"Batteries don't generate electricity, they generate solutions," Christian Sanchez says. It's a line that gets at something real: if you're not selling energy the way a solar or wind plant does, you have to work out exactly what you are selling, and prove it to a bank.

Christian Sanchez is Head of Power Systems Engineering at TAR. At the time of this recording, he was Corporate Director of BESS and Engineering at Zelestra, where he led teams building custom battery storage solutions across five business units. His 13-plus years in renewable energy include roles at Sargent & Lundy, AES, and S&C Electric, alongside a master's in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and an MBA from Indiana University.

In this conversation, Christian breaks down why bankability on BESS projects starts with engineering, not finance, and what he actually looks for when hiring engineers onto his team. We get into how he leads across cultures, time zones, and languages managing teams spanning the US, Europe, and Latin America, why listening to his own team produced better results than leading with his own answers, and the simple question he asks himself before reacting to a tight deadline.

In this episode we cover:

• Why bankability on battery storage projects is fundamentally an engineering conversation, not a finance one
• The two things Christian actually looks for when hiring engineers: drive and character, neither of which shows up on a resume
• Leading global teams across the US, Europe, and Latin America, and what he's learned managing across cultures, time zones, and languages
• Why the best management decisions on his team rarely came from him, and what that taught him about listening as a leadership tool
• His approach to deadline pressure: solving for one variable at a time instead of trying to fix everything at once
• Why he asks "why are we here" before reacting to any tight deadline, and how that reframes failure as part of execution rather than a threat to it
• What draws people into the clean energy transition, and why Christian believes the industry needs far more talent, technical and non-technical, in the years ahead

If you lead engineers, or any team navigating complexity across borders, this conversation is for you.

Views shared are Christian's own, and not those of any organisation he's been affiliated with.

Connect with Christian Sanchez: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christiansanchezpe/
Connect with Michael Thornhill: I help renewable energy companies find exceptional talent and develop the leadership and culture that makes them stay. https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-thornhill-b42603367

Some businesses trying to electrify their fleets are discovering the real barrier isn't cost, it's power. A new grid connection can cost over a million pounds, if it's even available at all.

This week's guest spends his days helping businesses work around exactly that problem.Mark Duxbury is UK Country Director of BESS and EMS Solutions for iwell, a commercial battery storage and energy management company operating across four countries from its Dutch headquarters. He spent close to a decade at E.ON, followed by roles at E.Energy Group and ISTA Energy, before taking on iwell's UK expansion, backed by the company's track record of more than four hundred projects across Europe. Mark leads with a clear philosophy: give every team member a crystal clear vision of where the company is headed, and lead with empathy for what they are carrying outside of work.

In this conversation, Mark explains why grid constraints are now stalling business expansion across the UK, sometimes at a cost of over a million pounds just to secure a new connection. We get into why battery storage has passed what Mark calls the tipping point on commercial viability, with returns now landing in under four years, how iwell is building the UK's first community-owned battery storage project in Oxfordshire, and what it actually takes to build an agile, energetic culture from scratch in a brand new market.

In this episode we cover:

• Why grid constraints, not just rising energy prices, are now the bigger barrier to business expansion in the UK
• The full accountability model: why iwell designs, installs, and operates every asset for ten years rather than selling and walking away
• The UK's first community-owned battery storage project in Oxfordshire, where local investment funds local energy efficiency work
• Why battery storage has passed the tipping point on commercial viability, with ROI now landing in under four years
• Mark's leadership philosophy: giving teams a crystal clear vision and leading with empathy for what people are carrying at work and at home
• What agriculture, particularly poultry farming, reveals about hidden energy costs most people would not expect
• His advice for leaders considering a move from a traditional corporate into a smaller, more agile business

If you are thinking about where energy costs, grid capacity, and leadership collide, this conversation is for you.

Connect with Mark Duxbury: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-duxbury-21ab454b

Connect with Michael Thornhill: I help renewable energy companies find exceptional talent and develop the leadership and culture that makes them stay.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-thornhill-b42603367 www.thornhillgrid.com

Most organisations treat retention as a problem that starts when someone hands in their notice. By then, you have already failed. That is how this week's guest sees it, and it sets the tone for one of the most direct conversations we have had on the show.

Saurabh Chatterjee is Vice President of Renewables at WSP in the US, leading a team of 100 engineers and managing P&Ls in excess of $25 million. He previously served as Global Head of BESS at EDP Renewables and led negotiations on Zelestra's first utility scale battery storage project, a 935 MWh system in Chile. With over 15 years of engineering expertise across EPC, owner's engineering, IPP, and consulting, he has sat in nearly every seat in the industry, and that 360-degree view shapes everything about how he leads.

In this conversation, Saurabh makes the case that there is no bad organisation, only bad leadership. We get into the real cost of losing people, why employees leave when their question of what's next goes unanswered, how to bring clarity into chaos when projects accelerate faster than planned, and why reframing failure is one of the most underrated leadership tools available.

In this episode we cover:

• Why Saurabh believes there is no bad organisation, only bad leadership, and how that belief shapes the way he runs his teams
• The real cost of losing someone: roughly 28 weeks to reach full capacity, and $50,000 to $100,000 to replace them once they are gone
• Why people do not leave when they are unhappy, they leave when what's next goes unanswered
• How to bring clarity into chaos when client demands and project timelines accelerate faster than planned
• Reframing failure as part of execution rather than a threat to it, and why fear of failure quietly limits performance
• A career built from the ground up: what moving through EPC, owner's engineering, IPP, and consulting taught him about leading global teams

If you lead a team in renewables, or anywhere energy is moving fast, this conversation is for you.

Connect with Saurabh Chatterjee: linkedin.com/in/besssolarhybrid

Connect with Michael Thornhill: I help renewable energy companies find exceptional talent and develop the leadership and culture that makes them stay.
linkedin.com/in/michael-thornhill-b42603367
www.thornhillgrid.com

EPISODE CHAPTERS

00:00 Introduction: there is no bad organization, only bad leadership
01:04 Saurabh's background and path into renewables
03:38 What a ground-up career teaches you about leading operations
05:44 The seat that changed him most as a leader
08:14 Leading global teams across cultures: US, Chile, Asia Pacific
10:56 Why retention starts long before someone hands in their notice
13:20 The question every leader needs an answer to: what's next?
18:08 Why people choose WSP and what organic growth really means
28:22 Bringing clarity into chaos when projects move faster than planned
33:42 Reframing failure: execution over outcome
37:00 Where the industry is headed and the case for all forms of energy

What does it actually take to lead distributed energy programmes when the grid is the deadline? Mitch Berglund is Vice President of Sales and Grid Programmes at Texas Solar, founder of iTrust Power, and a 17-year veteran of the US distributed energy industry. He has generated over $150 million in cumulative revenue including $67 million in a single year at Lumio, built and led teams of more than 50 people, and pioneered Virtual Power Plant programmes across ERCOT and CAISO. A Golden Door Award recipient recognised for top 1% national performance in sales leadership, he brings rare field-level execution experience to the VPP and storage space.

In this conversation we get into what alignment really means when the grid is the deadline, how to build trust at scale across functional teams, why the leaders winning right now are operators first and talkers second, and what the arrival of AI and data centres means for distributed energy and VPPs. We also cover retention, the player-coach mentality, and why the grid is not short on generation, it is short on orchestration.

In this episode we cover:

• Why Mitch's leadership shifted from performance-driven to execution-driven, and what that looks like in practice
• What alignment actually means across sales, operations, financing, compliance, and market policy
• How to build trust quickly inside high-growth teams and across functional boundaries
• Why retention is the most underrated lever in the energy transition
• VPP deployment in ERCOT: what field reality looks like versus the conceptual hype
• Why battery storage installations are fundamentally more complex than solar
• How AI and data centres are creating a new class of grid customer
• Why the next phase of the grid will be defined by who orchestrates the fleet, not who installs the most assets

If you lead teams in distributed energy, storage, or grid programmes, or you are building the next chapter of your career in the energy transition, this conversation is for you.

Connect with Mitch: linkedin.com/in/mitch-berglund-593389a4Connect with Michael: linkedin.com/in/michael-thornhill-b42603367

CHAPTERS

00:00 Introduction and the orchestration era01:15 Mitch's background: from residential solar to grid programmes04:10 Leadership when the grid is the deadline08:10 Operators vs. talkers: what real leadership looks like09:05 What alignment actually means10:00 How to build trust at speed15:40 Advice to your younger self18:00 VPPs: hype vs. execution reality in ERCOT20:44 Why battery storage is harder than solar22:20 Retention: the most underrated lever in the energy transition27:30 The player-coach mentality and the abundant mindset34:00 Large companies vs. small teams: where people feel valued36:40 AI, data centres, and the new grid customer40:40 VPPs as the flex and shock absorber of the grid43:17 The new wave: leading in the orchestration era47:08 Wrap-up and how to connect with Mitch

Description:

What does it take to build a specialist BESS team from scratch in a market where the margin for error is almost zero? Julija Kaladžinskaitė, CEO of Best Solutions, has done exactly that, assembling a seven-person expert team across commercial, industrial, and utility-scale BESS solutions in the Baltic States, one of Europe's fastest moving energy markets.

In this conversation, we get into why she refuses to accept "it should work" as an answer, how she thinks about quality assurance in a way most companies in this space simply don't, and what transformative leadership actually looks like when you are running a startup in a complex technical market. We also cover when to walk away from a market niche, how Scandinavian business culture shaped the way she builds partnerships, and why she believes people, not technology, are the core asset of every energy company.

In this episode we cover:

• Why "it should work" is never good enough and what she does instead
• How she brings all stakeholders, suppliers, aggregators, investors and policymakers into the same room and why it transforms client trust
• Why she only hires experienced people and what she does to test BESS solutions before they ever reach a client site
• The cultural gap between European and Asian suppliers and how she bridges it
• What Solar Explain taught her about education, structured knowledge, and knowing when to walk away from a market niche
• How she balances giving people freedom to make mistakes with keeping projects on track and on deadline
• Why clarity of expectations before hiring makes every leadership decision easier afterwards

If you work in BESS, lead a specialist team, or are building a business in a fast-moving technical market, this conversation is for you.

Connect with Julija Kaladžinskaitė:linkedin.com/in/julija-kaladžinskaitė

Julija Kaladžinskaitė is CEO of Best Solutions, where she built the company from the ground up in C&I and utility-scale energy storage, recruiting and shaping a top-performing team and leading the execution of its first key projects. Known for her ability to turn vision into reality, she has created new business lines in complex, fast-moving energy markets. With over a decade of experience in solar, BIPV, and renewable energy business development, Julija combines strategic thinking with hands-on execution to drive impact. She is also the founder of Solar Explain, a platform dedicated to simplifying renewable energy through education and consultancy, helping businesses and professionals confidently navigate the market.

Connect with Michael Thornhill:I help renewable energy companies find exceptional talent and develop the leadership and culture that makes them stay.linkedin.com/in/michael-thornhill-b42603367

What separates the leaders who build things that last from the ones who don't? Farshid Arman has lived that question across every stage of the energy industry: from a hydrogen storage startup with no roadmap, to 13 years commercialising energy technologies at Siemens, to VP of VPP Operations at AutoGrid, to founding FlexEnergi, a capacity-as-a-service business serving utilities across the US and Canada.

In this conversation, we talk about the four questions he asks before committing to any new venture, why knowing when to walk away is the most underrated leadership skill, and how to fall in love with the problem rather than the solution. We also get into the remote work debate, what great hiring actually looks like at a startup, and why the climate problem has never been more urgent even when governments keep looking the other way.

In this episode we cover:

• The four questions Farshid asks before committing to any new venture, and why vehicle-to-grid fails one of them right now
• Why making a hundred million dollars at Siemens felt like almost nothing, and what that taught him about impact
• The difference between leading at a 500,000-person company and a ten-person startup
• Why focusing on how much you have left to do matters more than how much you have already done
• How FlexEnergi is building differently from the competition, starting with the distribution grid rather than the thermostat
• The Steve Jobs hiring philosophy Farshid subscribes to and how he applies it
• Why mandatory office days are backwards thinking, and what a genuinely productive hybrid model looks like
• Staying heads down on the climate problem when administrations keep undoing each other's work

If you work in energy technology, lead a team in the renewables space, or are weighing up a startup opportunity against a corporate role, this conversation will sharpen how you think.

Connect with Farshid Arman:linkedin.com/in/farshid-arman

Farshid Arman is President of FlexEnergi, where he leads the company's efforts in delivering advanced distributed energy and virtual power plant solutions. Prior to FlexEnergi, he served as Vice President of VPP Operations at AutoGrid, overseeing large-scale VPP deployments across utilities of varying sizes. Earlier in his career, Farshid worked at Siemens AG across wind power, gas power, smart grid, and energy storage. He holds a PhD in Electrical Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin and is the inventor on numerous patents.

Connect with Michael Thornhill:I help renewable energy companies find exceptional talent and develop the leadership and culture that makes them stay.linkedin.com/in/michael-thornhill-b42603367

What does it actually take to build a renewable energy team where nobody leaves?

Weronika Nowak, Country Manager for Green Volt USA and incoming CEO for Green Volt Power Poland, has done exactly that. Since launching the US business, not a single person has left and she hasn't had to let anyone go either.

In this conversation, we go deep on the leadership and culture decisions behind that 100% retention record: the hiring philosophy that takes months rather than weeks, why she ignores standard interview questions, and how she led her team through 18 months of existential uncertainty in the US renewables market without losing a single person. We also cover the knowledge transfer gap threatening the energy transition, the cultural differences between US and European renewable energy markets, and why making yourself irreplaceable is actually the biggest leadership failure of all.

In this episode we cover:

• Why Weronika's hiring process takes months, not weeks, and what she is actually looking for in those conversations
• How she brings candidates into the office to meet the whole team before any offer is made
• What it tells her when a candidate leads with their title expectations
• How she led her team through 18 months of existential uncertainty without losing a single person
• Who thrives in utility-scale renewable energy development and who struggles, even when they are technically strong
• The irreplaceability trap: why making yourself impossible to replace is a leadership failure
• The knowledge transfer gap between senior and junior professionals in the energy transition
• Navigating the cultural differences between US and European renewable energy markets

If you work in renewable energy development, lead a team, or are thinking about your next career move in the energy sector, this conversation is for you.

Connect with Weronika Nowak:linkedin.com/in/weronikanowak

Connect with Michael Thornhill:I help renewable energy companies find exceptional talent and develop the leadership and culture that makes them stay.linkedin.com/in/michael-thornhill-b42603367