UK Landowners

Paul Hewett

Managing Director 

Paul has been at Belltown since it’s foundation in 2013, initially as an Investment Director leading investments across wind, solar and hydro, and then as Managing Director since July 2018. Prior to Belltown, Paul worked at the Boston Consulting Group, primarily in the Private Equity and Energy practice areas. Paul holds an MBA from Berkeley-Haas School of Business, graduating with honors, and an MA in Mathematics from The University of Edinburgh, graduating top of class.

At Belltown, Paul is responsible for the strategic and commercial aspects of our activities, including new opportunity sourcing and investor relations

Dan Allen

Investment Director

Dan has been working in infrastructure and energy investment for 15 years and co-leads Belltown’s Investment team. Dan is responsible for deal sourcing, execution and financing, and has been central in building and closing Belltown’s UK portfolio. Since 2018, Dan has been in the US, focused on growing Belltown presence in its core US markets.

Prior to Belltown, Dan was at John Laing, originating and executing investments and raising finance across UK, Europe and North America.

Dan has a MEng in Aerospace Engineering from Liverpool University.

Matt Yard

Head of Asset Management 

Matthew has been advising the renewable energy sector for over 10 years, where he held an Associate Director role in EY’s Energy Corporate Finance team. He has advised on the investment of over 1GW of onshore wind, solar PV, hydro, biomass and energy from waste projects. This involved the raising of equity and senior debt project finance, including a large proportion of the assets that Belltown now manage on behalf of investors. Prior to EY he qualified as a Chartered Accountant. At Belltown, Matthew is responsible for leading the asset management team and providing a comprehensive and proactive service to our clients.

Charles Webster

Legal Counsel

Charles is a corporate lawyer with over 10 years’ experience advising on renewable energy projects in the UK and abroad.  He has worked in private practice in Australia and the UK, including as part of the corporate legal team at Withers LLP in London for four years. In 2012 Charles became General Counsel of Green Hedge which developed and financed over 20 utility-scale solar farms. Charles joined Belltown as General Counsel in 2016 and manages Belltown’s legal affairs. He is also involved in project development, acquisitions, financings, and disposals, as well as assisting with asset management and investor relations. Charles is dual qualified and admitted as a solicitor in England and Australia. Charles has a B.Laws from the University of Technology in Sydney.

Danielle Scholl

Finance Director 

Prior to Belltown, Dani spent 8 years at John Laing and HCP, the leading provider of infrastructure management services in the UK. At John Laing, Dani was Senior Finance Manager for Renewable Infrastructure. She was responsible for the delivery of all financial services for a portfolio of renewable projects in the UK and Europe, as well as providing support on the acquisition and financing of all John Laing’s Renewable Energy investments. Dani has a degree in Accounting and Finance from the University of Cape Town and gained the CIMA qualification at BPP London.

At Belltown, Dani is responsible for the management of the finance function including accounts, treasury, forecasting and financial reporting for Belltown and its clients.

Jeff Clay

President, Belltown Power Texas

Prior to Belltown, Jeff led strategy and corporate development for Roofing Supply Group (RSG), a $1bn national distributor of building products owned by private equity firm CD&R. Over three-years, Jeff opened 26 new locations delivering over $170M in revenue and $12M in EBITDA. Prior to RSG, Jeff served as the COO of Buck Consultants, a $400M HR consulting and outsourcing business unit at Xerox. Jeff started his career as a consultant with Bain & Company in the US, Europe and Central America and has extensive commercial construction and development experience. Jeff has a BBA in Accounting and MS in Finance from Texas A&M University, an MBA from INSEAD and holds an active CPA license.

Lloyd Pope

COO, Belltown Power Texas

Lloyd was previously Vice President Supply Chain at Roofing Supply Group (RSG), a $1bn national distributor of building products owned by private equity firm CD&R. Prior to RSG, he was a Director in the Enterprise Improvement Group at AlixPartners, a global consulting firm specialising in improving corporate financial and operational performance. Lloyd has also worked as an Operations Consultant with ICG Commerce (now Accenture) and Centex Homes (now Pulte Homes). Lloyd earned his BBA in Marketing and MBA from the University of Texas at Austin.

Ed Perrin

PJM Development Manager

Since joining Belltown in 2017, Ed has been responsible for leading development of our pipeline of solar PV projects in the US Mid-Atlantic region.  His responsibilities include permit management, landowner engagement, interconnection applications and PPA negotiation. Ed has worked in renewable energy development for over 10 years for several leading international development companies.  Prior to Belltown, Ed worked in offshore wind at RES supporting the development of a 2GW project in North Wales, UK.  This was followed by a period at Solarcentury delivering a pipeline of over 200MW of solar PV projects in the UK and Europe.

Joel Hutchinson

Head of UK Development

Joel has 12 years of experience in the renewables industry. His previous roles included the development of GW-scale offshore wind farms at RWE Innogy and the engineering of biogas energy systems in rural, developing communities in India. Joel is Head of UK Development at Belltown, focusing on growing our existing UK Onshore Wind pipeline by realising the potential of development sites throughout England, Scotland and Wales.

His responsibilities include understanding and engaging with local ecological and political environments, negotiating with land owners, analysis of complex grid systems and managing the planning process. Prior to this, Joel was a construction Project Manager at Belltown where he was the technical lead for Belltown’s acquisition of pre-construction and operational onshore solar and wind assets and was then responsible for ensuring projects were delivered on-time, under-budget and met the required quality standards. Joel has a degree in Mechanical Engineering and a PhD in Wind Turbine Blade Design and Manufacture, both from the University of Nottingham.

Hernán Farace

Investment Director

Prior to Belltown, Hernan was Senior Vice President of Asset Management at Greenwood Energy, managing all aspects of Greenwood’s portfolio of projects in the Americas. Before that, Hernan spent nine years at Deutsche Bank where he built a portfolio of new and renewable energy assets (including wind, solar, hydro and biomass) in Europe, ultimately leading the sale of these assets in 2009/10. Hernan holds an MBA with honors from Wharton and an Economics degree from Universidad de San Andres in Buenos Aires where he graduated Magna Cum Laude.

At Belltown, Hernan is responsible for deal sourcing and execution in the north east of the US.

Peter Thomas

Head of Construction

Pete is a Chartered Engineer with over 15 years of experience in the renewable energy market. He is responsible for the construction of the portfolio of renewable assets currently under management by Belltown Power. He also has the responsibility for technical competence across the company. Prior to Belltown Power, Pete worked for 9 years at DNV-GL providing technical and project management services for wind and solar energy projects in the UK and other major global markets. Peter has a MEng in Aerospace Engineering from Liverpool University.

Tom Hill-Norton

Founder and Director

Tom has been investing in renewable energy projects since the end of 2006. Prior to Belltown he raised and invested a series of renewable energy funds for Guinness Asset Management and worked with the energy investment team at Actis on renewable energy investments in emerging markets. Prior to 2006, Tom worked in corporate finance (with JP Morgan, Flemings and Fredericks Michael) and strategy consultancy with The Boston Consulting Group. Tom has an MA (Hons) from The University of Edinburgh and an MBA from INSEAD.

Andy Black

Founder and COO

Andy is responsible for the operational and technical aspects of our investments and business across their full life cycle including development, construction, asset management and technical due diligence. Andy has over 19 years of experience in the renewable energy market.  He started his career working for DNV-GL, the world’s leading independent renewable energy consultancy where he provided a wide range of technical and project amanagement services to both lenders and owners leading to the successful development of over 5GW of installed capacity in most major markets throughout the world. Andy has a Masters in Mechanical Engineering and Management from Birmingham University, UK.

Michael Kaplan

Founder and Director

Prior to Belltown, Michael was a partner at Albion Ventures LLP. Between 2009 and 2013 Michael helped to establish Albion as one of the pioneering investors in the UK’s community scale renewable energy sector. Prior to Albion, Michael worked at The Boston Consulting Group and before that, the Chief Financial Officer of Widevine Technologies, a security software company (sold to Google in 2010). Michael has a BA from the University of Washington and an MBA from INSEAD.

Philip Duggan

Philip has been involved in the renewable energy sector for the past 14 years. He has investment experience across technologies from wind farms and solar parks at Consensus Business Group to fuel cells at Conduit Ventures. Philip has a track record both as a Principal Investor and as a Structured Finance Advisor, having most recently led Excalibur Group’s Offset Investment Business, which including aircraft, automotive, and communications asset finance. Philip has a BSc from the London School of Economics. At Belltown, Philip is responsible for deal sourcing, execution and managing fundraising.

David Johnson

Prior to Belltown, David was Chief Financial Officer of multiple VC backed companies which he led to IPO or trade sale. In 2005 he co-founded BlueGlue, a revolutionary recruitment concept for the technology market, which was sold in 2014 to a US PE backed recruitment company. David began his career at Unilever and is a Chartered Management Accountant.

At Belltown, David is responsible for management of the finance function including accounts, treasury, forecasting, and financial reporting.