet electrification must be executed at scale: not just with EVs, but with systems, infrastructure and business models that work. His leadership offers insight into how fleets can drive real-world decarbonisation.

Nakrani promotes a pragmatic, ‘technology-neutral’ view of fleet decarbonisation – emphasising the transitional role that fuels such as HVO have to play, while reinforcing the scale and operational efficiency electrification delivers in the long term, delivering the most compelling business case for organisations needing to decarbonise.

About VEV: 

VEV helps organisations deliver on their carbon reduction ambitions with an end-to-end fleet electrification solution that integrates across vehicle

About Hyperion Search:

At Hyperion Search, we specialize in building world-class teams for the cleantech and energy transition sectors. We focus on leadership roles but also recruit strategically critical individual contributors who drive business growth. Whether you’re a founder scaling a startup, a board member guiding a scaleup, a VC/PE investor, or a corporation committed to energy and mobility transitions, we find the talent that will deliver impactful, sustainable results.

• Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/company/hyperion-search-ltd
• Website: www.hyperionsearch.com

Follow us online, write a review (please) or subscribe

I'm very keen to hear feedback on the podcast and my guests, and to hear your suggestions for future guests or topics. Contact via the podcast Linked In page.

If you do enjoy the podcast, please write a review on iTunes, or your usual podcast platform, and tell your cleantech friends about us. That would be much appreciated.

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-hunt-cleantech/

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• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/leaders-in-clean...

In this episode, I’m joined by Johannes Kirnberger, co-founder and Managing Director of Delta Charge, a Swedish-German company building Europe’s next-generation charging and battery infrastructure for electric freight. Johannes shares his journey from advising global institutions like the OECD and World Bank to co-founding a startup that's tackling one of Europe’s most complex infrastructure challenges—how to electrify heavy-duty transport at scale.

Johannes Kirnberger is the co-founder and managing director of Delta Charge, a Swedish-German energy company pioneering integrated charging and battery storage solutions for European industry and electric fleet. He previously advised the OECD, the World Bank and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) on energy, digital, and climate policy. Johannes serves as a guest lecturer at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) and holds a Bachelor of Science in Management from ESCP Business School, a Master of International Public Management from Sciences Po, and a Master in International Affairs, Energy and Environment from Columbia University.

About Delta Charge: 
Headquartered in Munich, Delta Charge is a Swedish-German energy infrastructure company pioneering end-to-end charging and battery storage solutions for Europe’s freight sector. The company develops and finances a pan-European network of truck-charging depots and battery-enabled industrial hubs. Its platform combines intelligent software, grid-connected batteries, and fixed-price charging services to help fleet operators electrify their operations while supporting a more flexible and resilient power grid. Backed by Delta Capacity, one of Scandinavia’s leading battery energy storage developers, the company aims to deploy over €300 million in infrastructure and deliver 1.8 TWh of clean energy annually by 2030, anchoring the backbone of Europe’s zero-carbon freight future.

Social links:  
Johannes Kirnberger LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johanneskirnberger/ 
Delta Charge on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/deltacharge/ 
Delta Charge website: https://www.deltacharge.com/ 

Episode Links: 
Book Recommends:
Termination Shock- Neil Stephenson - https://amzn.eu/d/1XmpfDC 
About Hyperion Search:
At Hyperion Search, we specialize in building world-class teams for the cleantech and energy transition sectors. We focus on leadership roles but also recruit str

About Hyperion Search:

At Hyperion Search, we specialize in building world-class teams for the cleantech and energy transition sectors. We focus on leadership roles but also recruit strategically critical individual contributors who drive business growth. Whether you’re a founder scaling a startup, a board member guiding a scaleup, a VC/PE investor, or a corporation committed to energy and mobility transitions, we find the talent that will deliver impactful, sustainable results.

• Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/company/hyperion-search-ltd
• Website: www.hyperionsearch.com

Follow us online, write a review (please) or subscribe

I'm very keen to hear feedback on the podcast and my guests, and to hear your suggestions for future guests or topics. Contact via the podcast Linked In page.

If you do enjoy the podcast, please write a review on iTunes, or your usual podcast platform, and tell your cleantech friends about us. That would be much appreciated.

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-hunt-cleantech/

Also follow the podcast and to stay up to date.

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/leaders-in-clean...

In this episode, David Hunt discusses the key insights from the Hyperion Q4 Market and Talent Review, highlighting the significant shifts in the cleantech sector during 2025. The conversation covers the maturation of the industry, the focus on execution over exuberance, and the evolving demands for leadership and talent across various sectors, including energy storage, EVs, and renewables. The episode also touches on the challenges faced by hard tech and the implications for the future as the market prepares for 2026. 

Takeaways

• 2025 was a year of maturity in cleantech.
• The focus has shifted from technology to execution.
• Nearly 50% fewer companies reached seed to Series A rounds.
• Talent demand is focused on operational discipline and execution.
• AI-driven optimization is becoming crucial in mobility.
• Solar has overtaken coal as the EU's largest electricity source.
• The pilot to readiness gap in hard tech is widening.
• Boards need to be operator-led for effective scaling.
• Talent markets are becoming more selective with higher expectations.
• The next phase of the transition is about delivery, not invention.
• Navigating the Cleantech Landscape: Insights from Hyperion
• 2025: The Year Cleantech Matures

Sound Bites

• "The pilot to readiness gap is widening."
• "Boards need operators, not just advisors."
• "AI becomes invisible infrastructure."

Chapters

00:00Introduction to the Hyperion Q4 Review

01:212025: A Year of Maturity in Cleantech

03:20Energy Storage and Grid Market Insights

05:09EV and Future Mobility Developments

07:01Renewables: Milestones and Talent Trends

08:35Challenges in Hard Tech and Funding

09:55Looking Ahead: Key Themes for 2026 

Links

• Hyperion Q4 Market and Talent Review - https://hyperionsearch.com/market-reviews/
• Net Zero Insights -State of Cleantech 2025 - https://stateofclimatetech.com/

About Hyperion Search:

At Hyperion Search, we specialize in building world-class teams for the cleantech and energy transition sectors. We focus on leadership roles but also recruit strategically critical individual contributors who drive business growth. Whether you’re a founder scaling a startup, a board member guiding a scaleup, a VC/PE investor, or a corporation committed to energy and mobility transitions, we find the talent that will deliver impactful, sustainable results.

• Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/company/hyperion-search-ltd
• Website: www.hyperionsearch.com

Follow us online, write a review (please) or subscribe

I'm very keen to hear feedback on the podcast and my guests, and to hear your suggestions for future guests or topics. Contact via the podcast Linked In page.

If you do enjoy the podcast, please write a review on iTunes, or your usual podcast platform, and tell your cleantech friends about us. That would be much appreciated.

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-hunt-cleantech/

Also follow the podcast and to stay up to date.

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/leaders-in-clean...

Devrim Celal– Kraken

In this episode of Leaders in Cleantech, David Hunt is joined once again by Devrim Celal, Chief Flexibility & Marketing Officer at Kraken, nearly six years after their first conversation in 2019—back when Devrim was CEO of Upside Energy.

Since then, Upside Energy was acquired by Octopus Energy and evolved into Kraken, now one of the world’s leading energy technology platforms, serving tens of millions of customers and optimising flexible power at global scale.

Rather than a linear success story, Devrim reflects on the last decade as a series of distinct phases: early uncertainty, pivotal strategic pivots, the acquisition decision, rapid scaling within Octopus, and now Kraken’s transition into a fully independent global company.

The conversation explores leadership at scale, the reality of building culture through growth, the trade-offs founders face between conviction and adaptability, and what the future holds for flexibility, storage, EVs, data centres and grid optimisation.

This is a thoughtful, honest discussion about long-term impact, not short-term hype—and what it really takes to build enduring companies in the energy transition. 

Devrim Celal:
Devrim is the Chief Flexibility and Marketing Officer at Kraken. Overseeing Kraken’s flexibility and product capabilities, the cloud-based flexibility platform controls and optimizes distributed energy resources such as batteries of all sizes, EVs, solar and wind generation or heat pumps with machine learning and AI to match electricity supply and demand, helping the electricity grid deal with the natural volatility of renewable generation. Kraken is currently contracted to manage over 42 GW of power.

Previously, Devrim was the CEO of Upside Energy, which was acquired by Kraken in 2020. Before starting Upside Energy, Devrim’s professional career saw him take up executive roles with blue chip management consultancies and finance companies such as Publicis Sapient, Kearney and Lansdowne. He also holds an MBA from Yale University. In 2023, Devrim joined the Elexon Board, which manages the Balancing and Settlement Code of Great Britain’s energy system, as a Non-Executive Director. 

About Kraken:
Vienna-based innovator enspired is known for pioneering automated energy trading and Kraken is the most-loved operating system for energy.

Powered by Utility-Grade AI™ and deep industry expertise, we

About Hyperion Search:

At Hyperion Search, we specialize in building world-class teams for the cleantech and energy transition sectors. We focus on leadership roles but also recruit strategically critical individual contributors who drive business growth. Whether you’re a founder scaling a startup, a board member guiding a scaleup, a VC/PE investor, or a corporation committed to energy and mobility transitions, we find the talent that will deliver impactful, sustainable results.

• Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/company/hyperion-search-ltd
• Website: www.hyperionsearch.com

Follow us online, write a review (please) or subscribe

I'm very keen to hear feedback on the podcast and my guests, and to hear your suggestions for future guests or topics. Contact via the podcast Linked In page.

If you do enjoy the podcast, please write a review on iTunes, or your usual podcast platform, and tell your cleantech friends about us. That would be much appreciated.

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-hunt-cleantech/

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• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/leaders-in-clean...

In this episode of Leaders in Cleantech, I speak with Juergen Mayerhofer, CEO and co-founder of enspired, the Vienna-based company using fully automated, AI-driven trading to optimise flexible power assets – especially grid-scale batteries – across multiple European markets.

Juergen shares how he stumbled into energy via Austrian gas market liberalisation, fell in love with physical energy systems, and eventually founded enspired in early 2020 with the simple but powerful idea that flexibility is the key resource for integrating more renewables. We talk about how the company has scaled from its first pump storage and thermal assets in Germany to managing ~5 GW of flexibility (including over 1.3 GW of batteries), now active across ten markets and expanding into new geographies.

We dig into why enspired thinks like a software and R&D company rather than a classic trading house, how they use automation, machine learning and reinforcement learning in practice, and why they’ve chosen to publish independently verified revenue performance instead of leaning on AI buzzwords. Juergen also reflects on the realities of founding just before COVID, expanding rapidly across borders, and building a diverse, high-performance culture designed to move into new countries in weeks, not years.

About Juergen Mayerhofer:

enspired CEO and co-founder Juergen Mayerhofer holds an MBA in energy management and has worked in the energy sector for over 20 years, contributing to the expansion of renewables in the grid in various expert positions. Under his bold and devoted leadership, enspired evolved from a small-scale startup with a workforce in the single digits into a successful institution with global recognition. As an enthusiast and first mover in BESS optimization, Juergen is a highly respected and trusted figure in his field as well as the power industry at large.

About enspired:

Vienna-based innovator enspired is known for pioneering automated energy trading and cross-market battery storage optimization across Europe with an advanced technical infrastructure running on billions of data points, AI, machine learning, and reinforcement learning. The self-developed optimization platform is operated 100% in-house, which makes it highly flexible in adapting to new markets and changing market conditions. By optimizing the power assets of their customers across all available energy markets, enspired unlocks essential flexibili

About Hyperion Search:

At Hyperion Search, we specialize in building world-class teams for the cleantech and energy transition sectors. We focus on leadership roles but also recruit strategically critical individual contributors who drive business growth. Whether you’re a founder scaling a startup, a board member guiding a scaleup, a VC/PE investor, or a corporation committed to energy and mobility transitions, we find the talent that will deliver impactful, sustainable results.

• Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/company/hyperion-search-ltd
• Website: www.hyperionsearch.com

Follow us online, write a review (please) or subscribe

I'm very keen to hear feedback on the podcast and my guests, and to hear your suggestions for future guests or topics. Contact via the podcast Linked In page.

If you do enjoy the podcast, please write a review on iTunes, or your usual podcast platform, and tell your cleantech friends about us. That would be much appreciated.

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-hunt-cleantech/

Also follow the podcast and to stay up to date.

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/leaders-in-clean...

In this episode I’m joined by Gregory Dewerpe, Founder of NOA  (formerly A/O), to cut through the noise on climate investing. We talk about the shift from abundance to discipline, why Europe and the US are now playing different games, and how AI will matter in the physical world—grids, buildings, materials—rather than the hype layer. Candid, practical, and economics-first: adoption wins when solutions are cheaper, smarter, and scale.

What we cover

• Why A/O became NOA: moving from “proptech” to a broader physical world mandate; why naming and focus matter for specialist funds; being memorable and thesis-true.
• Specialist > generalist: generating alpha by doing the less obvious in crowded markets; why NOA prefers hard tech and infrastructure over “consensus safe” deals.
• How NOA deploys: flexible first cheques ($2–15m), stage-agnostic from seed to B; focusing on capital actually at work by Series B rather than chasing ownership optics.

Some of Greg’s quotes 

• “We won’t generate alpha by doing what everyone else does. Being a specialist lets us have a qualified, differentiated opinion.”
• “The built world doesn’t need to be greener — it needs to be smarter. Make it smarter and it will be greener.”
• “We shouldn’t build climate on altruism. Adoption happens when solutions are cheaper and more efficient.”

About Gregory Dewerpe

Gregory Dewerpe is the Founder and Managing Partner of noa, Europe’s largest built world venture capital firm. He oversees the firm’s vision and strategy, manages partnerships with portfolio companies and LPs, and is a recognised voice in tech and climate—particularly around decarbonisation and the energy transition in real estate.

He founded noa (formerly A/O) after more than a decade of deep investment in the real estate sector, identifying it as a key vector for climate innovation. This insight stemmed from his previous work founding AMD Capital, a specialist real estate investment and advisory firm.

Earlier in his career, Gregory worked in investment banking at Credit Suisse and Citigroup, where he structured over $30bn in new investments. He holds an MSc in Business & Finance from HEC Lausanne and has attended executive education programmes at LSE and Harvard Business School. 

About Noa: 

noa is Europe’s largest built world VC firm and a global sustainability tech leader, focused on transforming real estate a

About Hyperion Search:

At Hyperion Search, we specialize in building world-class teams for the cleantech and energy transition sectors. We focus on leadership roles but also recruit strategically critical individual contributors who drive business growth. Whether you’re a founder scaling a startup, a board member guiding a scaleup, a VC/PE investor, or a corporation committed to energy and mobility transitions, we find the talent that will deliver impactful, sustainable results.

• Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/company/hyperion-search-ltd
• Website: www.hyperionsearch.com

Follow us online, write a review (please) or subscribe

I'm very keen to hear feedback on the podcast and my guests, and to hear your suggestions for future guests or topics. Contact via the podcast Linked In page.

If you do enjoy the podcast, please write a review on iTunes, or your usual podcast platform, and tell your cleantech friends about us. That would be much appreciated.

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-hunt-cleantech/

Also follow the podcast and to stay up to date.

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/leaders-in-clean...

About Liliane Ableitner:

Liliane is the co-founder and CEO of the climate tech startup exnaton. In 2019, she graduated with a PhD in information systems from one of Europe’s most renowned universities ETH Zurich. In 2020, she co-founded a startup with her two fellow PhD colleagues and was listed on the Forbes 30 under 30 list for young entrepreneurs. Until today, the startup has received Venture Capital from Silicon Valley based True Ventures, Germany’s largest VC GFC, and the Zurich climate tech fund übermorgen. The startup has won numerous awards such as the SAP Innovation Awards 2022 and Liliane was a speaker at TEDxZurich in 2022. Among others, the following media has covered Liliane, her two co-founders and the climate tech startup Exnaton: Handelsblatt, NZZ, SRF, Handelszeitung, VSE, Blick, Energate and PV Magazine. 

About Exnaton: 

exnaton is a multi-award-winning spin-off company from ETH Zurich, founded by three former PhD students and colleagues with a shared vision for a sustainable energy future. Building on their research in the software and energy sectors, they developed an AI-powered white-label billing platform designed to accelerate the transition to renewable energy. Today, exnaton supports more than 50 utilities across five countries. The platform enables utilities to launch and scale Distributed Energy Resources (DER) offerings by transforming complex energy data into clear customer invoices and delivering actionable insights. Exnaton powers use cases such as energy sharing, dynamic tariffs, EV smart charging, and more – empowering utilities and their customers to actively participate in the energy transition.

Social links:  

• Liliane Ableitner on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lilianeableitner/ 
• Exnaton on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/exnaton/ 
• Exnaton website: https://www.exnaton.ai/en 

About Hyperion Search:

At Hyperion Search, we specialize in building world-class teams for the cleantech and energy transition sectors. We focus on leadership roles but also recruit strategically critical individual contributors who drive business growth. Whether you’re a founder scaling a startup, a board member guiding a scaleup, a VC/PE investor, or a corporation committed to energy and mobility transitions, we find the talent that will deliver impactful, sustainable results.

• Linked In: https

About Hyperion Search:

At Hyperion Search, we specialize in building world-class teams for the cleantech and energy transition sectors. We focus on leadership roles but also recruit strategically critical individual contributors who drive business growth. Whether you’re a founder scaling a startup, a board member guiding a scaleup, a VC/PE investor, or a corporation committed to energy and mobility transitions, we find the talent that will deliver impactful, sustainable results.

• Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/company/hyperion-search-ltd
• Website: www.hyperionsearch.com

Follow us online, write a review (please) or subscribe

I'm very keen to hear feedback on the podcast and my guests, and to hear your suggestions for future guests or topics. Contact via the podcast Linked In page.

If you do enjoy the podcast, please write a review on iTunes, or your usual podcast platform, and tell your cleantech friends about us. That would be much appreciated.

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-hunt-cleantech/

Also follow the podcast and to stay up to date.

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/leaders-in-clean...

Join David Hunt, host of the Leaders in Cleantech podcast, as he delves into the future of battery storage with Andrew Gilligan, Senior Director of Global Markets and Development at Fluence. In this episode, Andrew shares his journey from the solar industry to joining Fluence, insights about global storage markets, and the evolving supply chains required to support large-scale battery deployments. They discuss the economic and regulatory factors driving storage adoption, particularly in the US and Europe, and the role of battery storage in addressing growing energy demands and supporting AI data centers. Tune in for an in-depth conversation on the trends, challenges, and opportunities in the cleantech sector.

00:00 Introduction to Leaders in Cleantech Podcast

00:43 Meet Andrew Gilligan: Senior Director of Global Markets at Fluence

01:21 Andrew's Journey in Clean Energy

05:17 Fluence's Role in the Energy Storage Market

11:56 Global Market Dynamics and Challenges

15:03 US vs. European Energy Storage Markets

21:09 Supply Chain and Regulatory Challenges

23:56 The Future of Energy Storage

25:51 Energized by Industry Resilience

26:28 AI and Data Centers: Powering the Future

27:49 Battery Storage Innovations

30:20 Global Market Trends and Opportunities

41:53 The Importance of Talent in Energy Transition

47:07 Future Outlook for Fluence and Battery Storage

About Hyperion Search:

At Hyperion Search, we specialize in building world-class teams for the cleantech and energy transition sectors. We focus on leadership roles but also recruit strategically critical individual contributors who drive business growth. Whether you’re a founder scaling a startup, a board member guiding a scaleup, a VC/PE investor, or a corporation committed to energy and mobility transitions, we find the talent that will deliver impactful, sustainable results.

• Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/company/hyperion-search-ltd
• Website: www.hyperionsearch.com

Follow us online, write a review (please) or subscribe

I'm very keen to hear feedback on the podcast and my guests, and to hear your suggestions for future guests or topics. Contact via the podcast Linked In page.

If you do enjoy the podcast, please write a review on iTunes, or your usual podcast platform, and tell your cleantech friends about us. That would be much appreciated.

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-hunt-cleantech/

Also follow the podcast and to stay up to date.

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/leaders-in-clean...

In this episode of Leaders in Cleantech, I speak with Joachim Lohse, CEO and co-founder of Ampcontrol, about his journey from writing LinkedIn blog posts as a young consultant to founding one of Europe’s most innovative smart charging software companies. We discuss the technical and leadership challenges of scaling a company at the heart of the EV transition, and what it really takes to support the electrification of critical infrastructure like logistics fleets, ports, and buses.

Ampcontrol is tackling some of the most complex problems in fleet electrification—from grid constraints and site-level optimisation, to uptime, scheduling, and energy cost reduction—and Joachim shares both the strategic decisions and hard-won lessons from the last six years of building the business.

We also touch on the importance of predictable policy, the rising complexity of fleet charging logistics, and the cultural principles that shape his international team.

Joachim Lohse is the founder and CEO of Ampcontrol, the leading AI-powered smart charging software that optimizes electric fleets. Since 2019, Joachim has collaborated with charging networks, utilities, and fleet operators worldwide to lower total charging costs and ensure reliable operations during the transition to electric vehicles.

Joachim is a recognized leader in the e-mobility space, working closely with key stakeholders to shape the future of electric transportation around the world.  

About Ampcontrol: 

Ampcontrol is a leading AI-powered software for electric fleets. Fleet operators use Ampcontrol to reduce EV charger downtime and electric fueling costs. The software connects to the EV charging hardware and vehicle telematics to make real-time decisions and provide detailed monitoring tools to fleet operators. Benefits are on-time departures, a low peak power demand, energy cost reductions, fully charged vehicles, and more. Ampcontrol’s API-based platform allows easy and seamless compatibility with existing software systems. The VC-backed company deploys in the US, Europe, LATAM, and Africa.

Social links:  

• Joachim Lohse on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joachim-lohse-4629a7102/ 
• Ampcontrol on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ampcontrol-io/ 
• Ampcontro

About Hyperion Search:

At Hyperion Search, we specialize in building world-class teams for the cleantech and energy transition sectors. We focus on leadership roles but also recruit strategically critical individual contributors who drive business growth. Whether you’re a founder scaling a startup, a board member guiding a scaleup, a VC/PE investor, or a corporation committed to energy and mobility transitions, we find the talent that will deliver impactful, sustainable results.

• Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/company/hyperion-search-ltd
• Website: www.hyperionsearch.com

Follow us online, write a review (please) or subscribe

I'm very keen to hear feedback on the podcast and my guests, and to hear your suggestions for future guests or topics. Contact via the podcast Linked In page.

If you do enjoy the podcast, please write a review on iTunes, or your usual podcast platform, and tell your cleantech friends about us. That would be much appreciated.

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-hunt-cleantech/

Also follow the podcast and to stay up to date.

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/leaders-in-clean...

Hydrogen has for decades been talked about as the fuel of the future, the economics, among other things stand it’s way, producing cheap hydrogen isn’t easy, but what if nature has already done the hard work for us? In this episode of Leaders in Cleantech, I speak with Emmanuel Masini, founder and CEO of Mantle8, a pioneering natural hydrogen exploration company. We dive into Emmanuel’s journey from geologist to entrepreneur, why natural hydrogen could be a game-changing addition to the energy mix, and how Mantle8’s technology is accelerating the race to unlock this overlooked resource.

Episode Notes

In this conversation, Emmanuel and I explore the promise of natural hydrogen — also called geological or white hydrogen. Unlike green or blue hydrogen, natural hydrogen is formed by the Earth itself, waiting to be discovered and harnessed.

About Emmanuel (Manu) Masini

Emmanuel Masini is a geoscientist, entrepreneur and founder of Mantle8 – a pioneering energy company advancing the exploration and extraction of natural hydrogen as a low-cost, ultra-low-emissions energy source.

With more than a decade of experience in structural geology, subsurface modelling and energy systems, Emmanuel has led geoscience projects across Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. Before founding Mantle8, he co-founded the geology-focused research and consulting company M&U and worked with Total on applied geoscience projects. Of note, is Masini’s leadership of the "Orogen Research" program, whilst at M&U and at Total. This program is a collaborative effort between Total, the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), and the French Geological Survey (BRGM) involving approximately one hundred researchers, which focuses on the study of orogens, which are mountain ranges formed by the collision of tectonic plates. He also contributed to major research initiatives with the Strasbourg, Grenoble, Toulouse and Austin Universities.

He holds a PhD in structural geology from the University of Strasbourg.

About Mantle8

Mantle8 is a natural hydrogen exploration company based in France. Founded by Emmanuel Masini in 2024, Mantle8 brings together a team of geoscientists with 20 years of experience in the field that has previously worked together as M&U, a geology research and consulting company. Mantle8 has developed geoscience-based technologies that detect the best natural hydrogen locations wit

About Hyperion Search:

At Hyperion Search, we specialize in building world-class teams for the cleantech and energy transition sectors. We focus on leadership roles but also recruit strategically critical individual contributors who drive business growth. Whether you’re a founder scaling a startup, a board member guiding a scaleup, a VC/PE investor, or a corporation committed to energy and mobility transitions, we find the talent that will deliver impactful, sustainable results.

• Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/company/hyperion-search-ltd
• Website: www.hyperionsearch.com

Follow us online, write a review (please) or subscribe

I'm very keen to hear feedback on the podcast and my guests, and to hear your suggestions for future guests or topics. Contact via the podcast Linked In page.

If you do enjoy the podcast, please write a review on iTunes, or your usual podcast platform, and tell your cleantech friends about us. That would be much appreciated.

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-hunt-cleantech/

Also follow the podcast and to stay up to date.

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/leaders-in-clean...