Zenobē today announced that its Board of Directors has appointed Dr Donald Weir as Chief Executive Officer (CEO). The appointment comes following a substantial capital raise in September 2023, solidifying the business’ plan for growth and continued innovation.    

Donald is an engineer by training and studied at Cambridge, Imperial College and Oxford. He brings over 20 years of global leadership experience, and has held senior management roles at Siemens, E.ON and thyssenkrupp. Most recently, Donald has been working on large scale energy storage in Scotland.  

His career has been focused on expanding global engineering businesses based on local expertise, building strong leadership teams and delivering geographical and portfolio growth. He has worked in both the supply and asset ownership sides of the energy sector and recently led a circular economy business. 

Donald will add his expertise to the Zenobē management team. James Basden (Network Infrastructure), Steven Meersman (EV Fleet) and Nicholas Beatty (Finance and ANZ) remain key contacts at Zenobe with unaltered responsibilities.  Together they will deliver on the business’ mission of making clean power accessible, helping Zenobē achieve the scale required to make a significant impact by decarbonising vehicle fleets and integrating battery storage into renewable grids, whilst continuing to challenge the status quo across energy and transport. 

Steve Holliday, Chairman of Zenobē, said: “It has been a privilege to watch Zenobē develop so dramatically since its inception in 2017 – from just the three founders to now over 250 employees. Donald’s appointment signals an important step in expanding the businesses. His experience of working at scale across the UK, Europe and North America will support the business to continue delivering its ambitious plans.”  

Dr Donald Weir, CEO of Zenobē, said: “I am excited to work for a business at the leading edge of the energy transition, that remains innovative while delivering reliably at scale. Zenobē is on a remarkable growth journey and I look forward to supporting the business to achieve the scale required to make an even larger impact and building on the high-performing team. Following the recent financing by KKR & Infracapital, Zenobē is poised to accelerate fleet decarbonisation and maximise the uptake of renewables in power grids. The business has great opportunities ahead, across several markets, to substantially reduce the environmental footprint of both the energy and transport sectors.” 

Shreya Malik, Managing Director at KKR and Zenobē Board Member, said: “We are excited to welcome Donald to Zenobē and look forward to working closely with him as we continue to develop the business. Zenobē’s position at the intersection of two of the largest decarbonization opportunities in infrastructure, transportation electrification and transmission-connected battery solutions, provides a significant opportunity for further growth. Donald’s deep leadership experience in managing and scaling international businesses will be a strong complement to the existing team and will support Zenobē in building on its leadership positions in the UK, Australia and New Zealand, while continuing to grow across continental Europe, and also expand into North America.”

Andy Matthews, Head of Greenfield at Infracapital and Zenobē Board Member, said: “As a leader in sustainable solutions, it is no surprise that Zenobe continues to grow at pace and we are delighted to have been actively involved since 2020. We welcome Donald to the business and are confident that his experience will be an important addition to the management team at this crucial time of expansion.”