Recharge: Talking New Energy

Welcome back to episode 15 of Recharge: Talking New Energy. In this episode, we had the privilege of Grace Sai joining us, in our office treehouse at Formative Search. Grace Sai is the CEO and Co-Founder of Unravel Carbon – a very impressive tech-based platform that’s helping corporations to decarbonize. Grace is a very impressive individual who has actually done this before, but not in climate tech. This is her third entrepreneurial venture, where she previously had very successful exits from a social enterprise, and also one of Singapore’s first co-working spaces, where Adam actually first met her several years ago. Adam was absolutely astounded by the passion, purpose, and commitment that Grace has set to really help the world decarbonize and address the current climate crisis. There’s some great learning and advice here for aspiring entrepreneurs and people who really want to join the energy transition. And it’s really good to just hear about how a very busy founder like Grace balances her days and stays focused on the end goal. It was a real genuine pleasure for Adam to speak to Grace. Enjoy.

Welcome back to Recharge: Talking New Energy. For this episode, we had Mathew Howe, the CEO and founder of Grobrix join us. Grobrix is in the agritech space, and a Singapore based, very unique and innovative start-up, which is essentially providing vertical indoor farms to the business community across the Singapore landscape. Mathew had quite an extensive and successful career in banking before he decided to quit and build what he thinks is going to be the ‘LEGO’ for vertical farming. Mathew had a lot of challenges with making this transition and journey, and didn’t think at all that it would be the success that only after two years it has become today. There’s still a lot of learning that he’s undergoing. There’s been ups and downs, highs and lows. There’s some advice to people who either want to start their own venture or make a career transition, and Mathew has a lot of pretty honest and genuine insights into what’s required. It’s a super cool business, and this conversation is a little different, getting someone from the agritech community, but this is certainly within the world of new energies. There’s a lot there that people would be really interested and intrigued by, by looking at Mathew’s transition and also what Grobrix is doing. Hope you will enjoy the conversation and take care.

Welcome back to Recharge: Talking New Energy. For the lucky number 13th episode, we are joined by Steve Melhuish, the founder of PropertyGuru in Singapore. As a lot of you probably know, Steve was the co-founder, and now still advisor of what is perhaps the biggest property tech business in Asia Pacific, and has an amazing success story. Steve is a very genuine, open, honest, transparent and direct individual who wasn’t afraid to share some of his vulnerabilities, learnings and hardships being the CEO for one of Asia's biggest tech companies in the region. But what's interesting is that Steve actually pivoted recently to climate tech. He explains his challenges to really immerse himself into that world. Even with the access to the network, level of success and reputation he’s achieved, he also found it challenging and still currently is facing some number of challenges, but equally very excited by what that industry presents, and the success that he’s starting to achieve by opening up this whole new world of opportunity. There's a lot of learning here for people who are either looking to change jobs, start their own business or enter into the new energies world. It’s not easy as Steve explains, but he really has some great lessons based on his own personal experience that a lot of people out there will really benefit from. Steve is a fantastic individual who’s got some great and impressive endeavors that he's currently undergoing with his climate tech fund he’s looking at. Hope you enjoy.

Welcome back to Recharge: Talking New Energy, and for this very special episode, we were absolutely thrilled to have the best-selling author Aliza Knox join us. Aliza is the author of Don't Quit Your Day Job, the best-selling book which discusses the six mindshifts you need to rise and thrive at work. But what makes Aliza's background incredibly relevant, and extremely valuable for our audience, is that she's had a very illustrious, very accomplished and successful career transitioning from the financial services industry to technology. So, a lot of what she discusses in her book, and what we were able to go over in today's podcast, is very much how people can make their career transition. How to get from the old world of energy to the new world of energy. On top of this, there were a lot of other topics we discussed, how to get over the bias of looking at candidates purely on their age, which unfortunately we do see in certain markets. And also what's really required for individuals to sell themselves in an interview. So, this is a really relevant discussion, and I think it was a great conversation that a lot of the audience out there are going to find very relevant on how to make their current career transition to new energies. Enjoy.

It was an incredible pleasure to have Cindy Lim as our most recent guest for Recharge: Talking New Energy. Cindy is the CEO of Keppel Infrastructure Holdings in Singapore, and apart from being a very accomplished female leader in Energy, she has perhaps one of the most interesting progressions in her career. Cindy started work as a Quality Engineer, before moving to HR, and rising in the ranks to become a CEO of one of Singapore’s longest standing companies. Cindy’s powerful empathy has no doubt, not just enabled her to be successful in her career to date, but to also navigate the transition of such a large business in the changing global energy landscape. There were some deep and emotional points in our discussion where Cindy emphasised what giving back to community has done for her, and where Singapore as a nation could improve its position as an eco-leader, particularly in the recycling space. This is a must listen for people who have a real curiosity about Singapore’s position as a thought leader for new energies, females in leadership, and how empathy is critical for one’s success. Enjoy the episode!

In this episode of Recharge: Talking New Energy, Adam Carabetta interviews Kunal Mehta. Kunal is a Managing Director of Berkeley Energy in Singapore, and ex-CEO of BECIS, a unique platform that provides clean and renewable energy solutions to corporate customers around the world. Both dissected the choices that Kunal made at the start of his career to enter the field of Environmental Science, when it was not popular to do so, especially when growing up in India. Alongside this, they digested on the rapid changes that Kunal has experienced in his impressive career, and how staying true to one's passion, does lead to commercial success.

​In this episode of Recharge: Talking New Energy, Adam Carabetta - Director of Renewable Energy, interviews Andrew Koscharsky, Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) at Jade Energy Holdings. They discussed a range of topics such as making energy and electricity accessible and reliable, making the switch from old energy to new energy on both corporate and household levels, and even the future with hydrogen energy and electric vehicles.

In this episode of Recharge: Talking New Energy, Adam Carabetta - Director of Renewable Energy, interviews Cheryl Chan, Head of APAC Clean Hydrogen, Linde. They discussed the effects and impacts of climate change and how changes can be made at different organisational levels. They also went over how the world is gradually making a transition into renewables and provided advice on how one can join the industry.

In this episode of Recharge: Talking New Energy, Adam Carabetta - Director of Renewable Energy, interviews the Founder Director of Energy Strat Asia, Tim Rockell. They discussed about how the energy industry has changed, the steps needed for professionals and corporations to transition into renewables and how the current Covid-19 pandemic has impacted all industries and what that means for us.

In this episode of Recharge: Talking New Energy, Adam Carabetta - Director of Renewable Energy, interviews the Head of Talent at Engie APAC, Cath'rine Gan. They discussed HR challenges such as gender diversity in the workplace and talked about initiatives to attract talents from other industry to come into the renewable energy space.

In this episode of Recharge: Talking New Energy, Adam Carabetta - Director of Renewable Energy, interviews the Director of Renewables Energy at Black & Veatch, Mitesh Patel Mitesh shared his experience in advising companies on sustainable strategies and addressed concerns that one might have about moving into consultancy. They also discussed opportunities in the new energy landscape and Mitesh shared his take on the growth of energy storage in 2021 and beyond. You can check out Black & Veatch's Strategic Report for 2020 here

Adam Carabetta, Director of Renewable Energy at Formative Search, interviews Henning Gloystein the Director of Climate, Energy and Natural Resources at Eurasia Group, based in Singapore. Over the years, he has been reporting on oil, gas, and coal and now, reporting about renewables around the globe. He has an interesting take on energy transition and shared some advice for professionals in the oil and gas industry who are interested in transiting to the renewable energy industry

Adam Carabetta, Director of Renewable Energy at Formative Search, interviews the Worldwide Sustainability Community Chapter Lead of Microsoft, Lorena Paglia, in Singapore. Lorena shared with us about her experience working in the sustainability sector and the changes she has witnessed over the years. Finally, they discussed what needs to happen from here on amongst the global community when it comes to sustainability

In this episode of Recharge: Talking New Energy, Adam Carabetta - Director of Renewable Energy, interviews the CEO of Vesta Asia Pacific, Clive Turton. They discussed Clive's transition to the Renewable Energy sector from the Legal sector, the challenges he faced and how the renewable transition played out over the years. Finally, Clive shares some insights to people who want to make the transition.

Adam Carabetta, Director of Renewable Energy at Formative Search, interviews the CEO of Total Solar, Gavin Adda, in Singapore. They discuss how corporates like Nike, Google, and Amazon are driving the global Energy transition. Both of them went into detail about the importance of the South East Asia region in relation to the Renewable Energy industry. Finally, Gavin Adda shared advice for professionals who wish to become part of the New Energy movement.