London, Munich, Paris, Austin......

It's fair to say it's been a pretty hectic start to 2020. That's great news for all of us engaged in the challenges of bringing about a clean energy and mobility revolution. We all know there are events and conferences around the world on a weekly basis, and it's difficult to choose which you can attend, and which not too. Which you can give and gain value from, and which are just 'interesting'. I really enjoyed the increased opportunities I had last year to travel, to speak at events, and to interview leading CEO's and Thought Leaders for my 'This week in cleantech' podcast. I hope to do more of this in 2020, but my focus is on expanding the Hyperion Executive Search teams in the UK, Germany and the US.

Speaking of which, that was my first international trip of the year, to visit the team in Munich and our great new office on Marienplatz. We'll be hosting some industry events and invite only networking in our boardroom in the coming months, for those in the local cleantech investor and start-up community. We're also looking to expand the team there, so if you are, or know, any outstanding executive search or senior recruiters please introduce me. We have a great culture, mission and client base, and we need to grow the team to achieve our mission.

Whilst I did have two business trips to London, meeting three really exciting start-ups to discuss their growth and expansion, the Paris trip was for pleasure. It's important to make the time for a little downtime and time with those you love. I didn't do nearly enough of that last year, and it's something I'm committed to improve this year. What a great city by the way, despite having been in (and really enjoyed) France on many occasions, I'd never been to Paris.

Talk of Paris somewhat tenuously leads me on to Texas. Though I won't be in Paris, Texas, but Austin. Austin is a great city, some really exciting cleantech things going on, from a very engaged local utility, to a real hub of start-ups and growing tech companies. Oh, and the home of Hyperion Executive Search in the US. This is a key focus area for me this year to grow our US team. Whilst Austin is the hub, we'll be growing our team across the US, so if you know of any outstanding recruiters in the US, ones who have impressed you when you've spoken, please let me know. We have some super exciting opportunities there for people to really make an impact, with our clients, and within our company.

The week after I'll be speaking at MOVE in London, which is already a stand-out event in Europe for all things smart mobility. If you are attending Hyperion has a small booth and I'll be there with some of the team. Please do come and say hello.

Aside from the travels, the team have completed some brilliant assignments, including COO for one of the leading lights in the future energy system, and picked up some great new mandates including GM for a global ride-sharing platform, Commercial Director for a leading energy storage SaaS platform, and a COO for a global long duration energy storage business based in Germany. More of these and others on our website. Actually, that's our new website, I'd love your feedback.

It's important to us that our actions and our values are congruent. You can see our full Manifesto on the new website, under 'About Us'. On top of the tree grove we have planted via 'Trees for Life' to address some of our corporate travels, we have now signed up with Mossy Earth to offset the carbon impact of every one of our employees. We know carbon offset isn't in itself a solution, but it helps whilst we work with some of the worlds most innovative cleantech companies, who are bringing to fruition some truly impactful technologies which do provide solutions to the climate crisis we face.

Next up I'll report back from Fully Charged Live and MOVE. I hope to be recording some podcast input from both. Take a listen via iTunes, Spotify and all the usual podcast platforms, 'This week in Cleantech'.

Best regards

David