My 2024: Energy, elegies & downright chaos

🌱 January: New biz, it all looked straightforward

So started January: Winning our first Beaverbrook Energy Ltd clients. Beaverbrook helps companies reduce costs/ carbon, by combining solar, wind, batteries, heat pumps, control systems and smart tariffs.

First clients in Private Equity and real estate. Growing strongly. The plan was (1) Launch new biz (2) Grow.

Straightforward year ahead.

Despite everything that did happen - all thanks to the team of Jarv Ashford , Alex Fry, Tony Slade , and others, plus our brilliant board — Graham Brown, Laura Sandys CBE, James Hall-Smith and Malcolm Hutton.

💔 March: like being hit by a train

Then the call came. My dear friend and 3ti Energy Hubs co-founder Tim Evans had suddenly died. He was a colossal figure, and the 3ti team of 30 was left bereft.

Then we discovered: Tim had taken his own life. A decades-long struggle with bipolar had become too much for him.

As his son Benedikt posted, the silence around suicide is part of the problem. Checking on people can make all the difference.

And, oh, leadership matters in tough times: Ben Marchant steered the company through immense challenges with calmness, kindness and iron will.

Tim's sons held one of the most moving and uplifting funerals I've ever been to. Not a dry eye.

In November Alex Tupman stepped in as 3ti's CEO and I returned as Chair. Thanks to supportive shareholders we closed a round of finance last week.

We’ll get there. For Tim, for his relentless desire to 'Leave something better behind'. Watch Everything Electric's video to see the incredible tech Mark Potter has created.

Thanks for the unwavering support: Benedikt von Thüngen, James Lee, Chris Adams, Archie Ward, Tirdad Sorooshian and the whole, brilliant, 3ti team.

📺 Spring: Energy & waste too glamorous, so I moonlight in TV

As things settled with 3ti, in March my brother called: it was time for his third once-a-decade new company and he asked for help. There was an opportunity to spin out from 42, the second company he founded, in 2014, now part-owned by Lionsgate.

Guy Holmes & I joined in and the result is Escapade Pictures: a seasoned team, a proper slate, capital raised... and projects already with the major networks.

Rory’s next film The Penguin Lessons (starring Steve Coogan) debuts in 2025, and his TV series The Road Trip premieres on Paramount Plus this Boxing Day.

🏭 Autumn: 14 years & £350m later, the end of the Estover era...

Over the summer we realised it was time to exit Estover Energy Ltd, the biomass CHP business  Marcus Whately, Henry Warde and I founded in 2010.

Lots of memories of Tim doing this… he had been a big part of Estover back in the day -in his inimitable style made it fun for us, but boy did he drive people mad…

Money landed with shareholders 18 hours before the budget 😰. We are immensely grateful to our patient investors: we got there at last. That was a hard, hard one.

So many thanks for the immense support from Strone Macpherson, Edward Hyams and John Watson. And couldn't have done it without Andrew Troup - he is a genius at using a mix of charm & swearing to secure land, planning permissions & grid connections.

Estover Land continues: If you want industrial land, near Newcastle, with low cost power/steam - message me. AI data centre, anyone? 🤖🤖🤖

Three biomass CHP plants thrive under their new owners Schroders Greencoat LLP, Foresight Group and Greenvolt Group .

...and straight back into bioenergy 🌲🌲🌲

One bioenergy chapter closes, another opens. Led by Alex Fry, Beaverbrook Energy is working on new biomass & waste projects.

Two projects in exclusivity, with fantastic new partners. Watch this space for 2025. Also, working once again with the unstoppable David Whitehurst - it will be 12 years next year...

🥗 Vertical Farming: Up

GrowUp Farms, the vertical farming company we incubated in Estover and Marcus Whately spun out, celebrated big wins: raising £38m finance from Generate, getting into 5 of the top 10 UK supermarket chains.

And then they won the biggest retail prize of the year - The Grocer’s “Champion of Champions” Award. 🏆

✉️ All year: The Good News... in only 10 Seconds

I wrote 26,000 words and 44 emails for 10-Second Climate newsletter. Grew from 400 to 3,000 subscribers.

Maybe, but maybe changing minds, certainly some super nice feedback 😊.

Next year, Tony Slade and I launch the 10-Minute Climate Podcast. 12 episodes in the bag, thanks to the talented Emily Slade as a our producer.

Why? Because the world needs another podcast. 🤔

👨👩👧👦 Family first… well, should have been

This year was almost only about business, so I appreciated immense support at home from my amazing and ever-patient wife Ines Nieto.

She juggled everything… launching her food venture, Su Fire Nuts, while continuing to grow Ines Nieto Jewellery.

Though it all being a fantastic mum, helping our daughter navigate her second year at The Royal Ballet School; and our son with a rapid mid-year change of school (stressy).

My parents celebrated 50 years of marriage on a brilliant summer's day. This Christmas, we have all 18 of us together - 2 parents+4 kids+4 spouses+8 grandkids 😊😊😊.

💡 Reflections and Hopes

Still here. Still hanging on. In the worst of times, it’s just one foot in front of the other.

To my friends, I’m sorry I’ve been entirely absent. Now you know why.

To those I work with, I'm sorry for shoving every meeting back multiple times and often just not turning up.

2024 tested me in ways I didn’t want. But many times reminded me why I love being an entrepreneur: variety, impact and choosing to work with great people.

Here’s to 2025—may it bring growth, but more gently, purpose - let's get the world cleaned up - and, please God, some calm, some of the time???

🎄 Wishing you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year🎄