Together, at the forefront of the net-zero transition.
Driven by a shared vision and a strong belief in our set of values, we work together to not only empower our partners and portfolio companies, but to help each other thrive.
People
Our team
Meet the people behind Pelion
Alexander Samwer
Founding Partner
Alexander is co-founder of Pelion Green Future and advises on the strategic direction of the company and our investments.
Alexander co-founded numerous successful ventures, among them Picus Capital and the European Founders Fund, investing early in companies like Zalando and LinkedIn.
He holds a M.A. in Economics & Politics from the University of Oxford and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Jeremias Heinrich
Founding Partner
Jeremias is co-founder of Pelion Green Future and advises on the strategic direction of the company and our investments.
Jeremias co-founded a range of ventures within the technology, real estate, and clean energy infrastructure.
He holds a B.Sc. in Environmental Engineering and a M.Sc. in Civil Engineering & Business Administration from Technical University Munich (TUM).
Goga Vukmirovic
Partner
As Partner, Goga leads leads Pelion's investment strategy and growth activities with a special focus on North America. She is based in our New York office.
Goga is Founder and Managing Partner at real estate investment firm Avente Capital Management and worked at Eton Park Capital Management.
She holds an B.A. from Princeton University, J.D. from Harvard Law School, and MBA from Harvard Business School.
Benedikt von Bary
Partner & Managing Director
As Partner & Managing Director, Benedikt leads Pelion's investment strategy and growth activities with a special focus on Europe. He also is closely involved in supporting and advising the companies within Pelion’s infrastructure platform.
Benedikt worked at McKinsey & Company as Engagement Manager, focusing on strategy, sustainability, and M&A within the automotive industry.
Konrad Horvath
Partner & Managing Director
As Partner & Managing Director, Konrad leads Pelion's investment strategy and growth activities with a special focus on Australia.
Konrad was Project Leader at The Boston Consulting Group, focused on ESG strategies & ratings for players in energy-intensive industries and private-equity-owned companies.
He holds a B.Sc. and M.A. in Petroleum Engineering from the Technical University Clausthal and a M.A. in China Studies from Zhejiang University in China.
Julia Auerbach
People & Communication
As Head of People and Communication, Julia leads all of Pelion’s communications activities – from positioning to press release, from posting to panel discussion. She is also responsible for Learning & Development within the team.
Julia worked at ProSiebenSat.1 in leadership roles in Marketing and Corporate Communications and as a Consultant at Klenk & Hoursch Corporate & Brand Communications.
She holds a M.A. in Communication, Law, and American Studies from Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz.
Konstantin Baaske
Finance & Accounting
As Head of Finance, Konstantin is responsible for the group’s accounting, taxation, and all finance-related matters.
Konstantin worked with KPMG, auditing renewable energy and manufacturing companies. He is a certified Tax Consultant and German Public Accountant (on leave). He holds a M.Sc. and B.Sc. in Business Administration from WFI - Katholische Universität Eichstätt-Ingolstadt.
Filipa Brandão de Menezes
Transactions & Operations
As Operations Associate, Filipa supports all aspects of Operations, including HR-related topics. She focuses on our internal processes and leverages our toolset to drive efficiency and optimise our ways of working.
Filipa holds a B.A. in Economics from the University of Porto and a M.Sc. in International Economics and Business from the University of Utrecht.
Christoph Herig
General Counsel
As General Counsel, Christoph advises the Pelion group on all legal matters.
Christoph worked as a lawyer at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer. As part of the private M&A and corporate team, he focused on M&A transactions in regulated markets.
He concluded his studies with the first state examination at the Universities of Heidelberg and Muenster and gained his second state examination (admission to the bar) in Munich. He also holds an MBA from ESCP Business School.
Markus Lauko
Transactions & Operations
As Transactions and Operations Manager, Markus leads deal-closing processes, the integration of new portfolio companies and partners to the Pelion group as well as people administration and recruiting efforts.
Markus worked as Head of Operations at Arvantis Group.
He holds a B.Sc. and M.Sc. in Physics and Management from the University of Ulm.
Carla Polo
People & Culture
As HR Manager, Carla manages all HR-related topics from recruiting to offboarding.
Carla worked at Oliver Wyman as a Graduate Recruiting Manager.
She holds a M.Sc. in Human Resource Management from FOM Hochschule für Ökonomie & Management.
Katharina Prantl
Investor
Katharina works closely with our development partners in Germany and Australia. She also contributes to the Pelion group’s financial analysis, supporting liquidity and investment decisions.
Katharina holds a B.Sc. and M.Sc. in Management and Technology from the Technical University Munich (TUM).
Raffaela Grabow
Finance & Accounting
Raffaela works as an Accountant in Pelion’s Finance, Accounting and Tax team and supports our subsidiaries.
Raffaela worked at Personio as a Junior Accountant before.
She holds a B.Sc. in Business Administration with focus on "Accounting & Controlling" and "Technology & Innovation" from the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich (LMU).
Cooper Wetherbee
Investor
Cooper manages Pelion's relationships with our North America partners and conducts investment diligence for new Americas opportunities. He also contributes to the Pelion group's financial analysis and investment decisions. He is based in our New York office.
Cooper has prior experience in infrastructure private equity, venture capital, development banking, and energy markets consulting.
He holds a B.A. from Northwestern University with majors in Economics and Environmental Sciences, and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, where he was an Arjay Miller Scholar.
Gijs Wilbers
Investor
Gijs leads the deal structuring team at Pelion, and manages our investments in Italy and New Zealand.
Gijs brings a legal background from working at Loyens & Loeff as M&A lawyer, specializing in renewable energy transactions.
He holds a MBA from INSEAD Business School and LL.M. from Leiden University.
Our Values
Investing in what matters
Our core value serves as compass when we assess our potential investments, but it also plays a crucial role in our recruiting and development process.
Because what matters to us is
1) Investing in and partnering with like-minded entrepreneurs, companies and technologies tackling the climate crisis at its root cause.
2) Building and growing a diverse team of ambitious, driven, and passionate people that want to make an impact.
Based on this, we co-created three values to live by in our day-to-day business, to use as guidelines for our professional development and to apply when it comes to recruiting new talents to join our team.
01
Grow by growing others
Team spirit and appreciation lie at the core of this value. We know, we can only achieve excellence together. Our business is a people business - that’s why we invest time in giving feedback, coaching and learning (from) each other and leave our egos at the door.
02
Strive for excellence
We aim for top quality in our deliverables and are constantly willing to improve. Convinced that a fixed mindset is the death of excellence, we encourage all of our team members, independent from status or seniority, to come up with initiatives and innovative ways to get better day by day.
03
Act as if it's your own company
We believe in entrepreneurship and value integrity and commitment. We want each team member to identify as an important part in our joint mission - by showing initiative, owning projects and stepping up when resources are not allocated effectively.
Careers
Together, we can achieve change.
We are continuously looking for bright and committed minds to join our team, for people who share our vision: A clean and green future – powered by sustainable resources.
Joining Pelion will allow you to be part of a sustainably growing company at the forefront of the energy transition. You will get insights into the most exciting companies and technologies in the green energy and decarbonization space.
With us, you will experience a high degree of responsibility and creative freedom from day one, working in a passionate and collaborative international team atmosphere with an entrepreneurial mindset.