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FINANCE MONTHLY CEO AWARDS 2014 Winner...


DAVID JONES Head of Renewable Energy at


Allianz Capital Partners BIOGRAPHY


David Jones is Head of Renewable Energy at Allianz Capital Partners and has invested over €1.7 billion in wind and solar projects around Europe. He was previously Head of Shell WindEnergy and prior to that held senior business development positions with El Paso, Sithe Energies and National Power. He has a degree in Mechanical Engineering from University College London and is a Fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers and a Member of the Chartered Management Institute.


FIRM PROFILE


Allianz Capital Partners is the Allianz Group’s in-house investment platform for alternative investments, with an investment volume of around 9.5 billion euros. Allianz Capital Partners has offices in Munich, London, New York and Singapore.


Allianz Capital Partners focuses on (i) direct investments in companies, projects or assets, (ii) renewable energy assets such as wind farms and solar park systems and (iii) indirect investments in private equity funds. Thanks, in particular, to their long-term investment horizon and attractive risk/return profile, the asset classes covered by Allianz Capital Partners are an ideal match for the requirements of the Allianz insurance companies, with their long-term liabilities.


CEO INSIGHT Q


How do you see the future of your industry?


It will take many decades to fully solve the “energy trilemma” of achieving energy security, affordability and sustainability and will require both technological and regulatory advances. The technologies that produce renewable energy must become significantly cheaper to narrow the price gap with hydrocarbon-based power so that it becomes more affordable. The challenge of intermittent supply with renewable energy must also be addressed with substantially reinforced grid networks and, eventually, economic storage solutions. Regulation needs to evolve as the transition progresses to ensure that sufficient incentives exist to maintain the momentum of change. At the same time, to keep the lights on we need to ensure flexible back-up generating capacity remains viable. Achieving these goals while ensuring that electricity remains affordable for consumers will be the main challenge for policy makers until renewables become the lowest cost option and the transition is complete.


Q


What are your most important professional


achievements at your current company?


My initial work at Allianz was focused on developing the concept that wind farms could be an attractive asset


class offering long duration yields, uncorrelated to the capital markets at interesting risk-adjusted returns. While the asset class has since become mainstream for institutional investors, this was not the case in 2005 – we were certainly an early mover. Since then we have made over 50 investments and are now the largest financial investor in European wind energy. I would say my legacy achievement is the creation and development of a team of top class professionals in the sector. We now have breadth and depth of talent such that succession can be managed from within the team and growth can be addressed by recruiting and developing bright young people.


❝ Q


assets and relationships need to be long duration too. Integrity, respect and open communication go a long way to maintaining relationships, building reputation and ensuring continuing growth. And I expect my staff to embrace and exhibit these values. Having agreed and prioritised our deal flow with my senior colleagues, I fully empower them and the rest of the team to negotiate and transact the deals, confident in their abilities and in the knowledge that any issues outside the now well- defined “bandwidth” they will discuss with me. All businesses have their good times and bad times and when things aren’t going so well is when


Integrity, respect and open communication go a long way to maintaining relationships, building reputation and ensuring continuing growth


How would you describe your leadership style?


I like to set the direction and pace of the business and in addition define and manage the “personality” of the business – how we deal with our counterparties, our investors and each other. We invest in long duration


leadership quality is more visible. I consider it essential that the boss always has his head up, plotting a course and leading the way forward, confident in the future whatever is happening now. I consider optimism an essential trait of good leadership and it is a commodity of which I have never been short.


EUROPE


David Jones, Head of Renewable Energy at Allianz Capital Partners Website: www.allianzcapitalpartners.com


FINANCEMONTHLY 37


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