Speakers

Richard Butland joined the board of Highview in August 2021. He brought to the company a wealth of experience from the energy industry, which is of value to Highview as the company constructs its first full sized facilities, increases the scale of projects and introduces practices to radically reduce the capex cost per MWh of the CRYOBattery. After completing his studies in New Zealand Richard qualified as a chartered accountant and worked with Price Waterhouse in New Zealand, Japan and the UK, before commencing a career in corporate finance with Schroders and then Goldman Sachs, where he quickly advanced to Head of UK mergers & acquisitions. He transitioned within that organisation to the private equity division where he was involved in the acquisition and oversight of several fast growing or evolving companies, including Pret a Manger, Ontex, Expro and Dong Energy, now known as Orsted. He was particularly active in the energy sector where he led the group's investing activity in Europe and was a member of Goldman Sachs Merchant Bank Global Energy and Infrastructure Investment Committees. Following his retirement from the firm, he has founded two EPC companies of his own active in the oil & gas sector and has established a private investment firm focused on purpose-driven growth investments. Richard believes that Highview and its technology will play a critical role in the long duration energy storage market, which will itself represent the fastest growing segment of the energy economy over the next two decades.