Renewable Energy
Building the team behind a new global solar platform.
A newly capitalised solar platform needed the right organisation structure, reward model and sequence of leadership and delivery appointments.
Global infrastructure investor
- Engagement
- Advisory, organisation design and search
- Leadership appointments
- Four
- Delivery hires
- Twelve
- Model replicated
- Three further platforms
Challenge
A global infrastructure investor had capitalised a new solar platform build with a development pipeline already identified but no operating company behind it.
An interim CEO was appointed quickly and the first instinct was to let them build the team through their own network. The population with genuine platform-building experience across investment, development, construction and operation was small, and many potential candidates were midway through vesting cycles elsewhere.
There was also a sequencing risk. Appointing all commercial leadership before the technical and delivery capability existed would have created a business selling a capability it could not yet deliver.
Approach
Working closely with the board and interim CEO, the engagement began on an advisory basis rather than moving directly into search. We mapped the population with platform-stage experience across the relevant technologies and geographies through detailed competitor and market analysis.
That evidence changed the plan. Rather than one appointment followed by delegation, the board agreed a four-role sequence with delivery and finance capability ahead of commercial, and accepted a wider geographic boundary for the roles.
The search then ran against a written mandate with defined assessment criteria agreed by the investment committee, supported by regular updates and reporting.
Each candidate was assessed against the same framework through a thorough screening, psychometric assessment and referencing process.
Outcome
- Designed an appropriate organisation structure with a phased resourcing plan that blended leadership and delivery capability from the outset.
- Detailed compensation analysis supported a market-leading reward structure, including new long-term and short-term incentive plans, to strengthen candidate engagement.
- Created a robust resourcing plan and go-to-market hiring strategy based on evidence, resulting in four leadership appointments and twelve delivery-focused hires completed in sequence.
- The board retained a documented record of the market approached, supporting the investment committee’s governance and providing a succession reference for later hiring phases.
- The model was replicated across three further renewable-energy platform builds in offshore wind development, battery storage and EV charging, covering team builds ranging from twenty to eighty hires.
Partnership over transaction
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