Aaron Zubaty founded Eolian in 2020. His work on the assets that became Eolian began in 2005, when he started a renewable energy investment fund managed by MAP Energy, where he was one of three Managing Partners and owners of the firm. In 2020, after 15 years of growing the renewable energy and energy storage investment activity and ultimately managing more than $2 billion of direct fund equity investment into both renewable energy and natural gas assets, he led a spinoff transaction of the Eolian team and entire clean energy portfolio that was capitalized by GIP Fund IV. Before joining MAP in 2005, Aaron worked for independent power producer AES Corporation in London and across Africa. At AES he served in both business development and financial management roles, leading the planning, implementation, and financing of energy projects as well as directly overseeing the operations of the national utility serving the country of Cameroon. Aaron received an MS, Civil Engineering, Concentration in Fluid Mechanics and Hydrology and a BS, Earth Systems, Concentration in Energy Engineering, both from Stanford University.

Connect with me on LinkedIn.

Stephanie Smith oversees all operations across Eolian and its subsidiaries. She began her career as a project development and finance lawyer focused on the renewable energy sector. Prior to joining Eolian, she served as the Chief Operating Officer at multiple development companies including Sol Systems, LLC, a solar finance and development company and Greencastle, LLC a renewable energy and energy storage project developer. Previously, she worked for over a decade as an attorney at leading law firms, where she represented clients in the renewable energy, clean technology, and natural gas sectors. She has a JD from Southern Methodist University’s Dedman School of Law and a BS in Financial Planning from Texas Tech University.

Connect with me on LinkedIn.

Peter Blum joined shortly following the company’s origination in 2005. Peter oversees transactions for all wind, solar and storage investments and is a member of Eolian’s Investment Committee. Peter’s primary responsibilities include managing the documentation of all renewable energy investments, implementation of all instruments underlying wind, solar and storage projects as well as overseeing the final due diligence on all renewable energy investment transactions. Peter’s background also includes working at Edison International in the strategy and business development group focused on power plant acquisitions and asset optimization in the US and abroad. He has a MS in Civil Engineering and a BS in Civil Engineering, both from Stanford University.

Connect with me on LinkedIn.

Colin Fisher oversees financial reporting, treasury and internal controls for Eolian. Colin brings two decades of global leadership and CFO experience, garnered at large publicly traded technology companies, venture capital-backed semiconductor and hardware systems companies in Silicon Valley, as well as from private equity-backed portfolio companies. Before joining Eolian, Colin served as CFO for ITRenew, an IT infrastructure services & software company that he helped scale and sell to Iron Mountain. Prior to that, he was the CFO at Raymond Express International, a freight-forwarding and logistics company owned by HIG Capital. Colin earned a BS in Finance from Arizona State University and an MBA from Santa Clara University.

Connect with me on LinkedIn.

Kelly Giddens is responsible for overseeing Eolian’s legal affairs and operations. Kelly brings over 15 years of legal expertise in renewables project development, construction, procurement and finance. Prior to joining Eolian, Kelly spent several years as Associate General Counsel at Cypress Creek Renewables, a solar developer and IPP. Prior to her tenure at Cypress Creek Renewables, she was in private practice at Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP and Farella Braun + Martel LLP. She has a JD/MBA from New York University and a BA in Economics from U.C. Davis.

Connect with me on LinkedIn.