Team

Triodos has a dedicated team of experienced Investment Banking professionals. Read on for short biographies of the team members.

James Vaccaro, Managing Director,  Investment Banking
James has worked for Triodos since 1998 and is a specialist in environmental and social finance. He heads the Investment Banking team, is Managing Director for Triodos Renewables plc, investing equity in a range of renewable energy projects, and manages a portfolio of venture capital investments. During his tenure at Triodos, he has advised on public share issues for companies including the Ethical Property Company and Cafédirect; managed project finance facilities for renewable energy projects in the UK; set up the UK’s first ethical business angels service, Triodos Match; and managed investments into microfinance institutions in Asia and Africa.
James has been a member of the Advisory Board of the Energy Saving Trust’s Innovation Programme; a member of the Finance Working Group of the Government’s Renewables Advisory Board; and a member of the Investment Committee on Triodos Renewables Fund (Europe). He has been a non-executive director of several social and environmental businesses.  James lives in Bristol. 

Dan Hird, Head of Corporate Finance
Dan joined Triodos Investment Banking team in November 2008 and is lead adviser on  corporate finance and investment banking projects for clients.  Dan is also Finance Director of Triodos Renewables.  He trained with KPMG in Bristol and spent 6 years within KPMG Corporate finance as a lead adviser on a range of mergers and acquisitions, management buy-outs and fundraising deals. Dan left KPMG to establish his own corporate finance business called Q3 Corporate Finance, with offices in Bristol and Bath. Q3 completed over 80 transactions, mainly in the SME (small and medium sized enterprise) sector over a seven year period. Dan then joined a major tile retailer as Finance Director and was instrumental in building this business for sale to a trade purchaser. Immediately prior joining Triodos Bank, Dan was Finance Director of a rapidly growing manufacturing business and led two growth capital finance raising projects to enable expansion and relocation. Dan lives in Bristol.

Lydia Henderson, Corporate Finance Manager
Lydia joined the Investment Banking team in June 2009 having spent a year working in lead advisory for an accountancy company based in Bath.  Lydia focused on SME mergers and acquisitions activity with particular focus on corporate recovery and refinancing. Prior to this Lydia trained with Deloitte in Bristol and spent nearly five years in the audit department with involvement in a broad range of engagements, from large plc audits to one-off restructuring assignments. 
Lydia lives in Bristol and is a qualified Chartered Accountant, with a BSc in Environmental Geoscience and an MSc in Applied Meteorology. 

Billy French,  Head of Legal and Commercial
Billy joined Triodos in November 2008 from a turnkey contractor in the energy industry with interests in renewable energy projects, where he was Group General Counsel and Company Secretary.  Previously Billy worked in the Group Secretariat and Legal Department of Severn Trent plc in Birmingham.  Billy trained as a lawyer and is a Chartered Secretary with broad experience of company administration, property, insurance and both contentious and non-contentious legal matters.  In particular, he was involved in the development, procurement and subsequent sale (to Triodos) of the wind turbine at Ness Point, Lowestoft, which is one of the biggest onshore wind turbines in the United Kingdom.
At Triodos, Billy has extensive involvement with Triodos Renewables drawing on his previous experience and other investment banking projects.

Matthew Clayton, Investment Manager - Triodos Renewables
Matthew focuses on Triodos Renewables plc, investing equity in a range of renewable energy projects and developments. Prior to joining Triodos in February 2006, Matthew played an instrumental role in the establishment and operation of Camco International, working with companies globally to transform environmental liabilities into financial assets, within the Kyoto Framework. As a Carbon Asset Developer he identified, structured and secured carbon financing transactions for sustainable energy projects in Eastern Europe and Southern and Eastern Africa including Bulgaria’s first Joint Implementation project.
Before Camco Matthew worked for Energy for Sustainable Development with responsibilities for business development and project management in Eastern Europe, concentrating on tradable mechanism and sustainable energy.
Matthew previously worked for TXU, initially in the corporate strategy team, then moving to TXU’s European Energy Trading headquarters in Geneva. In his risk management capacity he has worked on the European electricity trading books and undertaken investment analysis in Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary. He has extensive experience of the global carbon markets, the liberalising European energy markets, trading energy related products and energy sector investments and analysis. Matthew lives in Bath.

Whitni Thomas,  Fund Manager - Triodos Social Enterprise Fund
Whitni manages the Triodos Social Enterprise Fund, a ground breaking equity fund. The fund invests in high impact and commercially sustainable social enterprises and provides expertise to help them grow.  Since joining Triodos Bank in May 2006, Whitni has worked in the venture capital team making several equity investments in ethical businesses and helping to grow the Bank’s presence in the social investment market.  Whitni worked in investment banking at JP Morgan for six years in New York and London, structuring leveraged finance for management buy-outs. She arranged senior debt, mezzanine and high yield debt for private equity clients for over 15 transactions in wide ranging sectors such as pub chains, paper manufacturing and automotive parts.Whitni was Head of Access to Finance at the New Economics Foundation (nef) where she led the think tank’s research and consultancy work on improving access to finance for financially excluded individuals as well as social businesses. Whitni worked in Mexico for a year helping to run a microcredit programme. She has written a number of papers on financial exclusion, access to finance for social businesses and finance for fair trade. Whitni has a BSc in Business and an MSc in Development Studies from the London School of Economics.  Whitni is a trustee of the Friends Provident Foundation, a judge for the Ashden Awards for sustainable energy and a judge for The Observer ethical awards. 

Gareth Zahir-Bill,  Fund Manager - Triodos EIS Green Fund
Gareth focuses on venture capital investments in social and environmental businesses. He is responsible for managing equity investments into Enterprise Investment Scheme qualifying companies, investing in energy generation and energy efficiency, waste reduction and processing and sustainable living businesses. He is also a non-executive director of a number of businesses operating in the organic and local food, organic agriculture, carbon offsetting and energy efficiency markets.
Before moving to the Investment Banking team, Gareth worked for Triodos in Business Banking specialising in lending to fair trade, organic and other ethical trading businesses. In this capacity, Gareth was the relationship manager for 60 clients and arranged 36 loans totalling approximately £9million, enabling them to meet wide ranging needs including start-up costs, working capital facilities, property purchases and developments and business acquisitions.
Prior to joining Triodos Bank, Gareth worked for eight years in commercial and corporate finance for mainstream banks, specialising in providing senior debt facilities to retail and property businesses.Gareth is a graduate of the MBA in Corporate Social Responsibility from the University of Nottingham, where he  researched the barriers to growing ethical and social businesses. 

Alex Connor, Investor Relations Manager
Alex joined Triodos in April 2007 to focus on distribution and marketing of the full range of social and environmental investment offerings managed by Triodos. In 2008 Alex helped raise £20 million for Triodos’ UK and international investment offerings – including the Triodos Social Enterprise Fund, the Real Food Pub Company EIS, Triodos Renewables plc and the Triodos Microfinance Fund. Prior to joining Triodos, Alex worked for nine years as an equity analyst for UBS Warburg and Indosuez WI Carr in both London and the Far East, analysing listed companies from a diverse range of sectors - including property, energy, consumers and telecoms. Alex dealt with a global institutional investor base on a daily basis and took on responsibility for account managing some key clients.
More recently Alex spent two and a half years in the fundraising team at Comic Relief responsible for raising funds from the corporate sector. She has also undertaken voluntary work for the Wildlife and Countryside Link, which brings together environmental voluntary organisations in the UK to work to effect change. Alex lives in London.

Monika Paplaczyk, Investment Analyst - Triodos Renewables
Monika  joined Triodos Renewables as Fund Administrator in 2007. Monika provides support to the Triodos Renewables team. This includes managing Triodos Renewables shareholders, organising the AGM and management of operations insurance for the Triodos Renewables portfolio. Previously she worked as consultant for Euro Access Business Consultancy where she was mainly involved in preparing business plans and grant applications for investment projects such as community development projects, biofuels and grain storage.
Monika has an MSc in Business Management and Entrepreneurship from the Napier University in Edinburgh.